PreviousNext

Exhibition at the National Art Gallery of Namibia Featuring Objects Previously Part of the Ethnologisches Museum’s Collection

11.04.2024
Ethnologisches Museum

On 11 April 2024, a major exhibition opened at the National Art Gallery of Namibia in Windhoek featuring 23 objects that were previously part of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin’s Ethnologisches Museum’s collection. In the run-up to the exhibition’s opening, an agreement was signed concerning the transfer of ownership of the objects to Namibia.

The objects in question (historic everyday objects, jewellery, tools and fashion items) were selected by a group of Namibian experts based on their particular historical, cultural and aesthetic significance and made the journey back to Namibia in 2022. This occurred out as part of a years-long process undertaken in close cooperation with researchers from the Ethnologisches Museum. Since 2022, the objects have been studied by artists and researchers in Namibia. The results of this process will be on display as part of the exhibition Reconnecting with Returned Cultural Belongings at the National Art Gallery of Namibia in Windhoek until 18 May.

Ahead of the exhibition’s opening, an agreement concerning the transfer of ownership of the 23 objects to Namibia was signed by Lars-Christian Koch, director of the Ethnologisches Museum and Museum für Asiatische Kunst, and Boyson Ngondo, deputy director of the National Heritage and Culture Directorate at Namibia’s Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture

Reconnecting with Returned Cultural Belongings Exhibition in Windhoek

Alongside the 23 objects transferred from the Berlin collection, the exhibition also presents works by the Namibian artists Betty Tuauoovisioua Katuuo, Keith Vries, Nesindano Namises, Prince Kamaazengi Marenga, Fallone Tambwe and Vitjitua Ndjiharine. In the months preceding the exhibition, the artists worked with Namibian community researchers such as Munu Godfrey Kuyonisa, Immanuel Xamro !Keib, Ngombe Ngarerue, Iyaloo Moshana, Tamace Rabbie, Riana Vries and Bonifasius Mushongo to investigate the objects’ significance, origins and history.

The exhibition was developed as part of the project Artistic Research and Communal Knowledge: Building Trust for a Better Future, which is co-financed by the Heinrich-Boll-Stiftung, and is itself part of Confronting Colonial Pasts, Envisioning Creative Projects, a joint research initiative between the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the Museums Association of Namibia financed by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung that has been ongoing since 2019.