While the interpretive design of Unfinished Pasts can be demanding, it offers rich educational insights into how colonial acquisitions can be positioned in today’s museum landscape.
Ivory statue of a man with royal scepter (Collection NMVW), origin: Central-Africa / Angola / Cabinda
Building on these insights, the exhibition holds potential to involve visitors more actively by expanding its interactive elements.
It already employs interactive touchscreens in a dedicated station, presenting detailed provenance timelines and ownership histories for selected objects.
Beyond this, the interface could be extended across thematic groups to invite visitors to explore how they might display and interpret contested objects, as well as the context-specific debates and dilemmas their choices entail.
This approach could foster a more tailored and nuanced form of participation.
