Museum Forum at the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin

Since 2002 the Wissenschaftskolleg has regularly played host to events organized by cultural scholars and museum experts. How should non-European cultures and art objects be presented in the West? What can stimulate parallel thinking and closer cooperation between museum people and scholars? How to integrate the experiences of museum experts from other parts of the world?

These and other questions are leading ones of the Museum Forum, which is attempting to affect policy-making decisions with regard to the museum landscape in Berlin.

Please click here for more detailed information on the Museum Forum.

• 15 January 2002
  Hans Belting/Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe
  "The Discursive Museum: A Place of Reflection, Not Sensation"
  (presentation in German)
• 5 March 2002
  Sanjay Subrahmanyam/Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales Paris
  "Un Historien entre Guimet: The new-old Museum in Paris." (Musée Guimet)
• 14 May 2002
  Viola König/Ethnologisches Museum Berlin
  "The Object Speaks for Itself: The Role of Curators as Storytellers and the Problem of Interpretive Processes in Museums"
  (presentation in German)
• 2 July 2002
  Serge Gruzinski/Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales Paris
  "Mestizo Arts Versus Primitive Arts in an Age of Globalization"
• 9 December 2002
  Reinhard Schulze/Universität Bern. Commentary: Claus-Peter Haase/Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin
  "Can One Still Exhibit Islamic Culture in an Era Critical of Orientalism?"
  (presentation in German)
• 21 January 2003
  Abdul Sheriff/historian and director of the Zansibar Museum and currently Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg. Commentary: Albert Wirz/Humboldt-Universität Berlin
  "Encapsulating History: The Experience of the Zanzibar Museums"
• 25 February 2003
  Clare Harris/Pitt-Rivers Museum Oxford
  "Shaking the Foundations of Shangri-La: British Museological Approaches to Tibet"
• 18 March 2003
  Sarat Maharaj/co-curator of Documenta 11 in Kassel
  "'The Congo is Flooding the Acropolis': Sounding the Museums, Cultural Translation and Retinalization of Difference"
• 6 June 2003
  Orhan Silier/historian and former president of the History Foundation, Istanbul
  "Museums and Civil Society in Turkey"
• 9 July 2003
  Navid Kermani/Islamic studies scholar and journalist, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
  Viola König/pre-Columbian scholar and director of the Ethnologisches Museums, Berlin
  "Rückblick und Analyse des bisherigen Museumsforums"
  (presetation in German)
  Horst Bredekamp/art historian, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
  "Thoughts on the Future of the Museum Forum"
• 9 December 2003
  Eberhard Fischer/art ethnologist and senior director of the Rietberg Museum Zürich. Commentary: Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, president of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz
  "Plea for a Museum of World Cultures and a Museum of World Art in Berlin"
• 27 January 2004
  (at the im Museum of Islamic Art)
  Claus-Peter Haase/Islamist and Direktor of the Museum of Islamic Art. Commentary: Susanne Lanwerd/Theologist, Freie Universität Berlin
  "Präsentation und Konzept der ständigen Ausstellung"
• 22 March 2004
  (at the House of World Cultures)
  Rose Issa/Free Curator
  "Vorstellung der Ausstellung 'Entfernte Nähe. Neue Positionen iranischer Künstler'"
• 10 May 2004
  (at the Museum of Ethnology)
  Peter Junge/Ethnologist and head of the Africa section of the Museum of Ethnology
  "Afrika im Ethnologischen Museum""Afrika im Ethnologischen Museum"
• 15 February 2005
  Karl-Heinz Kohl/Historian Anthropologist, University of Frankurt
  "Ver-rückte Dinge. Sakrale Objekte im Museum
• 30 March 2005
  Jamie Monson/Historian and Anthropologist, Northfield, MN, USA and currently Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg
  "Lieus de mémoire and the Maji Maji rebellion 1905 - 07"
• 29 April 2005
  (Museum for Islamic Art)
  Scheherazade Hassan/Musical Anthropologist, Paris and currently Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg
  "Music and Emotion in an Ancient Land. Performance Spaces in 20th Century Baghdad"
• 14 June 2005
  Ziba Mir-Hosseini/Anthropologist, The School of Oriental and African Studies, London and currently Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg
  "Making a Documentary on Muslim Women: The Politics of Representation"