Anette Rein Oneobject - manystories: The Museumis no "neutral"place Foto:Adelheid Straten The tangibleand intangibledimensions of reality It was in factAsia that in- fluencedEurope and the Western World in this (see In the Seoul conference bold final remark),we were way. Seoul is thus the politicalprograms talkingless about and hybridtheoretical ap- rightplace to be talking proaches. people As with museumsbackgrounds, our bases aboutthese issues. here for any argumentationare the materialobjects from our col- at thisconference. lections.What this meansis thatthe materialworld forms the point centralreference for our theoreticalreflections. However, With the left shown im- thesematerialthings are in themselvesincomplete and cannot age I want to exemplify standindependently. differingperspectives on the materialand immaterialworld, which togetherform the two dimensionsof reality.The two just Knowledgeembraces much more than tangiblearticles. differentcolours of the picturestand for the material(black) Objects,things or items constitutethe materialor tangible and the immaterial(white) spheres of reality.While lookingat world. However,when we look at an object,the intangible the cuttingsite, it becomesclear that both colourdimensions world is immediatelyactivated in our reflections.We think moment,simultaneously. The - existtogether and at the same aboutobjects and we talk aboutthings we tell storiesinde- differentshapes of the vasescome into being as a resultof the pendently presence of the actual of the articleswe referto. differentforms of the profilesand vice versa. play We store imagesof artefactsin our memory.lmages an Becauseof the intensityof the blackcolour, people usually see importantrole in culturalmemory because they representref- the blackvases first. erencecentres for humanreflections on the world. After a second glance, combinedwith a wilful change of policy, years In relationto world heritage it took several for lookingand the cognitionof two differingperspectives to be the interconnectednessbetween the materialand immaterial discoveredin the graphic,people are able to perceiveboth worldssurrounding objects to be officiallyaccepted. Interna- dimensionsof it. tionalrules have now (2003)been publishedby UNESCO- Conventionsl. Nowthey discover that they are freeto decidewhat they want they experience. Whilst until some years ago, museumsprimarily collected to see in any objectand from any situation profile- there exists materialobjects as soletestimonials to humancivilization2, we There is neveronly one vase and one materialforms analogous to "vases",with their now knowthat in additionwe mustalso save immaterial world a multitudeof or "profiles".lt is the cu- heritagein orderto increaseknowledge about mankind and its correspondingimmaterial dimensions, to decidewhich sort of vase culturaldiversity. rator'sand the spectator'schoice theywant to see. Thisawareness of thetwo existingdimensions of thewhole re- alityholds significant consequences for the debateon material objectsand the immaterialvoices surrounding them. Referring to this knowledge,I will presentyou with three differentper- spectiveson objects. A shorthistorical introduction to the changingpolitics of collecting. Drawingon examplesof "bestpractice", I will show you ways out of the "desertof data". The third pointshows possibleways of workingin eth- nographicalmuseums with a self-reflectiveimage of not beinga "neutralplace". Multifarious pathways in museum collections ways into museum collections3 Facesor vases? The answer depends on what you perceiveas In the 16thand 17thcenturies in Europe,collecting became an the background - the black spaces or the white. Photographer Zeke Bermannhas createdthis intriguingcollage using the sil- obsessionof rulers,aristocrats, churches and later for aca- houettes of real people. demics.The naturalsciences had notyet beendeveloped and Source: "Goblet Portraits" by Zeke Bermann (c) 1978 peopleworldwide collected exciting and exoticthings for their MUSEUMAKTUELL Dez.09/Januar 2010 10 curio galleries(Kuriositätenkabinette). Such collectionswere naturalscience system: they were orderedaccording to their intendedto prove that the objectstherein were examplesfor geographicalprovenience and similarityof their forms and the varietiesof the creationalact. The unusualand the rare classifiedaccording to an imaginedstage of civilization. were the criteria for collectedpieces. Ethnographicobjects were seen as equal to Europeanones and all artefactswere Questionsarose as to how far these objects representedan presentedaccording to theirmaterial conditions and functions. originalprimitive world, the bottomof a pyramidof humanevo- Neitherthe proveniencenor their traditionalcontext was of lution,which culminated in the whiteAnglo-Saxon male. interestto the collectors. In the 19thcentury, museum display labels foregrounded the The owners of these galleriesinvited one anotherto private predominanceof the"white man" and hiscultural and industrial soirees where together they enjoyed the contemplationof achievements. items characterizedby curiosityand marvel.The emotional reactionsof the visitorscan be describedas betweendefence Hencewithout any comprehensiveconcept, inestimable num- and longing.The combinationof the object'spresentation was bersof objectsentered the collectionsof museums.In the best dictatedby the personalinclinations of theirowners. The col- examples,contextual knowledge about the artefacts'origins lectionof artefactswas, on the one hand,regarded as a dem- was acquiredand presented,such as time, placeand ethnic onstrationof the owner's'power, wealth and knowledgeand group. simultaneouslyas a representationof the cosmos. The attitudeof collectorsat thistime, vis-ä-vis those they took A possibleexplanation for this passionfor collectingand itemsfrom, can be exemplifiedby the way in which human amassing artefactsis that Europeansslowly started to rec- remainswere merchandisedall over the world.The remains ognizethat Europehad to be seenand understoodin a wider were not treatedlike humanbelongings, but ratheras objects context.As a consequenceof the rise of worldwidetravel in servingthe scientificpurpose of gainingknowledge about hu- everydirectiona, all theoriesformally used to understandthe man races.eIndividual personality and respectfor the other worldwere put to the test. weretotally disregarded. At the end of the 17thcentury, the naturalsciences were born In case,collectors gathered information about objects by only andthe politicsof collectingchanged. The greatexpeditions of interviewingthe chiefs(or theirtranslators) about specific is- JamesCook to the SouthSeas in the 18thcentury brought for sues.Their mottowas: "One tribe- one chief- one voice". the first time massesof ethnographicobjects to the European Interviewswith peopleof differentgenerations or addressing market. genderissues are largelymissing. At this point in time, specializedcollecting politics emerged Up untilthe 1930s,many exhibitions in Europeand the USA with a new way of systematizingobjects. The former univer- includedpeople from overseas,especially imported for the salismvanished and an ambiguityregarding the way in which shows,under the title:'Wild people- wildanimals". They were ethnographicobjects should be categorisedarose. primarilyput on displayin zoologicalgardens and the worldex- hibitions.At the time,the museumsworld wanted to represent In the 19thcentury, the majorityof largenational museums and the powerof the colonialstates opposed to the colonialized. some of the ethnographicmuseums were founded.sStep by stepthese collections were opened to the interestedcivil pub- lic:bourgeois, women, men, workers and children.6Compared to the formerpractice of exclusiveevents for a selectedpublic, the processof the democratizationof knowledgebegan. The New York State MuseumAlbany: "Native Peoplesof New York: The three Sisters Diorama". "This diorama depicts the type of agriculturethe lroquois practiced when Europeanscame to what is now Upstate New York, beginning about 1600.This ClevelandNatural Museum of NaturalHistory (USA) exhibit strives to be authentic in all respects,from the major settingto the small details.The plants and animalsdisplayed "SearsHall of HumanEcology"s @ Rein 2006 are accurate replicationsof those that inhabitedthe lroquois world."lo @Rein 2006 Afterthe closureof the curiocabinets and the handingover of collectionsto the new museums[such as naturalhistory muse- A big step forward in changing discriminatory perspectives ums or historicalmuseumsT], primitive people were regarded of the Other was the disentanglement of artefacts from the institutionallyas beingpart of nature,comparable to floraand evolutionary system and the establishment of a new way of fauna.Ethnographic items were now organizedaccording to a evaluation according to cultural criteria.The height of the dio- MUSEUMAKTUELL Dez.09/Januar 2010 '11 ramas was reachedafter their introductionin the 19thcentury the itemsmean to them. and museumsbegan to reconstructscenes that offeredinsight into culturalbackground, such as scenesof ordinarydaily and A combinationof the two methods,of presentingthe traditional religiouslife. way of life and of displayingthe items as art objects,was uti- lised in the exhibition,,Reisen und Entdecken.Vom Sepik an Despite these attemptsto restage the culturalmeanings of den Main"in Frankfurtam Main. collectionitems, the reconstructed"native point of view" re- mained subordinatedto the dominantWestern , perspective. Startingwith the documentedlife