Curating Transcultural Spaces - (Visual Cultures and German Contexts) by Sarah Hegenbart & Deborah Ascher Barnstone & Thomas O Haakenson (Paperback)

About the Book

"Curating Transcultural Spaces asks what a museum which enables the presentation of multiple perspectives might look like. Can identity be global and local at the same time? How may one curate dual identity? More broadly, what is the link between the arts and processes of identity construction? This volume, an indispensable source for the process of engaging with colonial history in Germany and beyond, takes its starting point from the 'scandal' of the Humboldt Forum. The transfer of German state collections from the Ethnological Museum and the Museum for Asian Art, located at the margins of Berlin in Dahlem, into the centre of Germany's capital indicates the nation's aspiration of purported multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism; yet the project's resurrection of the site's former Prussian city palace, which was demolished during the GDR, stands in opposition to its very mission, given that the Prussian rulers benefited from colonial exploitation. By examining the contrasting successes of other projects, such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC, Curating Transcultural Spaces compellingly argues for the necessity of taking post-colonial thinking on board in the construction of museum spaces in order to generate genuine exchange between multiple perspectives"--

Book Synopsis

Curating Transcultural Spaces asks what a museum which enables the presentation of multiple perspectives might look like. Can identity be global and local at the same time? How may one curate dual identity? More broadly, what is the link between the arts and processes of identity construction?

This volume, an indispensable source for the process of engaging with colonial history in Germany and beyond, takes its starting point from the 'scandal' of the Humboldt Forum. The transfer of German state collections from the Ethnological Museum and the Museum for Asian Art, located at the margins of Berlin in Dahlem, into the centre of Germany's capital indicates the nation's aspiration of purported multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism; yet the project's resurrection of the site's former Prussian city palace, which was demolished during the GDR, stands in opposition to its very mission, given that the Prussian rulers benefited from colonial exploitation. By examining the contrasting successes of other projects, such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC, Curating Transcultural Spaces compellingly argues for the necessity of taking post-colonial thinking on board in the construction of museum spaces in order to generate genuine exchange between multiple perspectives.

Review Quotes

"This compelling volume invites different perspectives and analysis to coexist about Germany's most controversial cultural projects of the last three decades, the Humboldt Forum. By framing such museum spaces as "transcultural", Sarah Hegenbarth highlights the significance of focusing on relationally, rather than essence in contemporary curatorial practice, opening up spaces for dialogue, conflict and debate." --Margareta von Oswald, Associate researcher, Center for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. Author of Working Through Colonial Collections. An Ethnography of the Ethnological Museum in Berlin (2022).

"Channelling multiple perspectives on the ways artistic, curatorial and architectural practices can address entangled colonial histories, this book explores novel forms of identity construction in museum spaces and their formative role in contemporary multicultural societies." --Eva Huttenlauch, Head of Collections Postwar & Contemporary Art, Lenbachhaus Munich, Germany

"With 12 case studies from Germany all the way to South Africa, Namibia, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, this unique collection of critical and creative approaches to decolonizing and reshaping museum collections provides
a timely intervention into the curating of colonial-era artefacts." --Michael Falser, Heisenberg Fellow of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and Associate Professor of Global Art and Architectural History at Technical University Munich, Germany

"This timely book provides a sensitive and multi-layered look into Germany's current discourses around identity, heritage and museums. Boldly critical of the way colonial histories have been addressed, it highlights a plethora of artistic, architectural, museological and political histories which underpin present-day approaches to curating." --Eva Bentcheva, Associate Lecturer, Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University, Germany

About the Author

Sarah Hegenbart is a Lecturer in Art History at Technical University Munich, Germany. Prior to this, she worked as an Associate Lecturer at the Courtauld Institute, where she also undertook her doctoral research, and as Curator of Art at Pembroke College, UK. She has also worked in the cultural section at the German Embassy in London, after completing an M.St. in Ancient Philosophy at the University of Oxford and a Magister in Philosophy and History of Art at the Humboldt University of Berlin.