Transpositional Geologies
{{ time.start_TS | TS2dateFormat('MMM') }}
{{ time.start_TS | TS2dateFormat('YYYY') }}
| free admission |
| 14 years and older |
| German |
| Humboldt Lab, 1st floor |
| Belongs to: After Nature |
The beauty of many mineralogical collections is captivating. Whether azurite, malachite or fragrantite – the multi-coloured iridescent, sparkling or bizarrely shaped collection objects fascinate experts and amateurs alike. But where do the minerals in the historical holdings of natural history collections in universities and museums come from? How and under what conditions were they mined locally and how did they end up in the collections? And what are the long-term consequences of the extractivist overexploitation of nature and humans, which often took place as a result of scientific expeditions?
Using the example of minerals from Tsumeb in Namibia – a country rich in minerals and mineral resources – the evening, which is part of the ‘Object Laboratory’ series, is dedicated to the colonial histories hidden in mineralogical collections. And thus also questions of colonial suffering, sometimes questionable scientific research and ongoing environmental destruction.
The evening begins with a film by the artist Sascha Mikloweit, which was created as part of his ‘Transpositional Geologies’ project. For several years, he has been working with mineralogical collection objects from Tsumeb in Namibia – a place and mining district to which numerous research expeditions set out and which reflects the history of German colonialism from the late 19th and early 20th centuries to the present day. Afterwards, scientists and collection experts will discuss the colonial references of mineralogical collections and how to deal with them.
As part of the discussion series “OBJEKTLABOR. Collection talks at the coordination centre”
The following day, the Coordination Office for Scientific University Collections in Germany is organising a workshop for curators, collection and provenance researchers at the Humboldt Lab. If you are interested, you can register here: [email protected] (keyword: Workshop Mineralogical Collections)
Schedule
5:30 pm: Welcoming
5:45 pm: Film
6:30 pm: Panel discussion
8:00 pm: Closing with drinks
If you enter an institutional mineralogical collection, you typically encounter glass cabinets organized by classification systems according to material properties. Yet, each mineral carries with it a history of extraction, destruction, (dis)possession, and global relations.
Transpositional Geologies localizes such collections as indices of the afterlife of colonialism and proposes an evolving political geology, reading mineral specimens as objects of “culture” rather than of “nature.” Capturing his five-year artistic engagement and cultural collaboration in Namibia and Germany, Sascha Mikloweit brings together international voices from fields including anthropology, critical theory, geology, history, museum studies, philosophy, poetry, public administration—and the perspectives of boltwoodite, cerussite, or smithsonite.
Rock by rock, this exquisitely designed volume invites us to engage with a progressively nuanced reading of geology’s history: its epistemic violence, omissions, and racial regimes, and how the lasting residues of its colonial legacies continue to shape our present-day extractive realities.
Edited by: Sascha Mikloweit, with texts by:
Saima Ashipala, Paul Basu, Charmaine //Gamxamus, Johannes Giebel, Elizabeth Grosz, Maria-Oo Haihambo, Selby Hearth, Bastian Herbst, Chris Hill, Herbert Jauch, Juuso Kaluvi, Veripuami Nandee Kangumine, Malina Lauterbach, Helmut Maier, Prince Kamaazengi Marenga I, Sascha Mikloweit, Hidipo Nangolo, Paul O’Kane, Jermaine Solunga, Ellison Tjirera, Kuhepa Tjondu, Samo Tomšič, Kathryn Yusoff
Further information:
https://www.kerberverlag.com/en/2162/transpositional-geologies