Bachelor thesis | South and Southeast Asian Studies (BA)
open access
The debate of restitution and the return of cultural treasures has been a hot topic in international media in recent years. France, Germany, the Netherlands and most recently, Belgium are the...Show moreThe debate of restitution and the return of cultural treasures has been a hot topic in international media in recent years. France, Germany, the Netherlands and most recently, Belgium are the European countries that are trying to address these challenging questions from a different perspective. Undoubtedly, the return of cultural heritage is a complex and emotionally loaded subject for all the parties involved. For instance, in 2020 Congolese activist Mwazulu Diyabanza Siwa Lemba and his ‘comrades’ from the organization Unité Dignité Courage (UDC) took these matters literally in their own hands. They attempted to ‘restitute’ objects from three French museums: a museum in Marseille, Quai Branly, and Louvre in Paris, as well as from Afrika Museum in Berg en Dal, the Netherlands. From Afrika museum, Mwazulu Diyabanza took a wooden statue and live-streamed this attempt on the internet. Later, in 2021, he was charged by a court of Nijmegen. He has more pending court cases in France regarding the same acts of vigilantism. While for ‘outsiders’ this is an act of crime and an attempt of theft, UDC sees it as a noble deed of taking back what was ‘stolen’ from Africa by colonialists. The organization frames it as an act of ‘free speech’. News outlets semi-ironically labeled the Congolese activist ‘the Robin Hood of the restitution’.Show less
The starting point of this thesis is the Jacobsen collection of the Völkerkundesammlung der Hansestadt Lübeck (Ethnographic Collection of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, Germany) – around 220 objects...Show moreThe starting point of this thesis is the Jacobsen collection of the Völkerkundesammlung der Hansestadt Lübeck (Ethnographic Collection of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, Germany) – around 220 objects stemming from a larger collection, which was assembled by the Norwegian brothers Bernard Fillip (1864 – 1935) and Johan Adrian Jacobsen (1853 – 1947) along the Northwest Coast of America, especially among the First Nations of present-day coastal British Columbia in 1884 and 1885. This collecting trip was commissioned by Carl Hagenbeck (1844 – 1913), who hired the brothers to recruit a Northwest Coast group for his next Völkerschau (ethnic or people’s show) through the German Empire. At the same time, the brothers were asked to compile a collection that was presented as an ethnographic side-show during the Bella-Coola-Völkerschau resulting from this journey. As a contribution to the current academic discourse on museum practices in relation to colonial collections, this thesis entails the reconstruction of the provenances of these objects, from their production contexts up to the acquisition of the Jacobsen collection by Lübeck’s former Ethnological Museum from the Hamburg J. F. G. Umlauff firm in 1904. Accordingly, this research considers Indigenous agency within the production and circulation networks that have enabled the formation of Lübeck’s Jacobsen collection. The application of various theoretical approaches dealing with materiality and hybridity, alongside examinations of historical records, especially contemporary newspaper articles and documents pertaining to Adrian Jacobsen, frame this analysis of Indigenous participation opportunities within the collection’s history. The various dimensions of this collection history are demonstrated with the help of object-centered case studies. The question after the Indigenous scope of action hereby illustrates that the creator communities of the Jacobsen collected employed various strategies to negotiate the dimensions of the flow of artefacts to Western institutions and that their position within these processes cannot be reduced to passively meeting the demands of European and American collectors. At the same time, the area of conflict, resulting from settler colonialism in the area and bearing vast negative consequences for Canada’s Indigenous population, is equally relevant. This thesis therefore strives towards critically engaging with colonial provenance research and bringing forward the underrepresented Indigenous perspectives and experiences manifested in the materiality of Lübeck’s Jacobsen collection.Show less
Since entering the international fine arts market in the 1970s, Indigenous Australian art has long contended with its positioning within a system that — until very recently — was ascribed to an...Show moreSince entering the international fine arts market in the 1970s, Indigenous Australian art has long contended with its positioning within a system that — until very recently — was ascribed to an exhibitionary method based on Western epistemology only. Debates surrounding the display of so-called ‘non-Western’ art and its place in modernity and the fine arts institution have produced several responses in the form of curatorial strategies. These strategies have emerged both in light of an increasing public awareness of the role of the curator in the representation of culture, and in the context of the museum as an inherently contentious space of knowledge construction. This thesis centres on the identification of these strategies, and its usage in four case studies. These case studies include the exhibitions fluent (1997), held at the 47th Venice Biennale, Theme Park (2008) at the Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art (AAMU), Indigenous Australia: Enduring Civilisation (2015), held at the British Museum and Frontier Imaginaries (2015 - ongoing), a travelling exhibition. By evaluating the applications of these strategies, this thesis sheds light on the manner in which curatorial strategies have formed the display of contemporary Indigenous art, and further highlights potentially impactful developments in the field of contemporary curation.Show less
