Anja Nitz | Ansicht/Aussicht (Weule) | 2021
Anja Nitz is a free artist and photographer, residing and working in Berlin. In her work she interacts with institutions of higher relevance for society and offers insights into spaces often inaccessible for the public.
Commenting her work in the depots of the State Ethnographic Collections of Saxony: "In dealing with the collection depots I am looking for the implicit, imaginary and visual narratives and images that tell me about how the self consciousness of our collecting cultures has changed and developed over time. The depot, as the 'ventricle of the museum' frankly, holds honest and impressive answers to questions on defining and handling the so-called "Other". In this context it is now a witness to domination, theft, and exploitation on the one hand, and conservation, responsibility and adoration on the other: in a way that no other place can show nearly as accurately."
Museum Cabinets: KÜHNSCHERF Showcases
REINVENTING GRASSI.SKD’s vision for the future is also a staging of an architectural and museum-historical heritage. This includes the restoration of so-called “museum cabinets” by August Kühnscherf & Söhne. Between the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, August Kühnscherf & Söhne manufactured showcases for more than 200 museums and were thus the world leaders in museum furnishing.
Due to their size and large glass surfaces, the showcases offered the exhibited objects much security from dust and insects for the first time. A large part of the Kühnscherf showcases of the GRASSI Museum of Ethnology were destroyed during the Second World War. Preserved showcases will henceforth be restored and will serve as an historical mirror of the museum’s history between presentation, representation, appropriation and current debates about the origins of the objects.
