The pronounced interest in movements of transfer, transculturality and global perspectives in recent art historical research brings about new approaches to historical artefacts, which lead to an ever increasing dissolution of boundaries between the various disciplines of art history. A practical question which arises from the resulting insights into the many-faceted biographies of artefacts is how to combine these transcultural art historical tendencies with the parameters of museum classification?

The workshop ‘Transcultural Art Histories in the Museum’ proposes to offer a space for exchange between researchers at museums and universities, where specific approaches to transcultural curating will be presented and discussed. Departing from the example of the interventions of the project “Objects in Transfer” (CRC “Episteme in Motion”) in the permanent collection of the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin, this workshop shall discuss the possibilities, but also the difficulties which arise from transcultural approaches, especially with regard to the classificatory systems of museums, European master narratives and conceptions of the universality of art.

The workshop is convened by the project ‘Objects in Transfer – Concepts for the Museographical Display of Transfer Processes between the Near East and Europe during the Pre-modern Period’. This project is part of the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre 980 ‘Episteme in Motion. Transfer of Knowledge from the Ancient World to the Early Modern Period’ (Free University of Berlin) and cooperates with the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin.

Program

Friday, 25 September

Venue: Archäologisches Zentrum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Brugsch-Pascha-Saal, Geschwister-Scholl Str. 6, 10117 Berlin-Mitte

1-1.30 p.m.
Welcome and introduction by Stefan Weber (Museum für Islamische Kunst Berlin) and Vera Beyer / Isabelle Dolezalek (CRC 980 “Episteme in Motion”, Freie Universität Berlin)

1.30–3 p.m.
Best-practice examples of transcultural curating with Christine Gerbich (Freie Universität Berlin), Andrea Scholz (Humboldt Lab Dahlem), Wendy Shaw (Freie Universität Berlin), Roman Singendonk (Museum für Islamische Kunst Berlin), Ching-Ling Wang (Museum für Asiatische Kunst Berlin) and Stefan Weber (Museum für Islamische Kunst Berlin)

Coffee break

4–6 p.m.
Ort: Museum für Islamische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Bodestraße, 10178 Berlin-Mitte
Guided tour through the exhibition trail of the project “Objects in Transfer” in the Museum für Islamische Kunst with Vera Beyer, Isabelle Dolezalek and Sophia Vassilopoulou (CRC 980 “Episteme in Motion”, Freie Universität Berlin)

Saturday, 26 September

Venue: Tagungsraum des SFB 980 „Episteme in Bewegung“, Schwendenerstr. 8, 14195 Berlin-Dahlem

9.30–11 a.m.
Sektion: Museale Einordnungen

Andrea Meyer (Technische Universität Berlin):
The Museum as Transnational Space

Barbara Karl (MAK – Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst / Gegenwartskunst, Wien):
Towels from Bosnia in the MAK Collection

Helmut Groschwitz (Universität Regensburg):
EuropaTest – Zugänge zur Darstellung von Transkulturalität

Coffee break

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11.30 a.m.–1 p.m.
Sektion: Masternarrative

Felicity Bodenstein (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Max-Planck-Institut):
Making the Museum Historical - Meta or Master Narrative?

Annette Bhagwati (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin):
What’s in an Object? Master Narratives and the Crisis of the Museum

Mireille Jacotin (Musée des civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée, Marseille):
Narrating Mediterranean Identities in the MUCEM

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Lunch break

2.30–4 p.m.
Sektion: Objekt und Universalität

Hannah Baader (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, Max-Planck-Institut):
Universalisms and Transcultural Art History

Sharon Macdonald (University of York/Humboldt Universität zu Berlin):
The Transcultural Potential of Museums

Susan Kamel (Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin):
Kommunikation in der Migrationsgesellschaft – Vielfalt in der musealen Praxis


The workshop is organized by the project “Objects in Transfer,” a cooperation of the CRC 980 “Episteme in Motion” (Freie Universität Berlin) and the Museum für Islamische Kunst (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin). Concept: Vera Beyer, Isabelle Dolezalek, Barbara Lenz, Sophia Vassilopoulou

If you wish to participate in the workshop, we kindly ask you to register via email before 15 September 2015. Please contact Isabelle Dolezalek at i.dolezalek[at]fu-berlin.de.