Latitude Festival © EL BOUM

4th – 6th June 2020 Save the Date: Digitales Festival Latitude

For three days, the digital festival “Latitude” will present a programme with artistic contributions and debates. The focus will be on the impact that colonial structures continue to have today and how they can be overcome. We invite you to join us via livestream and chat.

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Aztec head of Xipe Totec (Our Lord, the oppressed), old Mexican spring god, dressed with a stripped human skin. Stone. Hamburg, Museum am Rothenbaum - Cultures and Arts of the World (MARKK). Photo (detail): Werner Forman © picture alliance/akg-images

Collaborative museology Exploring new paths

Cooperative ventures between museums in the Global North and those in the Global South are likely to be structured quite differently in future, explains Barbara Plankensteiner, Director of the Museum am Rothenbaum World Cultures and Arts (MARKK) in Hamburg

Barbara Plankensteiner © Dipesh Shapriya

Barbara Plankensteiner

Anthropologist

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In focus: Museums in Transition

Restitution? From the North America Collection of the Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich: Chilkat apron of the indigenous Tlingit from the northwest coast of America, period of origin: around 1800 to 1850 Photo (detail): Museum Five Continents Munich © MFK
Chilkat apron of the indigenous Tlingit from the northwest coast of America, owned by the Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich

Art from the colonial era Towards restitution in seven-league boots?

At the moment there is lively debate about the return of cultural artefacts from colonial contexts to the origin societies. The discussion has given rise both to plausible solutions and new, even more complex questions.

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Ciraj Rassool Goethe-Institut
Video interview

Ciraj Rassool on restitution and new approaches for museums

Provenance research Searching for traces collaboratively

The Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich has embarked on a collaborative venture with scientists and communities of origin in Cameroon to research its collection from colonial times.

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“The aim is to create a public awareness of the shared history between Germany and Cameroon. We are aware that history is not only topically relevant for the here and now, but also for the future.”

Karin Guggeis, Museum Fünf Kontinente, more in the article “Searching for traces collaboratively”
Achille Mbembe Photo (detail): Daniel Bockwoldt © dpa
Achille Mbembe

Articles on the debate The Achille Mbembe Controversy

Achille Mbembe was to give the opening speech of the now cancelled Ruhrtriennale in summer 2020, but there were protests against this invitation. Mbembe is accused of anti-Semitism, among other things. The accusations have sparked a virulent debate about the renowned thinker, German culture of remembrance and postcolonial studies.

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End of the dream: Short stories

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