Collecting and exhibiting create contact zones between scientists, experts, and the public. Museums and fieldwork serve as spaces where knowledge emerges, is contested, and becomes embedded through social interactions. In these settings, knowledge is also shaped by the means of communication. Both museums and fieldwork connect different localities while simultaneously establishing conditions of power. In recent years, collections and museums have become central to debates about the colonial legacy of European empires. These discussions highlight the prominent role scientists played in colonial enterprises, with scientific collections and museums serving as key evidence of this involvement. While much attention has been given to these issues in ethnological and archaeological collections, they have largely remained unaddressed in natural history museums and scientific fieldwork. (Re-)Naming Natures: Knowing and Collecting Otherwise will examine the historical circumstances under which knowledge production and collection have entered European museums. It will also propose alternative ways to reflect on this colonial legacy by designing strategies that foster representation and encourage the participation of diverse voices and experiences.
Organized by Tomás Bartoletti (History of the Modern World, ETH Zürich) in the context of the exhibition Naming Natures: Natural History and Colonial Legacy, currently at Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle Neuchâtel.→ www.naming-natures.ch
Thursday, 20 March
Room: ETH HG E 7, Rämistrasse 101, 8006 Zürich
16:00
Introduction by Tomás Bartoletti, ETH Zürich
16:20-18:00
Panel: Decolonizing the Myth of Amazonia as Pristine Nature
José Iriarte, University of Exeter
Christiana Bertazoni, University of Bonn
Moderated by Marcelo Sánchez, University of Zurich
18:15-20:00
Panel: Museums, Fieldwork and the Colonial Legacy of Science
Miranda Lowe, Natural History Museum London
Ettore Camerlenghi, ETH Zürich
Andrea Scholz, Ethnological Museum Berlin
Moderated by Tomás Bartoletti, ETH Zürich
Friday, 21 March
Room: ETH HG E 3, Rämistrasse 101, 8006 Zürich
09:00-10:45
Panel: Violence and Museums: Past and Present
Marie Muschalek, University of Basel
Priska Gisler, University of Zürich
Beatrice Falcucci, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona
Moderated by Monique Ligtenberg, ETH Zürich
11:10-12:50
Panel: Decolonial Practices in and beyond Museums
Laura Felicitas Sabel, Leuphana University, Lüneburg
Cecilia Manosa Nybon, University of Exeter
Jonas Sebastian Lendenmann, La Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana
Moderated by Raphael Schwere, Ethnographic Museum Zurich.
13:00-13:50
Lunch at the Dozentenfoyer, ETH Zurich
14:00-15:00
Visit and guided tour to ETH extract exhibition
‘Colonial Traces – Collections in Context’
Guided tour by Christian Jung, ETH Zürich
15:15-17:00
Panel: Aesthetics and decolonial narratives
Denise Bertschi, Collegium Helvetica, ETH Zurich
Ivana de Vivanco, Chilean-Peruvian Artist based in Berlin
Maria Jose Murillo, Peruvian Artist, Arequipa, Peru
Moderated by André Luiz Masseno, University of Zurich
Saturday, 22 March
Visit to Naming Natures exhibition at the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle Neuchâtel (MHNN), Rue des Terreaux 14, 2000 Neuchâtel
https://www.naming-natures.ch/
11:00
Guided tour by curators Denise Bertschi, Tomas Bartoletti & Jessica Litman
12:15
Visit to exhibition by artist Santiago Yahuarcani at the Centre d’art Neuchâtel (CAN), Rue des Moulins 37, CH–2000 Neuchâtel
Funded by ETH Zürich and SNSF Agora.
Kosten
