About a hundred further European and African objects are displayed in a special gallery, illuminating six overarching topics.įor each object pairing and group of works, the app offers interesting background information from the perspective of art, cultural history, and ethnology. The exhibition stretches over the entire Bode-Museum: Artworks from both continents are displayed on the two main floors through 22 juxtaposed pairs of artworks. Short text and audio commentary from the curators on each object pairing.Ě variety of tours through the exhibition.The most important functions at a glance: This multimedia app is the ideal companion for a visit to the exhibition. Experimental juxtapositions and groupings of objects according to themes such power, death, beauty, identity, justice, and memory reveal their connections and differences. Until the opening of the Humboldt Forum the exhibition ‘Beyond Compare: Art from Africa in the Bode Museum’ shows outstanding African works of art from the Ethnological Museum together with unique works taken from the European Sculpture Collection. The exhibition is made possible by generous support from the Kuratorium Preußischer Kulturbesitz.įor more impressions of the exhibition, simply search for the hashtag #BeyondCompare on popular social media channels such as Facebook and Instagram.The app for the exhibition ‘Beyond Compare: Art from Africa in the Bode Museum’ The presentation invites viewers to question their own approach to the process of comparison. These masterpieces of African art will remain on view at the Bode-Museum until the installation of the Staatliche Museen’s non-European collections in the Humboldt Forum. The exhibition and the accompanying app will illuminate these themes from a variety of perspectives. The process of comparison is thus closely tied to questions of collection history, aesthetics, colonialism, and gender. Defining two things as similar or different is often related to power. It also governed by the experiences of the individuals who draw the comparisons. The act of comparing and identifying is therefore not neutral, but charged with socially defined prejudices, conventions, and constructions of history. In the process many objects from Africa were defined as ethnological artefacts, while other objects of comparable artistry from European ritual contexts remained in art museums. The implicit process of comparing, separating, and assigning objects to different collections was a fundamental step in the foundation of the Berlin museums and the definition of their respective missions. What insights can we gain from the joint display of works of art with different histories? What are the consequences of assigning to separate museums objects that once all belonged together in the collection of the Kunstkammer of Brandenburg-Prussia? Why were some of these objects classified as ethnological artefacts and others as works of art? What Does it Mean to Identify Similarities and Differences?Įvery visit to a museum prompts viewers to compare and interpret objects, but what does it mean to identify similarities and differences? At the same time comparisons also expose contrasts, as with depictions of motherhood, which rely on different visual languages in Africa and Europe and convey different messages. Power figures from the Congo were used to protect villages and communities, just as Gothic depictions of the Virgin of Mercy were. Despite stylistic differences, striking similarities appear in the ways works of art function in both contexts. The experimental juxtaposition of works from two continents reveals possible correlations on various levels, including historic contemporaneity, iconographic and technological similarities, and artistic strategies. Pairs of sculptures from both continents will be placed throughout the permanent collection and a special-exhibition gallery will address specific themes. The exhibition ‘Beyond Compare’ introduces superlative works of art from Africa from the Ethnologisches Museum into the peerless sculpture collection of the Bode-Museum.
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