Evening lecture
James Clifford: In the Context Zones: Post/Neo Colonial Possibilities, 6 June 2024, 6pm, Tieranatomisches Theater, Berlin
More than two decades after James Clifford first wrote about museums as contact zones, he comes back to his original idea and discusses museums in the context of post/neo colonial possibilities in this evening lecture.
6 June at 6pm CET.
Registration for online attendance
In presence: Tieranatomisches Theater – TA T is located on Campus Nord, Philippstraße 13, Haus 3, 10115 Berlin
Ethnographic and art collections amassed during several centuries of Western expansion are currently being contested and reimagined. Something we can call decolonization is being negotiated in these museums, but unevenly, with resistance, in messy exchanges. To account for this complexity, the lecture proposes a de-centered, contingent realism, an openness to multiple, contradictory histories. It discusses exhibitions, collaborations and restitutions in prominent institutions as well as in local communities and tribal centers. The approach questions one-size-fits-all concepts of repatriation, reciprocity, appropriation, and resistance. An ability to entertain discrepant possibilities is essential for understanding contemporary museums-in-transformation.
James Clifford‘s lecture will be followed by a reception.
The admission to the event is free, no registration is required to attend the event in presence.
This lecture is organised as part of the workshop Museums-Contacts-Knowledges, conceived by Joachim Baur, Sharon Macdonald, and Philipp Schorch. It is co-organized and co-financed by inherit.heritage in transformation, the LMU Munich and the TU Dortmund University.
You can find more information here