Mon 20^th November 2023

Alumni Project | Disrupting & Reorienting Restitution

“Disrupting Restitution” was born out of a team project that started during TheMuseumsLab 2022 edition. "We came together due to our shared interest in and frustration with current debates and approaches to restitution. As a diverse group of African and European specialists and practitioners from various backgrounds (museum education, exhibitions, provenance research, policy, heritage management, etc.) we identified and discussed some of the main challenges that face those working on this contentious and complex topic."

Team

Chris Ssebuyungo | Museum and Heritage Professional, Conservator and Curator, Uganda
Eno Inyangete | Photographer and Researcher, Kenya/Germany
Heba abd el Gawad | Indigenous Heritage and Museums Researcher and Curator, Egypt
Helen Arfvidsson | Curator and Researcher, Sweden
Imogen Coulson | Research and Curator, Netherlands/United Kingdom
Samba Yonga | Cultural Communicator and Researcher, Zambia
Sofia Lovegrove | Heritage Professional, Curator and Independent Researcher, Netherlands
Stephanie Endter | Educator and Curator, Germany

About DRR

Disrupting & Reorienting Restitution (DRR) is a collective aiming to disrupt and reorient the conversation around restitution and repatriation, amplifying voices from Africa and the Diaspora. DRR embraces a multidisciplinary approach to highlighting voices from Africa and the Diaspora in the restitution debate.

"We are a diverse group of African and European practitioners working in various facets of the art and cultural landscape; museum education, exhibitions, provenance research, policy, heritage management and photography.”

Between September and October 2023, the collective realized their first project “On Forbidden Knowledge” aiming to uncover hidden narratives by exploring forms of Indigenous knowledge and practices that were forbidden under colonial rule. The project consisted of a virtual artist residency and three online conversations. Following a call for artists, DRR selected Mihayo Kallaye, a multimedia installation artist from Tanzania.

Mihayo listened and engaged in two conversations with scholars and Indigenous experts that centered around historic objects from three African countries that are currently held in European museums while working on an artistic response that he presented in an artist talk.

The collective wrote an article wherein they reflect on this project, which can be read in full on their Website.

This project was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the Goethe-Institut.