Kunstmuseum Moritzburg Halle (Saale):
"It’s all about collecting … Expressionismus, Museum, Kolonialismus – Die Sammlung Horn zu Gast in Halle (Saale)"
March 17 – June 23, 2024
The Rolf Horn Foundation from Schleswig is a guest at the Moritzburg Art Museum in Halle (Saale) with over 100 Expressionist works as well as some non-European works that served as inspiration and confirmation of the path taken by the Expressionists in Germany. We are taking this opportunity to focus on two collections and their collectors that came to our museum in the 1890s: Franz Emil Hellwig's Melanesia collection and Emil Riebeck's Asia collection. Today, only rudimentary parts of both collections still exist and are now being presented for the first time in an exhibition project based on current research.
In addition to unique works of art, the exhibition thus combines two currently much-discussed topics: how Western museums deal with works that came into their collections as a result of colonialism, and the relationship between Expressionism and colonialism.
Dealing with these issues has led to more questions than answers among those responsible and the consultants invited to the exhibition. The exhibition therefore sees itself as an invitation to reflect critically on Germany's colonial past and how it is dealt with today, as well as the role of classical modern art in this context. The following were involved in an advisory capacity:
Patricia Vester, Potsdam, Germany Tommy Buga, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea Prof Dr Albert Gouaffo, Dschang, Cameroon
Together with them, the possibilities of exhibiting and contextualising the works and the need to provide visitors with more information than just the object-related, factual facts were discussed and the scenography of the exhibition was developed
