Interdisciplinary kick-off workshop, February 1, 2024, Francke Foundations, America Room, House 1 (Orphanage Building)
To kick off the research project »The objects from Borneo in the Francke Foundations' Chamber of Art and Natural History«, which was launched in December 2023, an interdisciplinary workshop was held on February 1, 2024, bringing together experts to discuss perspectives, current concepts, experiences and networks on this topic.
110 objects from the Francke Foundations' Cabinet of Artefacts and Natural Curiosities are being researched in more detail in this three-year project, which is funded by the German Lost Art Foundation and based at the Research Center. The objects from Borneo were sent to Halle in the 1840s for the collection in the Historical Orphanage. They are still on display there today in a collection cabinet specially made for the purpose at the time and on the walls of the chamber.
In the 18th century, the collection comprised almost 5,000 objects that came to Halle from the worldwide Pietist network. Hermann Agathon Niemeyer (1802-1851) built on the collection activities and sent Heinrich Julius Berger (1800-1845) and Johann Michael Carl Hupe (1818-1861) as missionaries to Borneo via the Rhenish Missionary Society. Like the missionaries in India before them, they were tasked with sending objects to Halle for the Cabinet of Artefacts and Natural Curiosities.
The project will deal with a variety of topics: Analysis of the provenances and acquisition circumstances of the objects, contexts and meanings in the societies of origin as well as cultural-historical classifications, comparative objects and museum medialization possibilities, post-colonial interpretations and much more. The thematic fields describe the broad radius of the project. An important point is also the comparative horizon - which objects from Borneo still exist today in German ethnographic collections, with which provenances, how are they researched and presented and what contacts exist with researchers on Borneo and what challenges are associated with this.
The kick-off workshop brought together experts from the Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein (Gotha), the Weltkulturen Museum (Frankfurt am Main), the Archiv- und Museumsstiftung der Vereinten Evangelischen Mission (Wuppertal), the Fernuniversität Hagen and various research institutions in Halle for an initial exchange.
Concept and management
Jutta Kelling, Giulia Speciale and Holger Zaunstöck
Sponsorship
funded by the German Lost Art Foundation
