Emptying the Shelves

by Mirelle van Tulder ; with contr. by Tamarah Kerr de Haan, Clémentine Deliss and Mirjam Shatanawi ; design by Victoria Lum

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Auteur(s)

Mirelle van Tulder, Clémentine Deliss, Mirjam Shatanawi, Tamarah Kerr de Haan

Editor(s)

Mirelle van Tulder

Uitgever, jaar

Amsterdam : Roots to Fruits ; Framer Framed, 2025

Omvang

528 p., geïllustreerd, 19 cm.

ISBN

978-90-90403-96-0 2025

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Emptying the Shelves traces how Dutch ethnographic museums — including the Dutch National Museum of World Cultures and its predecessors — have shaped and reshaped their displays over the past century. At the heart of the publication lies a disquieting question: What happens to the countless objects collected, displayed and later hidden from view? Artist and designer Mirelle van Tulder approaches this history through what Rolando Vázquez calls a decolonial aesthesis: a visual and conceptual practice that challenges the modern/colonial gaze. By bringing together more than 200 archival photographs, many published for the first time, Van Tulder and her collaborators reveal how the museum’s display strategies evolved from crowded cabinets to minimalist white cubes yet remained bound to systems of representation that privilege the Western eye. Emptying the Shelves stands as both archive and proposition: a call to confront the layered histories of ethnographic museums and to imagine new modalities of restitution, repair and relational care.

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Trefwoorden

kolonisatie / colonisation , collecties / collections

Locatie in de bibliotheek

Kast 29 - 5: Expanded Space ; Global Art ; decolonisatie / Expanded Space ; Global Art ; Decolonize Culture

Extra thema's

Archives

Bevat

noten / notes