What’s Happening
Dominique Edwards and Nicola Deane artwork, "Endling," on show at exhibition
The artwork, "Endling," was selected to form part of an exhibition at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, 17 September - 17 October 2024.
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(Photographs by Nicola Deane, South Africa)
Article "Distance, transmission, and journey in the collective construction of an Itaaká" by Bruno Moreschi and Irineu Nje'a Terena
This paper discusses the collective construction of an ancestral instrument of the Terena indigenous people in the context of the artistic residency Con/Cri/Tec, held in 2023 at Casa do Povo, in São Paulo. The functions of the itaaká instrument, as well as the process of creating it in the residency, offered decolonial opportunities for understanding the idea of "distance" beyond the non-indigenous scientific view. The first contribution to this expanded understanding of distance comes from the functions of the itaaká, in particular, that of reducing the distance between the terrestrial and the spiritual worlds, based on the idea of "transmission". The second perspective of distance analyzed here came from the experience of building the itaaká, seen in the Terena culture as part of a collective initiation ritual. The making of itaaká performed in the artistic residency showed part of this ritualistic character and how this ancestral instrument relates distance to the idea of collective construction of a "journey". Published in the journal HUB - Journal of Research in Art, Design and Society, 1 (2023). Read here.
Presentation Fernanda Pitta - LIAS Conference: “The Practice of Decolonization: Art, Anthropology, History and the 21st Century Museum
While the imperative of “decolonizing” the museum is frequently invoked, we are still clarifying what precisely this should involve. The pressing question of today is no longer the "that" but the "how". We are in the middle of thinking how art and ethnographic museums should reorganize collections formed from, or in support of, colonial violence. How should they structure processes of restitution or recontextualization of objects, seek new accessions and serve new publics?This one-day conference at MARKK brings together museum practitioners, artists, theorists and historians. It explores what materials, techniques, languages and concepts have been used to contradict the colonial model of the museums. How are new spatial experiences created? How are different ways of exhibiting developed? How can museums establish new relations of inclusion and response to their stakeholders, both local and transnational? Ultimately, where should the Twenty-First century museum be going now?. Conference at at MARKK Museum am Rothenbaum, Hamburg, June 11 2024. More here.
Workshop Tupinambá Clubs - Serra do Padeiro, Bahia
Workshop coordinated by Glicéria Tupinambá and Fernanda Pitta, with the Youth Group from Serra do Padeiro, and the elder masters of the community. In the workshop, the group learned about the Tupinambá clubs, their presence in European collections, their iconography in European prints and their description in travelers accounts. They also learned from the masters to identify the proper wood to make new clubs, prepare the wood to be worked. With Gliceria and Fernanda, they experimented with techniques to paint and engrave the clubs, and also coat them with an ephemeral egg powder as described by the literature. Together with the masters, they were able to make 15 clubs that now belong to the community's collection and will be used as educational material in the local school, and in cultural performances in festivities, rituals and celebrations.
Syllabus of the Graduate Course Museums, Art History and Indigenous Peoples held at PPGMUS / MAC USP
Read here (in Portuguse) the syllabus of the Inter-Unit Postgraduate Program in Museology at the University of São Paulo.
Photovoice workshop by Leif Petersen, 2022
Petersen facilitated a Photovoice process and qualitative interviews in 2022-2023 with a range of bossiedokters and conservation stakeholders, in order to explore the different versions of decay held by bossiedokters and the conservation and cultural heritage sector in Cape Town. A peer-reviewed paper by Petersen, Lambrechts and Deane “Accepting Decay to Balance Future Ecological and Cultural Priorities in Cape Town” is in review. Furthermore, a documentary film is under production to showcase this topic which will be completed in 2025.
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Deeper into the bushes (by bossiedokter Michelle Snyman): This part is still herbs but it's dangerous to go in deeper. There is no other way around. You have to wait to go in. This makes me feel like I am stealing now. it is also dangerous there. The deeper you go in there are snakes and skollies (thieves) that sits in the bushes to hurt people. I come to do my job for a living and then they come and steal from me.
Photograph provided by Leif Petersen, South Africa)
Lumen prints by Nicola Deane and Jurie Senekal on show at the Stellenbosch University Museum
The artwork, "Endling," was selected to form part of an exhibition at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, 17 September - 17 October 2024.
(Photographs by Nicola Deane, South Africa)
SU awarded multi-institutional international research grant
Stellenbosch University (SU), along with three other institutions, has been awarded a research project entitled, “Decay without mourning: Future thinking heritage practices," that will be rolled out over the next four years. Dr Lambrechts is the Research Director for the research project and also heads a non-profit organisation called Nuuseum.
(Photograph by David Marks, Hidden Years Music Archive, South Africa)
She studies cultural heritage in the polar regions and polar futures
Lize-Marié Hansen van der Watt has a PhD in history and researches the polar history and polar futures, focusing on the intersection of environment, science, cultural heritage and critical geopolitics in the Arctic and Antarctic focusing on the people who live on the poles. She is currently researching a project on cultural heritage and decay
(Photograph by Leif Pieterson)
ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION ON YOUTUBE
We recently launched a new video documenting the research being conduced in Antarctica. Kati Lindstrom met with scholars from the field and researchers who over-wintered to discuss their experiences.
(Photograph by Kati Lindstom)