Page 100 - ARTE!Brasileiros #58

ENGLISH VERSION DEMOCRACY AND REPARATION

will only be lasting by fighting condescension and are synchronized using the collections of the Berlin State official organization of the German state), which aimed to
encouraging protagonism and self-management. For this Museums (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), the Prussian “treat the German family spirit and its kind” by bringing
– as indicated in the epigraph of this article, with the phrase Cultural Heritage Foundation (Stiftung Preußischer women to the colonies so that the soldiers and German
of the Chinese writer Lu Xun -, historical examples must Kulturbesitz), in partnership with the Cultural Projects occupiers do not marry African women[5].
be taken into account. Because, when marginalizing social Berlin (Kulturprojekte Berlin). ) and the City Museum of Another example that stands out from the absence
models such as the feudal serfdom system, mercantile Berlin (Stadtmuseum Berlin). of contact between colonizer and colonized was the
slavery, among other exploitative systems, whether of After serious damage suffered during the Second Gauturnfest games of 1939 in Lüderitzbucht (Namibia),
the latifundia, commercial or industrialist type, collapsed World War (1939-1945), the Berlin Palace was demolished which took young Germans to compete in the games,
or were historically minimized, the marginalized figures to make room for a new building that would indicate where they remained isolated from the locals during
changed their status ., but remained the same. The serf the rebirth of a new era, and not just in architectural the tournament.. As portrayed in Life Between Cultures
became a peasant, the proletarian became a “precariat” assumptions. The Palace of the Republic, designed by the story of young Namibians, children of exiles and
(that is, a “precarious” worker, without those labor rights Heinz Graffunder and his team of architects, Karl-Ernst refugees who were raised in East Germany during the
won so hard by the proletarians), etc. In other words, those Swora, Wolf-Rüdiger Eisentraut, Gunter Kunert, Manfred Namibian War of Independence (1966-1990). . Later, with
eager for citizenship remained the same ones who were Prasser e Heinz Aust, was built in 1976 and operated the end of the war, young Namibians were repatriated
in need of citizenship in a world that still marginalized until 1990, when its operation was interrupted due to by the independent State of Namibia, which caused a
them. These examples are taken at the same time that the use of asbestos in the fire insulation system. The significant culture shock.
we can take into account the examples of the struggle building continued to function partially and after 2004
for female emancipation, in which women “won, but it gave space to an intermediate project for the creation afriCan objeCts
did not take” – learning the hard way that their social of cultural events under the name of Palácio do Povo After the relative of perspectives indicated in the previous
independence was not linked to their independence in (Volkspalast), until it was demolished in 2006. In 2000, exhibition structure, the next cycle within the exhibition
the field of habits and customs (including indoors). The however, a commission had already been formed to is the Africa Open Warehouse, which reproduces the
female experience has shown that all social beings hold examine the future use of the space and in a new phase way in which the collection is stored, displaying the
the same principles of struggle. in 2002 the project reused the baroque facade of the objects in showcases, accompanied by their identification
Will this process of social insertion that is now starting former Berlin Palace. The building would now be a numbers. There are weapons, knives, swords, ivory
on the internet be successful in its attempt to transfer venue for the collections listed above. After so many ornaments, earrings, bracelets, representations of spirits
itself from the virtual world to that of political relations changes and a project that extended and cost more than and statues of political significance representing rulers
in the public sphere? Will Afro-descendants achieve the anyone had imagined, totaling more than 600 million of past times, musical instruments such as drums and
long-awaited protagonism and independence, without Euros, the Humboldt Forum is the most expensive wind instruments. Wood and metal, ropes, shells and
which no one is freed from the burden of being treated by cultural building in German history. The Berlin Palace, ivory are the main materials, carved and created with
everyone as a mere number, a mere consumer? And yet, which had its facade redesigned in Baroque style by remarkable technique. It is evident that the removal of
will the virtual activists, now raised to the world of formal the German architect Andreas Schlüter in the 17th these objects from their places of origin is primarily a
democracy, be mature enough to transfer their forces century, received a new reading from Italian Franco deviation from the work, not only of the makers of the
to the realm of real democracy? This only time will tell! Stella, winner of the competition for the design of the objects, but also of an entire people who passed their
One may not like very much the lack of manners of the new building, which was reopened in 2021 to the public knowledge of work from generation to generation through
newly inserted or how this insertion is being done, but with an exhibition area of approximately 28 thousand a hereditary education system or from tutor to pupil. The
one cannot say that democracy cannot be strengthened square meters. objects accumulated here come from several expeditions
with this initially virtual insertion and thus transforming One of the current objectives of the institution is to to the African territories at the end of the 19th century and
poison into medicine. With the exception, therefore, of house the “ethnographic” art collections[1] acquired their exhibition in Europe directly influenced modern art.
those cases in which privileged people or groups are during the Germany´s colonial past. From 1885, with the [6]. These expeditions were led by officers from colonial
openly or covertly anti-democratic, all other groups that Berlin Conference[2], until the present, and to position Germany such as Hans Glauning, who died on one of his
are aware that there is only light at the end of the tunnel itself critically through the objects of material culture expeditions in Cameroon.
will applaud the black admission, the self-declaration displayed. The premise, together with the reusing of the Cameroon’s relationship with Germany is brought
of Afro-descendant Brazil as one of the main between facade of the Berlin Palace, created great resistance into focus in the next exhibition segment, through
the new breaths for the consistency, continuity and and protests from the artistic and cultural community hand-carved doorframes, sculptures of different
deepening of the democratic struggle. – essentially from cosmopolitan and pluricultural Berlin. sizes, paraphernalia, benches, ornate masks and other
The long-term exhibition that greets the building to the historical objects. Most of the items denote the degree of
referenCes public is entitled The Ethnological Museum and The importance of their holders in Cameroonian society at the
dUrANt, Will. History of Civilization . Second Part: Our Museum of Asian Art (in free translation from German), beginning of the last century, in addition to adorning the
Classical Heritage (Volume II). Sao Paulo: 3rd ed. National which is divided into several segments. character of the person who owned them. These objects,
Publishing Company; CodIl, 1957. p.148. As a strong gesture – quite anachronistic – of bringing charged with social and spiritual beliefs, also had political
the baroque facade of the German imperial period purpose and effect. A prime example of this is the King
xUN, lU. In: CHENG, Eileen J.; dENtoN, Kirk A. (Ed.). Jottings into contemporaneity, the exhibitions, which attempt Tufoyn’s Commemorative Throne, of the Bekom people,
under Lamplight. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, to instruct and educate the public in Berlin, actively dating from the 19th century and whose disappearance
2017. p.259. expresses the desire to correspond to the interests of generated a state of emergency, since its presence was
the European country were not enough. . Two-thirds necessary so that power could be transferred to the next
https://jornal.usp.br/radio-usp/dados-do-ibge- of the objects in the German ethnographic collection ruler of the hereditary matrix. The throne was acquired
mostram-que-54-da-populacao-brasileira-e-negra/ came from colonial times and were collected with the in 1906 by the German explorer Hans Gaspar Ganz zu
“intention of having basic material for future research”. Putzliz. To avoid a crisis in power and succession, King
https://www.ipea.gov.br/atlasviolencia/publicacoes Although the storage of these objects is quite laborious Yuh, Tufoyn’s nephew and successor, ordered the creation
and extensive funding is required, and research on their of a new throne, nowadays considered to be original,
international INStItUtIoNS [PAGES 44 to 48] provenance is encouraged by the Humboldt Forum in while the one found in Europe was expropriated of its
partnership with institutions and researchers in the areas official character. The techniques of cultural domination
motivated by foreign fetishism directly reflect the political
EUROPEAN FETISHISM IN in bringing them to the European museological context, destabilization of the cultures they intended to dominate.
ignoring their additional qualities, which go beyond

THE COLONIAL CONTEXT their aesthetic weight, contributing to the current social oCeania anD the Culture of the seas
complexity of the countries from which they were taken.
AND ITS LONG-TERM The context and the original provenance of the objects The collection of cultural objects from the former colonies
are ignored and only their usefulness is considered to
of Oceania is also part of the exhibition. A room was
EFFECT: THE CASE OF THE the foreign culture that shelters them, as it can be read in dedicated to house a collection of props and the last
some of the texts of the exhibition: “The selection of the
ship built by the inhabitants of Luf Island in Papua New
HUMBOLDT FORUM exhibited objects does not intend to define, homogenize Guinea in 1890 – as all others were destroyed in the
or delimit the cultures . It does not offer an overview war by the Germans. After the war, this last ship was
New museum institution recently opened of cultural history, but reflects European and German purchased by a German trading company, which brought
in Berlin brings together rich material from interests, aesthetic leanings and scientific orientations it to Berlin. The prohibition of free movement imposed by
people throughout the different corners of in the past and present.”[3]. the occupiers on the people of Papua New Guinea also
The exhibition A matter of perspective (free translation),
the world, but ignores the original context which welcomes visitors to the Ethnological Museum, contributed to the extinction of boat building techniques
that were of singular importance in the region’s economy,
and minimizes the value of objects from is quite interesting precisely because it deals with as they were exchanged for other types of goods in
cultures subjugated by Europeans over the files and not with objects. With several axes, it offers a barter system. The union between native peoples
centuries a reconstitution of the German colonial past in the and nature is evident not only because of the direct
19th century, including the relationship between East relationship with the sea, understood as an extension of
By dErECk MAroUço Germany and its colonies through native accounts and their territory as much as the soil, but also because they
has miniatures representing the occupants through knew how to read it, finding paths through its currents
in 2021, the City of berlin gained a new space the local perspective.[4]. In the image, text and video and using its materials. The sea plays a central role
exhibition complex, the autonomous visitor has to in oral tradition and in the connection with gods and
for debate on culture, which also brought enormous physically engage to discover information and photos ancestors. The alienation in the way of production of
historical responsibility.: The current Humboldt Forum, and thus reconstitute, or “reveal”, the colonial dynamics. boats, in addition to the prohibition of locomotion, as
built on the site of the former Palace of the Republic (1976- It is clear that colonialism is a tactic of dominance that well as the diseases brought by the Europeans and the
2003), previously occupied by the Berlin Palace (1443- considers only physical space, while ignoring the social destruction caused by the war, caused the autonomy of
1950). It is a place that, due to its political, geographical and cultural spaces previously cultivated in the place of the Polynesian people to die completely. In Micronesia
and symbolic centrality, has long reflected the German occupation. For example, one of the photos shows the and Melanesia the knowledge of shipbuilding was also
identity. Today, the museum and its exhibition spaces Women’s School of the German Colonial Federation (an almost completely extinct. It is important to emphasize
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