"Humboldts Vermächtnis"

Eine Antwort auf Larissa Förster

Abstract

This article replies to the exhibition review by Larissa Förster by explaining the context of the exhibition and its setting in a wider perspective. A good review of an exhibition should include some research into the conditions and the time schedule that are decisive for the success of such an enterprise. Mainly two factors were decisive for the final shape of the exhibition "Anders zur Welt kommen": the political influences of representatives of the main cultural institutions involved, and the rather short time period of less than one year for an exhibition of over 1500 square metres. The main misunderstanding of the review lies in the fact that Förster uses statements made by the political representatives of the cultural institutions and compares them with statements by the work of the curators in the exhibition. The exhibition was never intended as a preview of the planned Humboldt-Forum but to give some idea of the work in progress. Normally this is not done. Neither the new museum in Paris nor other large institutions put on special exhibitions as previews of their new museums. In this context it is also evident that an exhibition can never touch and deal with all possible themes. And even if the presentation of the subject of colonialism is important, that does not mean that every special exhibition has to deal with it. The exhibition "Anders zur Welt kommen" offered several new perspectives not only in its design and presentation, but also in how it described and explained objects which will be further developed in future exhibitions of the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin.