Vorschau

Ethnologisches Museum , Museum für Asiatische Kunst der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (Hrsg.), Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss

Ancestors, Goddesses, and Heroes. Sculptures from Asia, Africa, and Europe

With contributions by Bernadette Bröskamp, Julien Chapuis, Cäcilia Fluck, Hans-Ulrich Kessler, Nathalie Küchen, Barbara Lenz, Tanja-Bianca Schmidt, Andrew Sears et al.

English edition

Protecting, healing, or punishing — people of various eras and origins have attributed such powers to the sculptures that are being presented together here for the fi rst time: be it the sculpture of the Mangaaka from what is today the Republic of Congo, the protective goddess Mahamayuri from China, or the Maria on the globe from Southern Germany. Forty-fi ve objects created between the fourth and the nineteenth century from two museums in Berlin provide a vivid testimony to the ever-present need for protection and orientation when dealing with individual or social crises. They represent the existence of an invisible world of gods, spirits, or ancestors, and create a connection between this world and a “diff erent reality.” As a result of how they are presented in museums, their context of use is, however, often lost — a situation that is reflected on by the authors of this book.

Exhibition
Humboldt Forum Berlin
Fall 2022