Interview with Wayne Modest
The Wereld Museum has been sailing a course for several years, as an institution that keeps 450 thousand objects from all over the world in the collection. The main thought: listening to the voices from the countries of origin of objects.
That course is more or less in sync with the Pressing Matter research project, which ran for five years and ends this month.
Scientists and artists thought about the context in which objects may or may not return to countries of origin, but also about what else is possible: what you can do with the collection pieces that remain in the Netherlands, and how you can achieve real relenciation with communities of origin.
The output is academic – six origin researchers, five PhD students and six postdocs did research – but also focused on practical support.
The museum interpretation of ‘objects’ is not always the right one, but again evidenced by these types of examples. That is why the World Museum, in consultation with communities of origin, is re-categorizing the collection. For example, Modest now likes to speak of ‘ancestoral remains’. That category can include human remains, but also ancestors such as the drum.
In the new depot of the World Museum, which will open in Rotterdam in 2029, there will be a special room for ceremonies, says Modest. The World Museum would also like to create a second space in addition to the ceremonial space: a special place to honor the unknown people whose remains are forced to remain in the depot.
