Universität Wien
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240022 VS Decolonizing the Museum: Provenance research and the politics of restitution (3.2.4) (2023S)

4.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 24 - Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie
Prüfungsimmanente Lehrveranstaltung

Participation at first session is obligatory!

The lecturer can invite students to a grade-relevant discussion about partial achievements. Partial achievements that are obtained by fraud or plagiarized result in the non-evaluation of the course (entry 'X' in certificate). The plagiarism software 'Turnitin' will be used for courses with continuous assessment.
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An/Abmeldung

Hinweis: Ihr Anmeldezeitpunkt innerhalb der Frist hat keine Auswirkungen auf die Platzvergabe (kein "first come, first served").

Details

max. 20 Teilnehmer*innen
Sprache: Englisch

Lehrende

Termine (iCal) - nächster Termin ist mit N markiert

If possible, the course is to be conducted in presence. Due to the respective applicable distance regulations and other measures, adjustments may be made.

  • Freitag 03.03. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Freitag 10.03. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Freitag 17.03. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Freitag 24.03. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Freitag 31.03. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Freitag 21.04. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Freitag 28.04. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Freitag 05.05. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Freitag 12.05. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Freitag 19.05. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Freitag 26.05. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Freitag 02.06. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Freitag 09.06. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Freitag 16.06. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Freitag 23.06. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock
  • Freitag 30.06. 16:45 - 18:15 Seminarraum D, NIG 4. Stock

Information

Ziele, Inhalte und Methode der Lehrveranstaltung

This course will introduce students to recent debates on decolonizing museums by focusing on two core aspects: provenance research to understand the biographies of objects and their rightful owners or authors, and secondly, processes of restituting/repatriating objects. Students will be introduced to strategies of decolonization and actively engage with the social life of objects, their pasts, and their futures. The course centers around the call by art historian Bénédicte Savoy and economist Felwine Sarr on the restitution of material culture looted during colonial times and what restitution must entail to become effective. Students learn to assess current debates on restitution and provenance research also in light of earlier concerns articulated by art historians, anthropologists, and post-colonial scholars. As part of the seminar, students will be introduced to provenance research by exercises and case studies in which they will have to conduct research on objects themselves, as well as discuss current – and formulate new – strategies for decolonizing museums. The course will also feature an excursion to the Weltmuseum Wien.

The course centers thematically on the following debates:
• The Repatriation of Ahayu:da Zuni War Gods
• Colonial Violence and the Benin Bronzes; Benin Dialogue
• Nazi-looted art and provenance research: the Gurlitt case; Washington Principles
• The Penacho at the Weltmuseum in Vienna: excursion and exchange on the Weltmuseum’s pronvenance research and restitution dialogues on the Penacho and the Cook collection
• The trade with artifacts: The “tribal art” auctions at the Dorotheum in Vienna
• The looting(s) of Palmyra: iconoclasms and trade through ISIS/Daesh
• Dialogues with communities: the Pitt Rivers Museum and contested objects
• Introduction to university collections
and other topics.

Art der Leistungskontrolle und erlaubte Hilfsmittel

The course will involve class discussions on readings, class-presentations, excursions and a final essay.
The course activities are divided into the following categories:

Active participation 32%
* participate in discussions (8%)
* take protocol of one class discussion (8%)
* museum excursion / visit (8%)
* submit notes on the museum excursion / visit (8%)

Presentation & Excerpt 32%
* give one class presentation (16%)
* provide one excerpt of a reading to be discussed in class (16%)

Final essay 36%
* submit an idea for a final essay (8%)
* submit a final essay (2500-3000 words) (28%)

Mindestanforderungen und Beurteilungsmaßstab

To pass the course, students have to reach at least 51% of all points, and all assignments need to be submitted in order to receive a grade .
1: 100 % bis 91 %
2: 90 % bis 76 %
3:75 % bis 61 %
4: 60 % bis 51 %
5: 50% and lower

Prüfungsstoff

Contents of the seminar, exursion, and readings.

Literatur

Exact list of relevant literature will be provided during the seminar.

Hicks, Dan. 2020. The brutish museums: The Benin bronzes, colonial violence and cultural restitution. London: Pluto Press.
Smith, L. T. 2012. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples (2nd ed.). London, UK: Zed. Introduction, chapters 1–4.
American Association of Museums. 2005. Vitalizing memory : international perspectives on provenance research. Washington, DC: American Association of Museums.
Asad, T. 2002. From the History of Colonial Anthropology to the Anthropology of Western hegemony. In The anthropology of politics: A reader in ethnography, theory, and critique. Joan Vincent, ed. Pp. 133–42. Blackwell anthologies in social and cultural anthropology 3. Malden, Mass: Blackwell Publishers.
Clifford, J. 1997. “Museums as Contact Zones,” in Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997), 188-219, 360-63.
Collective, M. 2018. From Institutional Critique to Institutional Liberation? A Decolonial Perspective on the Crises of Contemporary Art *. October 168:227.
Demissie, F. 2009. Displaying colonial artifacts in Paris at the Muse Permanent des Colonies to Muse du Quai Branly. African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal 2:211.
Feigenbaum, G. 2012. Provenance : an alternative history of art: Los Angeles, Calif. : Getty Research Institute.
Lonetree, A. 2012. Decolonizing museums : representing native America in national and tribal museums. First peoples : new directions in indigenous studies. Chapel Hill: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press.
Mirzoeff, N. 2017. Empty the museum, decolonize the curriculum, open theory. Nordic Journal of Aesthetics 25(53).
Petropoulos, J. 2017. Five Uncomfortable and Difficult Topics Relating to the Restitution of Nazi-Looted Art. New German Critique 44(130):125–42.
Sarr, F. 2016. Afrotopia. Paris: Philippe Rey.
Sarr, F., and B. Savoy. 2019. Die Rückgabe des afrikanischen Kulturerbes. 1. Auflage. punctum. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz Berlin.
Savoy, B. 2018. Die Provenienz der Kultur: Von der Trauer des Verlusts zum universalen Menschheitserbe. 3. Auflage. Fröhliche Wissenschaft 135. Berlin: Matthes & Seitz Berlin.
Savoy, B., C. Guichard, and C. Howald, eds. 2018. Acquiring cultures: Histories of world art on western markets. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.
Schorch, P. McCarthy,C., and Hakiwai, A. 2016. "Globalizing Māori Museology: Reconceptualizing Engagement, Knowledge, and Virtuality through Mana taonga." Museum Anthropology 39 (1):48–69.
Tinius, J. 2018. Awkward Art and Difficult Heritage: Nazi Collectors and Postcolonial Archives. In An anthropology of contemporary art: Practices, markets, and collectors. Thomas Fillitz and Paul van der Grijp, eds. Pp. 130–45. London: Bloomsbury Academic, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.
Wood, P. 2012. Display, Restitution and World Art History: The Case of the ‘Benin Bronzes’. Visual Culture in Britain 13(1):115–37.

Zuordnung im Vorlesungsverzeichnis

Letzte Änderung: Fr 03.03.2023 09:49