Innocent things? A project by the Werkbund Archive – Museum of Things

With Josephine Apraku (African studies scholar, author) and Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç (political scientist, author), moderated by Daniela Bystron (curator for outreach, Brücke-Museum)

For people who experience racism, anti-Semitism or classism, it is an everyday occurrence that their perspectives are often ignored, particularly in museums. This is evident, for example, in the absence of certain narratives and in how things are contextualised. Taking this into account, the Museum of Things in Berlin teamed up with Josephine Apraku to develop a number of projects focusing on power, including an audio guide and interventions in the permanent exhibition. The series of interventions Wish You Were Here! responds to the permanent exhibition at the Museum of Things, focusing on what is absent from the perspective of four experts on oppression. These interventions create points of contact for those who are usually overlooked. At the same time, they encourage critical self-reflection among those whose views are usually dominant.

Innocent things?: A focus group was invited to produce alternative narratives based on everyday objects from the collection of the Museum of Things. Through commentary from external experts, these objects were given new context within the museum setting, expanding the previously presented thematic spectrum. In the process, key questions were asked: Which aspects of dominant culture run through the collection? Where are the gaps? Where does our knowledge come from? What does collective memory mean to us? To what extent is it shaped by our own personal perspectives?

This work will be presented in a discussion by Josephine Apraku (African studies scholar, author) and Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç (political scientist, author), moderated by Daniela Bystron (curator for outreach, Brücke-Museum). The results have been made publicly accessible through a special route in the app for the Museum of Things. The projects were developed within the framework of Funding for contemporary history and remembrance culture projects, with funds from the State of Berlin, and were led by Josephine Apraku .

No prior knowledge required.

Josephine Apraku is an African studies scholar and consultant for intersectional anti-racism education. She has taught as a lecturer at Alice Salomon University and Humboldt University in Berlin, among others. Josephine Apraku has also written columns for magazines such as EDITION F and Missy Magazine.

Ozan Zakariya Keskinkılıç is a political scholar, freelance author and poet. He researches and teaches at Berlin universities on topics including (anti-Muslim) racism, anti-Semitism, Orientalism, memory and resistant art and cultural production. In 2021, he was appointed a member of the Berlin Expert Commission against Anti-Muslim Racism, and since 2020 he has been a member of the advisory board of the Museum of Islamic Art.

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