Contested Property II: Affective Dissonance and Relational Ethics in Museum Collaborations

This research project takes the current debates on decolonizing ethnographic museums and restituting ethnographic collections as a starting point. We place the collaboration projects between museums and indigenous representatives of so-called societies of origin at the centre of ethnographic research. The project explores the affectively grounded presuppositions about the ontological status of objects and how their affective and emotional connection to human actors impacts negotiations on representation, restitution, and decolonization. It also investigates how affects and emotions associated with these ontological understandings negotiated, allowing indigenous orders of feeling to influence museum structures. Ultimately, the project contributes to the broader ongoing discussion on decolonizing museums and knowledge, suggesting that collaborative and restitution processes should consider these complex socio-material and affective relationalities to address colonial power asymmetries.

Project lead:
Dr. Paola Ivanov, Ethnologisches Museum Berlin
Prof. Dr. Jonas Bens, Universität Hamburg

Research associates:
Dr. Laibor Kalanga Moko, Universität Hamburg

Student assistants:
Iuri Portalegre

Affiliated researchers:
Leonie Benker