Objects of worship

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Objects of adoration is the title of a comparative cultural interim exhibition in the museum of the municipal collections in the Zeughaus in Lutherstadt Wittenberg since 2017. The subtitle of the exhibition is "Material testimony of faith, awe and remembrance in the cultures of humanity".

backgrounds

The exhibition was organized at the end of the Luther Year 2017 and extended until July 2018 due to the national interest and the delays in setting up the planned permanent exhibition in the armory. The ethnologist Nils Seethaler curated the exhibition as part of a cooperation project between the municipal collections and the Friends of the Julius Riemer Collection. As a result, the collaboration that had already taken place at the conception of the previous exhibition “ The Discovery of the Individual ” was continued.

Subject of the exhibition

Ethnological objects, archaeological finds, historical documents, contemporary works of art and scientific specimens from various lenders are exhibited, in particular from the holdings of the City History Collection in Lutherstadt Wittenberg and from the Julius Riemer Collection. The objects come from all continents and from three millennia. One focus is on the South Seas , corresponding to the importance of this part of the collection in the Julius Riemer Collection. The traditional cultures of Africa, Christian Ethiopia and ancient Egypt are also covered. The continent of Asia is represented with objects from Hinduism , Buddhism , Islam and Judaism , as well as objects from local religious communities. Another focus is Christian-Jewish Europe and the prehistory and early history of Europe. Individual objects come from North and South America, with both archaeological finds and ethnographic evidence being shown here. This is followed by works of contemporary art, souvenirs, autographs and finally several historical bird preparations, especially from the Julius Riemer collection. According to the exhibition theme (which also includes “relics”), human remains from Melanesia are also shown.

Content and didactic concepts

As with the previous exhibition with African sculptures, one of the guiding principles was to keep the Julius Riemer Collection as an ethnological and natural history collection awake in the public consciousness and to anchor it anew in its interdisciplinarity as part of the museum landscape in Wittenberg. This approach, which was striven for in the exhibition “The Discovery of the Individual”, is continued and expanded here. Based on the former healing of Frederick the Wise (one of the largest collections of relics in the West), relics , votives and other cult objects from all continents are presented. This creates a dialectical reference to the history of the Reformation, which was precisely characterized by a questioning of the veneration of relics. In this cross-cultural approach, questions are also asked about the after-effects of the worship of relics in art and popular culture, such as the significance of the signature for the value of a work of art or the preservation of autographs. In particular, however, the different levels of meaning of the sacred in human everyday life and cult life are worked out. Finally, the aspect of the relic in the sense of a carefully kept "remnant" is examined again with a look at the natural history of the Julius Riemer Collection. Historical specimens of rare or already extinct birds are presented as cultural evidence, but also as scientific documents of lost biodiversity . At the closing event , the curator of the exhibition handed over an archaeological vessel from the West African Tellem to the Museum of the City Collections. This was done to expand the Julius Riemer Collection and to deepen the content-related collaboration with the City History Collection, which in turn lends archaeological and city history exhibits.

literature

  • Rainer Greschik / Nils Seethaler (preface): Lobi. West African sculptures from the Greschik collection. Published on the occasion of the exhibition “The Discovery of the Individual” in Lutherstadt Wittenberg, 2016.
  • Stefanie Hommers: Special exhibition in the armory: mystical things from all over the world. In: mz-web.de. December 5, 2017, accessed May 30, 2018 .
  • Kerstin Merkel: The relics of Halle and Wittenberg. Your healing books and productions. In: Andreas Tacke (editor): CRANACH. Masterpieces in stock. The Erlangen hand drawings of the university library. 1994: pp. 37-50.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Focus from December 1, 2017 , accessed June 15, 2018
  2. ↑ Focus of December 7, 2017 , accessed on June 15, 2018
  3. ↑ Mitteldeutsche Zeitung of February 14, 2018 , accessed on June 15, 2018
  4. ↑ Mitteldeutsche Zeitung of April 18, 2017 , accessed June 15, 2018
  5. ↑ Rainer Greschik, Nils Seethaler (Preface): Lobi. West African sculptures from the Greschik collection. Published on the occasion of the exhibition “The Discovery of the Individual” in Lutherstadt Wittenberg, 2016.
  6. ↑ Wittenberger Sonntag from December 4, 2017 , accessed on June 15, 2018
  7. ^ Lutherstadt Wittenberg - opening of the special exhibition on December 9, 2017 , accessed on June 15, 2018
  8. ↑ Flyer of the exhibition (PDF), accessed on June 15, 2018
  9. ↑ Who are we? Freundeskreis Julius Riemer Collections Wittenberg , accessed on June 15, 2018
  10. ↑ Kerstin Merkel: The relics of Halle and Wittenberg. Your healing books and productions. In: Andreas Tacke (editor): CRANACH. Masterpieces in stock. The Erlangen hand drawings of the university library. 1994: pp. 37-50
  11. ↑ RBW Regionalfernsehen , accessed on June 15, 2018
  12. ↑ Mitteldeutsche Zeitung of December 5, 2017 , accessed on June 15, 2018
  13. ↑ Mitteldeutsche Zeitung of April 22, 2018 , accessed on June 15, 2018