“Collections as Relations”: New perspectives in the Klangwerkstatt, Humboldt Forum

Researchers and curators from the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Freie Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin and Universität Bonn present new approaches for exploring relational connections among ethnographic and global art collections from diverse world regions. The focus will be on contestations of belonging, cultural heritage, and knowledge infrastructures. The event, moderated by Barbara Göbel (co-editor, Director, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz) aims at fostering the exchange on the future of collections and collection institutions.

18:15
Introduction
Hansjörg Dilger (Co-editor, Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Institut für Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie, Freie Universität Berlin)

18:30
Curating and Creating Relations between Lived Worlds: A Practice- Oriented Methodology for Museum Engagements with Indigenous Communities from Amazonia
Andrea Scholz (Curator for Transcultural Cooperation, Ethnologisches Museum, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz)

Cultural Heritage from Colonial Context as Disputed Heritage: The Case of Cameroon and Germany
Richard Tsogang Fossi (Postdoc Research Fellow, DFG-Project “Reverse Collections’ Stories. Mapping Art and Culture from Cameroon in German Museums” Institut für Kunstwissenschaften und Historische Urbanistik, Technische Universität Berlin)

Towards Democratising the Formation of Knowledge: Researching Sensitive Collections from Namibia Collectively
Julia Binter (Argelander-Professor for Critical Museum and Heritage Studies / Research professorship of the Transdisciplinary Research Area “Present Pasts”, Universität Bonn)

19:00
Comments
Ferdinand de Jong (Guest Professor for African Art and Visual Cultures, Kunsthistorisches Institut, Freie Universität Berlin)
Yorleny Cardozo Peña (Fellow, Collaborative Museum, Ethnologisches Museum, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz)

19:20
Questions and Discussion

Publication: Collections as Relations. Contestations of Belonging, Cultural Heritage, and Knowledge Infrastructures (Routledge, 2025)