Museum of Cultures Basel
 Entrance seen from Münsterplatz |
|
| Data | |
|---|---|
| place | 4051 Basel , Münsterplatz 20, Switzerland |
| Art | |
| architect | Herzog & de Meuron |
| opening | 1893, after several modifications the last time in 2011 |
| Number of visitors (annually) | 80,000-100,000 |
| operator |
Canton of Basel-Stadt
|
| management |
Anna Schmid
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| Website | |
The Basel Museum of Cultures is one of the most important ethnographic museums in Europe. The world-famous collection includes more than 320,000 objects and around 50,000 historical photographs. In order to present and reposition parts of it again and again, several special exhibitions are shown every year in addition to the two permanent exhibitions. The focus is always on topics with contemporary relevance.
history
In 1849, a multi-purpose museum by Melchior Berri was built in place of the Augustinian monastery on Basel's Münsterhügel, which included several collections, including the important Mexico collection by Lukas Vischer, as well as the university library. This also included the ethnographic collection.
While the upper classes of Basel initially brought objects back from their travels, scientists increasingly took on this task as the subject of anthropology became more professional. Researchers such as Fritz and Paul Sarasin, Felix Speiser, Alfred Bühler and Paul Wirz contributed significantly to the expansion of the collection.
In 1892 the Basel government decided to separate the ethnographic and historical-antiquarian collections and to set up a commission for the ethnographic collection. The commission met for the first time the following year - which is why 1893 is considered the year the museum was founded. But it was not until 1918 that the ethnology collection was given the title "Museum of Ethnology". Fritz Sarasin was the first president of the collection or director of the museum.
In 1944, the Federal Council awarded the Europe Department, which had already been founded in 1904, the title “Swiss Museum of Folklore”. The name of the museum was henceforth: "Museum of Ethnology and Swiss Museum of Folklore". In 1996 the house was given its current name “Museum der Kulturen Basel”.
Museum directors
- Fritz Sarasin (1896–1942) as Chairman of the Museum Presidium
- Felix Speiser (1942–1949) as Chairman of the Museum Presidium
- Alfred Bühler (1949–1964) as director
- Carl August Schmitz (1964–1965) as director
- Gerhard Baer (1967–1996) as director
- Clara Wilpert (1996-2006) as director
- Anna Schmid (from 2006) as director
In the course of time, the focus of the museum shifted from conveying foreign cultures to intercultural dialogue , which is expressed in the name that was chosen in 1996. The concept has been adapted accordingly: away from regional and towards thematic exhibitions, which are always related to the here and now.
Exhibitions
The collection includes objects from Europe, Africa, Asia, North, Central and South America and Oceania, including a 16-meter-high Abelam cult house in Papua New Guinea . Since the renaming, the museum has made a name for itself with permanent and temporary exhibitions, including:
- Bhutan - Fortress of the Gods (1998)
- Basel Carnival - People behind Masks (1999)
- Tibet - Buddhas, gods, saints (2001-2008)
- Bali - Island of the Gods (2002)
- Festivals in Light - The Religious Diversity of a City (2005)
- Urban Islam - Between Cell Phone and Koran (2006)
- Red - When color becomes the perpetrator (2007/08)
- Refined and beautiful - textiles from West Africa (2009/10)
- EigenSinn (2011/12/13)
- Chinatown (2011/12)
- Floating - from the lightness of stone (2012)
- Pilgrimages are booming (2012/13)
- Expeditions (since 2012)
- StrohGold - cultural transformations made visible (since 2014)
- LARGE - things, meanings, dimensions (since 2016)
- Dancing in series - individual pieces in series (2016/17)
- Exemplary - global traces in local ikat fashion (2016/17)
- Migration - Moving World (2017/18)
- Sun, moon and stars (until 2019)
- The secret - who may know what (2018/19)
The origins of the collections of the Museum der Kulturen go back to the mid-19th century. With the valuable holdings of the Basel businessman Lukas Vischer from Old America, the city on the knee of the Rhine came into possession of one of the first publicly accessible ethnological collections in Europe.
At first it was mainly private collectors who traveled the continents with their own financial means and brought interesting objects and testimonies of indigenous everyday culture to Basel. What began as a small collection within the framework of a universal museum, with researchers such as Fritz and Paul Sarasin, Felix Speiser, Paul Wirz and Alfred Bühler, increasingly developed into a refuge for scientific work and an ethnological museum with international renown. They made a significant contribution to the systematic expansion of the collection in the decades to come. Emil Hassler donated the largest and most beautiful part of his ethnological collection to the museum.
building
The museum on Augustinerstrasse , which was built between 1844 and 1849 , was Melchior Berri's main work , inspired by Schinkel's Bauakademie . It originally comprised the entire public collection of the city. The ethnographic collection in 1905. Collection of Ethnology renamed, moved in 1917 built in 1913-1915 extension to the museum in the Augustinergasse additional premises and became the Museum of Ethnology . This extension was built by the architects Vischer & Söhne.
From October 2008 to August 2011, the premises of the Museum of Cultures were converted and expanded according to plans by the Basel architects Herzog & de Meuron . The entrance to the museum is now directly on Münsterplatz or in the extension from 1915. This makes it easier to reach and, on the other hand, it is separated from the Natural History Museum Basel, which now only uses the museum on Augustinergasse, which opened in 1849. The courtyard-side extension from 1917 was extended with a folded attic for special exhibitions, which protrudes far above the old building and whose surfaces were clad with hexagonal, black-green tiles. Because of this materiality and design, the expansion was initially fought against in an appeal procedure by the Basel Heimatschutz and the Volunteer Basel Monument Preservation and opened around three years later. The entrance with cloakroom and museum shop was relocated to the basement, which was exposed and glazed by lowering the courtyard level.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Othmar Birkner, Hanspeter Rebsamen: Inventory of the newer Swiss architecture, 1850-1920 . (INSA) Vol. 2: Basel. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1986.
- ↑ Designed folded: HdM museum expansion opened in Basel. In: half past 4. BauNetz, September 22, 2011, accessed on February 9, 2013 .
- ↑ Dominique Spirgi: New heads for powerful challenges. In: Basler Stadtbuch. 2006, accessed on November 17, 2017 (German).
Coordinates: 47 ° 33 ′ 26 " N , 7 ° 35 ′ 27" E ; CH1903: six hundred and eleven thousand four hundred and fifty-six / 267,401