Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation presents basic positions on dealing with non-European collections / Parzinger: New presentation in the spirit of shared heritage
Press release from 06/09/2015
For some years now, the handling of non-European objects and their history has been the subject of public debate. In the course of intensified provenance research in all collections and also in preparation for the presentation in the Humboldt Forum, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is now presenting a basic position.
The view of non-European collections has changed significantly since their creation for a variety of reasons. Even today, they represent an important source for research and provide the general public with information about different regions of the world. The question of origin is being asked more clearly than ever before and a different type of presentation is being pursued in museums. ICOM's "Ethical Guidelines for Museums" form the basis for this approach to non-European collections. The basic positions developed on this basis will be further developed in practice.
Foundation President Parzinger says: "Our aim for the Humboldt Forum is to create new forms of presentation for the non-European collections of the National Museums in Berlin. We want to move away from the Eurocentric view towards a shared heritage with the societies of origin - the collections of the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art will now tell the history and stories of their collection objects in a completely new way and also show how they are constantly changing."
For the Foundation, appropriate handling includes, among other things, knowledge about the origin of its collection objects. Like all other collections of the foundation, the Ethnological Museum and the Museum of Asian Art therefore conduct provenance research. They are currently focussing on investigating the history of the objects that will be presented in the Humboldt Forum from 2019. In addition, open dialogue with communities of origin is an important part of the work and self-image of the museums' curators.
Furtherlink
- SPK's basic positions on dealing with non-European collections