| Time: | April 29, 2019 |
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| Venue: | Linden-Museum Stuttgart Hegelplatz 1 70174 Stuttgart |
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Panel discussion: In favor of a new relationship ethic: returning Africa’s cultural heritage. With Bénédicte Savoy, Albert Gouaffo, Petra Olschowski and Inés de Castro
In 2018, President Macron commissioned the art historian Bénédicte Savoy and the Senagalese economist and author Felwine Sarr, to compile recommendations about returning the African cultural heritage currently in French museums. Immediately following its publication, this catalogue of recommendations resulted in a controversial debate that extended far beyond the French borders and was passionately continued in Germany. The two authors recommend that artefacts be returned to their country of origin if the museums in question are unable to prove the origins or an agreement of transfer to Europe for the artefacts – and only when the African country of origin demands that the artefact be returned. When one considers that a large proportion of African collections in ethnological museums in Europe were acquired forcefully during colonialism or by cheating the African societies of origin, and that today approximately 90 percent of African cultural heritage is located away from the continent, these recommendations do carry weight. The debate about these recommendations could be viewed as an incentive for a new dialogue between Africa and Europe, and the first step towards a new relationship ethic.
The German publication of the report (publisher Matthes & Seitz 2019), the new presentation of the Linden Museum’s Africa collection, and the international festival “Membrane – African Literature and Ideas” (23-26.5.2019) at Literaturhaus Stuttgart and Institut français provide the perfect backdrop for this discussion with the state secretary Petra Olschowski, Inés de Castro (Director of the Linden Museum), Bénédicte Savoy and Albert Gouaffo (University of Dschang/Kamerun, member of the advisory council “koloniale Kontexte” (Colonial Contexts) at the German Lost Art Foundation in Magdeburg).
Presented by Sigrid Brinkmann, Deutschlandfunk Kultur
Event language: German. Tickets: 5/3 €
Ticket reservation:
Tel.: 0711 2022-444
anmeldung@lindenmuseum.de
This event is organized by the Institut français Stuttgart, the University of Stuttgart‘s IZKT, the Linden-Museum Stuttgart, Literaturhaus Stuttgart in cooperation with the Akademie Schloss Solitude
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