INTERVENTION

02.11.2021

artistic intervention in the exhibition “Invisible Inventories: Questioning Kenyan Collections in Western Museums” by artist collective THE NEST.

We are delighted to announce an artistic intervention in our exhibition “Invisible Inventories: Questioning Kenyan Collections in Western Museums”.

Is there an appropriate way for us to present objects from Kenya in the Weltkulturen Museum when they are not visible in their country of origin?

We have discussed this question exhaustively with all the participants in the International Inventories Programme. Staff at the museum found it important to present a selection of objects from Kenya alongside the stories of their provenance in the exhibition. However, other participants did not want to display the objects because it was not possible for them to be physically included in the exhibition in Nairobi, and in Western museums such objects are all too often viewed as representations of “exoticism”.

Thus, in order to render visible the wide range of voices in our team, the room where the objects from the collection have hitherto been displayed will be redesigned in the course of the exhibition. From Tuesday, 2 November until Sunday, 5 December you will be able to see the intervention by artist collective The Nest as part of the exhibition. In their sound installation “Invisible Conversations”, Njoki Ngumi and Jim Chuchu discuss collectors’ biographies and objects of national importance.

After that, from 7 December onwards this room will be redesigned by the collective SHIFT.

You’re most welcome to follow this process.