CoMuse – The Collaborative Museum is an initiative of the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst (Museum of Asian Art) that is breaking new ground in transcultural museum work. It develops multi-perspective approaches to collection-based research and tests new formats for collaborative processes in order to sustainably intensify the decolonization and diversification of museum practice. In order to realize this joint project, the museums have launched new projects and a fellowship program. The CoMuse Fellowship Program invites cultural practitioners, artisans, conservators, mediators, curators, visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, journalists and young interdisciplinary scholars to critically engage with the museums’ collections.
As a result of colonial and other violent histories of appropriation and musealization in the Western sense, there is still an imbalance in the museum’s handling of cultural belongings. Renegotiations of the authority to interpret and dispose of objects are part of the general paradigm shift and are being proactively pursued by the Ethnologisches Museum and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst.
CoMuse Fellows 2023 – 2024: Adeju Thompson / Alice Mestriner & Ahad Moslemi / Taiye Idahor / Godfrey Ekhator / Mio Okido / Ifunanya Madufor / Gonzalo Rodriguez / George Tamihana Nuku / Mabel Oviahon / Gabriela García García / Augustine Moukodi / Prem Kumar Mallick / Radhey Shyam Sharma / Baptist Coelho / Deepak Tolange