Exhibition at Völkerkundemuseum Exhibition “Reflections on the Archive” opens at Völkerkundemuseum
At the center of the research-based exhibition "REFLECTIONS of the ARCHIVE" are selected photographs from the archive of the Museum of Ethnology vPST. How did the actors, meaning and materiality of photography change over time? What questions and insights can be formulated today on the basis of photographic material from different eras and regions? The experimental exhibition was created as part of the course "Curating Access to the Ethnographic Museum" in the winter semester 2023/2024. It was curated by students of the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies (HCTS), with guidance and support of faculty Christiane Brosius, Alban von Stockhausen and Carsten Wergin and members of staff from the museum.
How can a photo archive in a museum be digitally recorded, documented and used as a resource for research and exhibitions? What needs to be considered when interpreting the content and how it is used? Working with photo archives shows that photography, archiving and viewing are always shaped by actors, historical contexts and contemporary readings.
At the beginning of the exhibition "REFLECTIONS of the ARCHIVE" was an experiment: Together with three faculty anthropologists, a group of international students dealt with photographic materials from the archive of the ethnographic museum vPST as part of a seminar. The focus was on questions of provenance, digitization and archiving, representation and decolonization, as well as strategies for cooperative curatorial practices.
In eight stations, the exhibition approaches the individual encounters of the exhibition organizers with the photographic material and the questions they developed from it. The various installations invite us to reflect: How did the actors, meaning and materiality of photography change over time? What insights can be formulated today on the basis of photographic material from different eras and regions? What potentials and challenges does this pose for the museum today?
Vernissage: February 10, 4 PM
Guided Tour: February 11, 2.30 PM (German/English)
Exhibition open: February 11 - October 6, 2024
Visiting hours: Wed - Sat, 2-6 PM, Sun 11 AM - 6 PM