Collecting objects was a frequent practice among European colonial states in their occupied territories. From the second half of the nineteenth century, colonial powers encouraged their citizens in the colonies to collect objects that would enrich the ethnographical collections of the mother country and document the material culture of societies that – under the influence of colonization – were undergoing rapid change. The objects collected ended up in countless European museums or in the hands of private collectors. Their presence in these collections raises epistemological, museographical and ethical questions in urgent need of consideration.
This book, the fruit of a series of round tables held in 2014 during the 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, raises these problematic issues with contributions from scholars, artists and international exhibition curators.
Texts by Julien Bondaz, Lotte Arndt, Candice Lin, Françoise Vergès, Sammy Baloji, Philip Van den Bosshe, Patricia Van Schuylenbergh, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Eduardo Abaroa, Spyros Papapetros, Catalina Lozano, Hanne Loreck, Pauline M'barek, Ricardo Roque, Kamfwa Rainford Chishala, Pratchaya Phinthong & Britta Lange.
In English & French
Softcover, 15 x 22 cm, 328 p.
ISBN: 9782917855683