Curators at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin hope an inaugural exhibition of animal-tusk artifacts shows the institution is serious about its colonial baggage.
For almost 20 years, Werner Kohl has followed the saga of the Humboldt Forum. Like many Germans, he has been watching and listening since 2002, when the government approved a plan for the huge new cultural attraction in Berlin. That’s nearly two decades of debate, protest, overspend and delay.
So on Tuesday evening, when he finally stood in the building’s darkened exhibition spaces, he was thrilled, he said. “I’ve been looking forward to this day from the beginning,” Kohl said. “I’m here to see if it delivers on what it proposed.”
Kohl, 63, was there to see “Terrible Beauty,” a temporary exhibition of ivory artifacts ranging across 40,000 years. It was one of six inaugural shows in the Forum, which brings together several museum collections in a reconstructed Baroque palace.
In addition to the ivory exhibition, the Humboldt Forum is also presenting a display called “Berlin Global,” about the city’s relationship to the world; a conceptual show exploring human life after climate change; and spaces dedicated to the history of the site.
The Forum’s most disputed section is yet to open: floors containing thousands of ethnological artifacts from a variety of cultures, including a spectacular African throne and huge wooden boats from the South Pacific, many of which were acquired during Germany’s expansionist imperial phase. Anticolonial activists have argued that the Humboldt Forum has not gone far enough in investigating the provenance of its objects.
In an agreement negotiated this spring, much of Berlin’s collection of Benin Bronzes, which were set to be exhibited in the building, is to be returned to Nigeria next year. But the process of deciding what the Forum should do about items with more ambiguous histories is likely to be a messier endeavor. On Tuesday, a group of anticolonial protesters gathered outside, chanting slogans like “Defund the Humboldt Forum.”
The opening this week is the first opportunity for curators to present what they argue is a forward-thinking and inclusive manner of showing artifacts with colonial associations to a broad audience.
Although the Humboldt Forum held its official opening ceremony online in December, pandemic restrictions have forced it to remain closed to the public until now. Some have argued that the prolonged closure might have been to its advantage, giving administrators longer to resolve some of the $825 million building’s technical problems. —NY Times
