Exhibition Opening in Cologne and the Launch of the Database

Exhibition at the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne: Launch of the digital database and virtual exhibition opening on 27th of May.

During nearly 70 years under British colonial rule (1895 to 1963), thousands of historic Kenyan cultural and art objects were taken out of the country to be sold to museums and private collectors throughout Europe and the United States. Through art, activism, scholarly inquiry, and the Kenyan cultural objects themselves, the international exhibition Invisible Inventories: Questioning Kenyan Collections in Western Museums addresses the asymmetry of shared history, cultural interconnections, and the psychological as well as political impact of the objects' absence.

The exhibition was developed under the collective artistic direction of the International Inventories Programme (IIP) team - the artist collectives The Nest and SHIFT, the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi, the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne, the Weltkulturen Museum in Frankfurt am Main, and the Goethe-Institut - and is funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. It will be shown at three locations in 2021 in varying versions. From March to early May, it was on view at the National Museum Nairobi. On May 27, the exhibition will open at the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne, where it will be on display until August 29.

Since 2019, IIP has been building a digital database of Kenyan cultural objects that are held in Western museum collections. To date, the database comprises over 32,000 objects and, on 27th of May 2021, it shall be made accessible to the public online.

From empty display cabinets to man-eating lions: how to tell stories of loss?

During the exhibition realization in Nairobi, empty showcases highlighted the absence of Kenyan objects. In Cologne, the curatorial team will now present the entire Kenyan collection of 82 objects acquired by the museum between 1905 and 2006, most of which have never been exhibited before. For some of these objects, scholars from the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi have collaborated for the first time to produce comprehensive object biographies. In addition, various representatives of local communities have their say in video documentaries, which represent the different voices from host communities who have been involved in the process.

The artist collective The Nest, represented by Jim Chuchu and Njoki Ngumi, reflects on and visualises the sheer amount of objects recorded in the database. A seemingly endless ribbon of object labels will wrap around the outside of the Cologne museum and continue into the exhibition spaces. In addition, they address their different values – from acquisition, to insurance and emotional value – as well as the power relations exerted by individual Western dealers and institutions.

Sam Hopkins and Marian Nur Goni (SHIFT collective) present a sound installation about the manifold narratives of the so-called Man-Eaters of Tsavo. These two legendary lions managed to bring the British imperial machinery to a halt at the turn of the 19th century, during the building of a railway in East Africa. Since 1925, they have been taxidermied exhibits in Chicago. Who gets to tell their story today?

Simon Rittmeier, also part of the SHIFT collective, explores the museum as an institution in the process of decolonization in his work Takeover (with Richard Ojijo). The installation A Topography of Loss by Sam Hopkins and Simon Rittmeier draws inspiration from the way the museum stores these objects in an attempt to poetically map the consequences of their absence.

A central part of the International Inventories Programme are the public discussions, Object Movement Dialogues. The 8th “OMD” will be part of a rich public programme. Additionally, a catalogue in the form of a magazine has been published in conjunction with Iwalewabooks (Bayreuth/Johannesburg) and Kwani (Nairobi) to accompany the exhibition.

Publication of the digital database

Since 2019, the International Inventories Program has been using a digital database to record Kenyan cultural objects held in the collections or archives of museums in the "Global North." The database now includes over 32,000 historic Kenyan cultural objects from thirty institutions worldwide and will also be made available to the public on May 27 at www.inventoriesprogramme.org/explore. To request access to preview the database, please talk to: Anisha.soff@goethe.de.

Digital exhibition opening "Invisible Inventories" Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum Cologne, Germany Date: Thursday, May 27, 2021, starting at 7 p.m. (CEST) Language: German/English with subtitles Public Youtube stream: www.youtube.com/c/RautenstrauchJoestMuseum

Find the press kit here: www.goethe.de/pressemappe.