Since museums have taken a critical look at their history, they have become good at concealing and concealing dark chapters at the same time. You then speak of art that is “burdened” or “problematic” or comes from “injustice contexts”. The Humboldt Forum is setting a clearer tone with its first own exhibition. “Terribly beautiful” is the bold title. It’s about ivory, the material that stands for exploitation and the destruction of nature as well as filigree art.
Nothing is played down here. A trigger warning at the entrance announces content that is “in connection with violence, discrimination and racism” and can trigger “feelings of hurt and powerlessness”. And even those who do not have to fear such feelings wonder what this apocalyptic groan might be that echoes ominously through the room. It comes from an elephant that you can watch dying for 20 minutes in a video.
Little by little, the exhibition deletes its subject. Explains the uniqueness of the material and how it became the fuel of slavery and colonialism. At the foot of an animated graphic that shows the ivory flows through the last millennia, the annual kilo prices run across the screen – as is the case with CNN’s share prices. Ivory was not only the currency of political and economic power, it was a magic substance. The power of the killed elephant passed, so the idea, to those who could afford their teeth. It even served as a metaphor for the superiority of whites. Paul McCartney’s call for perfect harmony between “Ebony and Ivory” didn’t help.
Soon the exhibition approaches the elephant, the keystone species, the disappearance of which impoverishes entire ecosystems. Even a few lumps of elephant dung are exhibited, but not to decorate a black “Virgin Mary”, as in the famous work of the artist Chris Ofili, but because it is so ecologically important.
African colonial ivory warehouse.
(Photo: Alamy)
But the suspicion is in the air that the Humboldt Forum is distracting from its own problems. It is fighting for an attitude towards the theft of art from the colonies. It doesn’t know how to deal with the thousands of dubious objects that the employees put behind glass one floor up. But with ivory, the Humboldt Forum has tackled another problem instead of its own moral problem. Tusks are not cultural objects. Most of the art shown here was made in Europe. Restitution is not an option. At the end, the exhibition dismisses the visitor with an appeal for species protection. Who wouldn’t be for it?
Ivory jewelry box from the Museum of Asian Art.
(Photo: Jürgen Liepe / bpk)
However, the alternative topic poses design problems for the Humboldt Forum. Ivory works are seldom larger than a fist. Whole worlds may have been carved into these pieces, but in dim lighting and behind glass, only beige shadows are often visible. In the end, it’s the dentures and cocktail stirrers that stick in your mind. How happy one stands in front of the magnificent French tapestry that shows an elephant hunt: finally color. That’s why the curators made a jeep trampled by elephants a vanishing point. In terms of content, the wreck offers nothing, but it is great to look at.
And there is a lack of show values, if only because of the size of the room. Elsewhere the ceilings are too low, here they are too high. The exhibition architects tried to distract from it with voluminous buildings, but they also dwarfed the miniatures. The exhibition itself also seems small. After the first lovingly crafted chapters, the matter is already over.