JEvery museum has a stage and a backstage area. On the stage, the selected objects are staged for the visitors, supplemented by information boards. On the other hand, in the backstage area, most of the series is sleeping-wrapped in bubble wrap, locked in a cabinet or distributed on Euro pallets. The archives are a bit like the guilt of the museum, because gems have no competition and may always be hidden from public view. This division between the front and the back marks the separation between connoisseurs and interested laymen. Research and cataloging are carried out in the warehouse, and people are amazed in the showroom.
How visitors to the Louvre or the National Gallery in London perceive the paintings Thomas Struth Take pictures by way of photography. Anja Nitz was born in 1971 and showed the surprise of a warehouse. For her new book, she photographed the collections of the ethnographic museums in Leipzig, Dresden and Herrnhut. Some pictures look almost like snapshots, others are fascinated by their subtle composition. There is nothing sacred about the aesthetic experience they invite, because it owes itself to a sober list in a concrete sense. Ironically, the photos of these objects form their own collection because they are numbered, sorted, listed in the index, and provide explanatory text.
Colonialism and looted art
Niz is in a familiar field because she visited the warehouse of the Saxony Ethnographic Collection in 2016 to appreciate her installation “Behind the Mirror”. After all, there are approximately 200,000 potential exhibits in Leipzig, 88,000 in Dresden, and 6,700 in Herrnhut. Some of these may be considered problematic, so that the book begins with a trigger warning: “Please note that due to the history of colonial violence, the description of human bones and other’sensitive objects’ in this volume is disturbing or harmful. Influence. They can—especially for the offspring of those whose bones are in the warehouse.”
In her contribution, Léontine Meijer-van Mensch, curator of the Saxony Ethnographic Collection, wrote that the plaster models proved the “racist past”, which is why there is no room for them in the showroom. When it comes to Anja Nitz’s photo book, the situation is different: “In this particular case, we decided that the actors should be part of the book.” The reason for this decision is still unclear. Now, keep the warning in mind, the problem is the exact difference between an object that has not been considered and a photo of the same object provided to the public. With this in mind, the debate about colonialism and plundering art always resonates in the background. Therefore, it is appropriate for Anja Nitz to avoid overemphasizing the presentation. Many of her recordings seem meaningless.
Count the traces of will
Her artistic principle is casual. There are tools, transport boxes and mobile racking systems, as well as traditional costumes, poisoned arrows and wax figures. Here is an embroidered picture of Ho Chi Minh looking into the distance with alert eyes. There is a framed portrait of Mahatma Gandhi behind the computer screen. Everything is staged side by side on an equal basis, without any obvious effect. Although order is established in the museum through hierarchically organized courses and times, their magazines exhibit chaotic simultaneity of non-simultaneity. One person thinks that because in fact there is absolute accuracy in the warehouse.
The collection custodian is responsible for supervision. They did not appear in the photos, but left traces of their willingness to take stock in the form of index cards and folders. The aura that an object is often called-people would think when looking at photos-is mainly due to the magic of the stage in the museum room, not the exhibition itself. In the background, these objects seem to be sealed up just to illustrate the storage principle used.
Anya Nitz: “The Warehouse”. Written by Kevin Breß, Matthias Harder, Megan Krakouer, Léontine Meijer-van Mensch, and Laura van Broekhoven. English and German. Kerber Press, Bielefeld, 2020. 144 pages, Illinois, hardback, 40, -€.
