The Humboldt Lab Dahlem, made possible through the support of the Kulturstiftung des Bundes (German Federal Cultural Foundation) and the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation), presents another round of results in "Probebühne 2"«. Once again, with reference to the new projects, questions will be discussed: Where do special experiences come into being in the collaboration of science and art? How can stories be told in the museum? Who speaks, and with what agenda? What is being conveyed and how do films contribute? How does the present come into play? The answers are aimed at the design and development of the exhibitions for the future Humboldt - Forum, where the Ethnologisches Museum (Ethnological Museum) and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst (Asian Art Museum) of the Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in Berlin) will be newly mounted.

At the same time, the Lab makes an important contribution to the current discussion on innovative forms of presentation and the situation of museums with non-European collections - a discussion that is engaging experts and the general public in equal measure.

"Spiel der Throne"
"Spiel der Throne" features the mise-en-scène of a Chinese Emperor’s Throne from the collection of the Museum für Asiatische Kunst (Kangxi Period, 1662-1722). Konstantin Grcic, Kirstine Roepstorff, Simon Starling, and Zhao Zhao present different contexts for an exhibition arranged into a seemingly absurd juxtaposition of four throne rooms. Thus, the experiment distances itself from a reconstruction of architectonic relationships; instead, it references the various levels of the historical artifact to create associative experiences in a contemporary context. The project, curated by Angela Rosenberg and named after the fantasy bestseller "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin, ventures to take an unusual approach toward the trappings of power of a land that has long been reduced to its exoticism in Europe and inquires into the potential of scenic interpretation in the museum.

Wissen erzählen
Through the medium of film, "Wissen erzählen" gathers together the complex knowledge of a single (museum) person. Peter Bolz, curator of the North American Collections of the Ethnologisches Museum, is at the center of approximately 30 hours of personal narrative. In the winter of 2012, Bolz retired and, after 25 years, left the museum. Together with him, the team from Filmgestalten (production) along with Janina Janke and Franziska Seeberg (direction) takes a look back at this time. Themes are the curator himself, his career, his stories and "his" objects; at the same time, there is much to learn about the museum as institution, the development of collections, and scholarly self-image in the course of time.

"Wissen erzählen" explores the legacy of Peter Bolz for the next generation of scholars and for the public - an important testimony to museum history and to the Berlin museum site of Dahlem.