12.09.2008 to 05.01.2009
Works by artists from the Tropics as well as from those who have taken the Tropics as their subject matter are placed on display in this exhibition. Around two hundred exhibits from the Ethnological Museum are juxtaposed with works from around forty international contemporary artists. Many of the works have been created especially for the exhibition. The exhibition interweaves various periods into one, with the aim of redefining the dialogue between north and south.
The Tropics is a precisely determinable geographical zone but at the same time a cultural construct. Associations from the world of literature and the visual fine arts have always come between the tropical nature and the cultures of this region and the way it was perceived. These selfsame associations go on to shape our view of the Tropics even today and are reflected in the exhibition. One of the core aims of the exhibition is to attempt a re-aestheticization of the Tropics, one in which, going beyond the political and economic discourse, our gaze is turned to the artistic complexity and cultural weight of the tropical countries.
An exhibition by the Goethe-Institut and the Ethnological Museum, with support from the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
Program of events accompanying the exhibition