Intended AudienceTrade
ReviewsIn The Metabolic Museum, Clémentine Deliss, since last year an associate curator at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, outlines her radical curatorial vision and chronicles her attempts to transform the Weltkulturen Museum from a moribund storehouse of artifacts into a laboratory and educational center for critical engagement with the material cultures of non-European societies., Connecting to reflections on her own work as the director of the Frankfurt Weltkulturen Museum with discussions of filmmakers, artists and authors to argue for an entity she calls the Metabolic Museum?an interventionist laboratory that opens up the potential of anthropological collections for the future.
SynopsisOn the Pulse of the Museum as Institution of the Future For quite some time now, ethnographic museums in Europe have been compelled to legitimate themselves. Their exhibition-making has become a topic of discussion, as has the contentious history of their collections, which have come about through colonial appropriation. Clearly, this cannot continue. That the situation can be different is something that Clémentine Deliss explores in her current publication. She offers an intriguing mix of autobiographically-informed novel and conceptual thesis on contemporary art and anthropology. Reflections on her own work while she was Director of Frankfurt's Weltkulturen Museum (Museum of World Cultures) are interwoven with the explorations of influential filmmakers, artists and writers. She introduces the Metabolic Museum as an interventionist laboratory for remediating ethnographic collections for future generations. CLÉMENTINE DELISS has achieved international renown as a curator, cultural historian and publisher of artist's books. In her role as Director of the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt, as a curator, and as a professor and researcher at eminent institutes and academies, she focuses on transdisciplinary and transcultural exchanges. She is Associate Curator of KW Berlin and Guest Professor at the Academy of Arts, Hamburg., Acclaimed critic, curator and museum director Clémentine Deliss explores possible functions for anthropological museums in a postcolonial culture Anthropological museums in Europe, as products of imperialism, have been compelled to legitimate themselves for some while now. The very basis of their exhibitions, the history of their collections, which came about all too often through colonial appropriation and outright theft, is now widely contended. In this brilliant intervention in this often irresolvable-seeming conversation, the London-born curator, researcher, publisher and director of the Frankfurt Weltkulturen Museum Clémentine Deliss (born 1960) offers an intriguing mix of autobiographically informed fiction and scientific argument to address the topic and explore the possible future role of anthropological museums in culture. Deliss conjoins reflections about her own work as the director of the Frankfurt Weltkulturen Museum with discussions of filmmakers, artists and authors to argue for an entity she calls the Metabolic Museum--an interventionist laboratory that opens up the potential of anthropological collections for the future., Acclaimed critic, curator and museum director Clémentine Deliss explores possible functions for anthropological museums in a postcolonial culture Anthropological museums in Europe, as products of imperialism, have been compelled to legitimate themselves for some while now. The very basis of their exhibitions, the history of their collections, which came about all too often through colonial appropriation and outright theft, is now widely contended. In this brilliant intervention in this often irresolvable-seeming conversation, the London-born curator, researcher, publisher and director of the Frankfurt Weltkulturen Museum Clémentine Deliss (born 1960) offers an intriguing mix of autobiographically informed fiction and scientific argument to address the topic and explore the possible future role of anthropological museums in culture. Deliss conjoins reflections about her own work as the director of the Frankfurt Weltkulturen Museum with discussions of filmmakers, artists and authors to argue for an entity she calls the Metabolic Museum an interventionist laboratory that opens up the potential of anthropological collections for the future.