Press release - Official presentation of three funded projects and public launch event at Humboldt Forum
March 24
Official presentation of three funded projects: Scientific programming at Centre Marc Bloch and public launch event at Humboldt Forum in Berlin
One year after its launch, the Franco-German Fund for Research on the Provenance of Objects from sub-Saharan Africa is pleased to officially present the first 3 selected projects. On this occasion the Centre Marc Bloch, together with a range of partners proposes a scientific programming bringing together the international research teams. The official launch event will be held at Humboldt Forum in Berlin to discuss the projects research with a broad audience.
April 9, 16:30 – Official Launch Event As part of the 7th International Provenance Research Day, the Humboldt Forum hosts a conversation that brings together researchers working at the intersection of provenance, restitution, and museum practices. The discussion highlights topics, challenges and entanglements of current research in the field, while offering a space for critical reflection and exchange between scholars and the public.
Keynote speaker will be Hamady Bocoum, Senegalese archaeologist and former director of the Museum of Black Civilisations, Dakar. The discussions will highlight three new international research projects funded by the Franco-German Provenance Research Fund: PROBAMA, which examines the acquisition practices of German and French colonial research missions in French Sudan (present-day Mali) between 1880 and 1914; ReMatriation, which focuses on the symbolic reconnection of objects with their communities, paying particular attention to gendered aspects of collection histories; and ProHumStra, which investigates the provenance of human remains in museum collections and their colonial entanglements in German-French border regions. The project presentations will be followed by a reflection of the provenance research team of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, connecting the new research approaches with the practices and challenges of the research on the objects exhibited at the Humboldt Forum.
The panel discussion provides attendees with the opportunity to gain insights into new research approaches, hear first-hand about current investigations, and engage in a direct exchange with scholars.
This event is a joint programme of the Humboldt Forum and the Franco-German Research Fund on the Provenance of Cultural Objects from sub-Saharan Africa at Centre Marc Bloch, in collaboration with the Ethnologisches Museum, the Museum für Asiatische Kunst and the Zentralarchiv of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz.
April 8, 9 and 10 – Scientific programmeGiving the international project teams the opportunity to exchange the Centre Marc Bloch will organise a range of scientific events including seminars, workshops and museum visits in partnership with among others TheMusemsLab and Museum für Naturkunde.
For more information on the Franco-German Research Fund on the Provenance of Cultural Objects from sub-Saharan Africa please contact Dr. Julie Sissia, Scientific Head of the Fund (julie.sissia@cmb.hu-berlin.de). For any press inquiries please contact Philon Griesel (philon.griesel@cmb.hu-berlin.de).
Contact:
Philon Griesel
philon.griesel ( at ) cmb.hu-berlin.de
Program:
PROGRAMME
Hidden Paths and Emerging Networks.
Provenance Research Between Memory and Responsibility
9 April 2025, 16:30-18:30
Humboldt Forum, Mechanische Arena im Foyer
Public event in French & German with simultaneous translation in French, German, English and livestream
Livestream registration: here
16:30 Welcoming remarks
Han Song Hiltmann, Director of programmes, Humboldt Forum
Souleymane Bachir Diagne,Chairman of the Franco-German Research Fund on the Provenance of Cultural Objects from Sub-Saharan Africa
Lars Christian Koch, Director of the collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin at Humboldt Forum
16:45 Keynote – Hamady Bocoum,Archaeologist, emeritus director, Museum of Black Civilisations Dakar
17:00 Introduction – What is postcolonial provenance research?
Julie Sissia, Head of project, Provenance Research Fund at Centre Marc Bloch
Christine Howald,Deputy director of Zentralarchiv, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
17:10 Project pitches in conversation with the SPK provenance research team of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (SMB) / Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (SPK)
ReMatriation / Matrimoines. Working with communities and diasporas to explore and reactivate the history, origin and stories of African objects preserved in France and Germany. (ReMatriation, Rautenstrauch Joest Museum Cologne and Université Paris Nanterre)
Re-connecting human remains and cultural objects: Provenance research and rehumanization of ancestral remains from former German colonies in Africa at the University of Strasbourg (ProHumStra, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and University of Strasbourg)
Provenances of Bamana Objects from French Soudan (Mali) between 1880 and 1914: Colonial acquisitions, appropriations and competition in the collections of Museum am Rothenbaum World Cultures and Arts and Musée du quai Branly (PROBAMA, Museum am Rothenbaum World Cultures and musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac)
In dialogue with / Reflected by: Kristin Weber-Sinn, Ohiniko Toffa, Ilja Labischinski and Christine Howald, provenance researchers, SMB/SPK
18:10 Discussion with the public
18:30 End of the event
