The ethnological museum in Berlin contains over a million so called ›objects‹ from Africa, Asia, Australia and Latin America. The non-western collections will be shown in the reconstructed baroque castle of the Prussian emperors in Berlin: the Humboldt Forum (opening: 11/2019). The art historian Hans Belting raised the question, how one can distance oneself from a triumphant form of exhibition in its time of origin – the Ethnological Museum – in a building that takes up exactly this old form. Even Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was “afraid” that the Humboldt Forum would only become a Museum of Ethnology. In my lecture I’ll give some insights into one of the biggest museum projects in Europe and the controversial debates that accompany it. The lecture is based on my research about the planning process of the Humboldt Forum, the role of contemporary artists as supposed ›saviors‹ of ethnological museums, the haunting ghosts of the colonial past and the ›agency of things‹.
Johanna Di Blasi is an art historian and cultural journalist. She wrote a book about the Humboldt Lab which will be published in 09/2019; https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-4920-8/das-humboldt-lab/?c=311000272.