"Postponed heritage? Colonialism Yesterday and Today": 4th International Symposium of the Goethe-Institut and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin
Press release from 11/22/2018
While the restitution of cultural objects is at the centre of the debate in Europe, completely different questions arise in their places of origin, which have to do with the friction between a global economy and regionally specific conditions, which in turn can be traced back to the colonial past. The Goethe-Institut and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation have now brought these different perspectives together in an international symposium. Under the title "Postponed Legacy? Colonialism Yesterday and Today" on 22 and 23 November, around 20 international experts such as Richard Drayton, Okwui Enwezor, Nydia Gutierrez, Monica Hanna, Chika Okeke-Agulu and Barbara Plankensteiner will report on their practice and discuss new, joint options for action in the presence of the President of the Goethe-Institut Klaus-Dieter Lehmann and the President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation Hermann Parzinger.
The president of the Goethe-Institut, Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, said at the symposium: "The various trips by the Goethe-Institut and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation to the Pacific region, Africa and Latin America since 2013 have confirmed that there is no such thing as sole sovereignty of interpretation, but that the future of adequate cooperation lies in the equal interaction of knowledge, experience and different social perspectives. It is not enough to limit ourselves to provenance research - as important as it is. We need to create the legal conditions for restitution, we need to examine various forms of cooperation, but we also need to create a future for the present that provides for the establishment of our own museums and creates educational institutions in which the historical dimension is linked to the reality of life today. "Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, explained: "It is crucial that research is carried out on the objects together with the representatives of the societies of origin. Not only do we learn a lot about these artefacts, but we also discover many new things about our own history. We are very grateful for the open dialogue and are delighted to be able to work together to find an appropriate way of dealing with the collections. The Humboldt Forum is not only an incentive, but also a catalyst for many questions and exciting processes."
The 4th symposium "Postponed legacy? Colonialism Yesterday and Today" is the continuation of a series of working meetings on questions of museology, curatorial practice and collection policy initiated by the Goethe-Institut and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in 2013, which previously took place in São Paolo, Johannesburg, Sydney, Vanuatu and Wellington. More than 20 international museum experts will come together at the Dahlem Museums on 22 and 23 November to bring together a variety of perspectives on the return of cultural objects and the question of how museums and collections can respond to this, and to develop possible solution strategies.
"The Goethe-Institut is not a museum, nor does it own a collection. But the Goethe-Institut has something else: the ability to engage in dialogue between cultures, which has grown and been tested over a long period of time, and the ambition to constantly question and renew this dialogue critically. Especially in the current discourse on questions of the colonial past and co-operation in a global world, the Goethe-Institut can bring people from different parts of the world with different positions together for an open discussion and contribute to understanding," added Johannes Ebert, Secretary General of the Goethe-Institut.
Over the two days, workshops and a public evening event will focus on the relationship between collection histories and power, questions of restitution and provenance, and the past and present of colonialism, among other topics. In addition, case studies from China, Oceania, Latin America and Namibia will be presented. On 23 November, the findings of the symposium will be discussed in a closing panel and possible new and collaborative options for action will be developed.