Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig: Tattoo and Piercing

Fotomontage, GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig, © Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden, Grafik: Funkelbach

Tattoo and Piercing - Part II: (un)covered

Grassi invites goes under the skin. In the fourth part of its series, the museum invites visitors to become part of the exhibition. In the first part "Tattoo & Piercing: Showtime!" residents of Leipzig presented their tattoos and piercings in the museum's living archive and told their personal stories.

Exhibition Site GRASSI Museum Leipzig

DATES 22/09/2017—08/04/2018

Based on these stories and photographs, a local perspective emerges on the global phenomenon of body art. Through objects, photographs, and drawings from the collections of the ethnological museums in Leipzig, Dresden, and Herrnhut, the exhibition takes on a thematic approach: on the skin, through the skin, and under the skin. What did scientists and travelers of the 18th and 19th centuries say about body art in the world? Why do people get tattoos, what is the meaning behind the motifs and what role do tattoos and piercings play today? "Tattoo & Piercing: (un) covered" combines the stories of the living archive from Part I with historical and current visions of the entire world.

**Maske, Javari-Gebiet, Brasilien, Völkerkundemuseum Dresden, © Staatliche Kunstsammlung Dresden, Foto: Eva Winkler**

Between the discourses about the change of name of ethnological museums, the reworking of the colonial history, new conceptions of permanent exhibitions and partnerships with the communities from which the museum's objects originate, the series Grassi invites is looking for answers to the complex questions of ethnological museums in the 21st century. "Grassi invites # 1: fremd" (January - May 2016) and "Grassi invites # 2: dazwischen / in / between" (June - October 2016) were the first experiments to introduce new presentations, discourses, and methods in collaboration with artists and other actors. "Grassi invites # 3: Masks!" and "Grassi invites # 4: Tattoo and Piercing - A World Skin-Deep" take up on the search for new ways to the first two formats.