Framing Identity: Colonial Photography and Contemporary Discourse at Museum Rietberg

Museum Rietberg’s Shifting Perspectives opened on October 15, 2023, showcasing over 120 photographs from European colonial expeditions in West Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands between 1870 and 1930. These images reflect an imperial gaze, featuring posed portraits of indigenous leaders and landscapes depicted as empty spaces awaiting European cultivation. The collection includes key loans from the Royal Museum for Central Africa and the Musée du Quai Branly.

Curator Dr. Elena Stefani, head of non-European art collections, emphasizes the exhibition's ethical considerations. “These images were tools of control,” she states. “We wanted to confront their aesthetic appeal with the violent histories they represent.” Many works lack original attribution, complicating authorship discussions.

The exhibition features commissioned works by contemporary artists like Sammy Baloji, Fiona Foley, and Mónica de Miranda. Baloji's Mémoire des Oubliés critiques mineral exploitation in Congo, while Foley’s Dispersed explores Aboriginal identity through contemporary photography and video.

One gallery showcases colonial photography methods, including stereoscopes and hand-colored prints. A touchscreen station allows visitors to examine high-resolution scans, revealing alterations that reinforced European narratives. Wall texts identify widely circulated images as propaganda.

“Seeing these photographs in their physical formats changes the way we read them,” says Professor Nadine O’Connell, a historian of visual culture at the University of Zürich who consulted on the exhibition. “What might appear as passive documentation quickly reveals itself as an active construction of hierarchy.” O’Connell’s essay in the catalogue discusses these images' role in creating “a visual grammar of empire,” which continues to echo in contemporary media.

Shifting Perspectives also celebrates indigenous resilience. De Miranda’s video work Tracing Erasure juxtaposes archival footage of Portuguese colonial campaigns in Angola with present-day Angolan cultural festivals, blurring the boundary between past and present.

The exhibition’s publication features contributions from scholars, artists, and curators. Dr. Yvonne Zimmer, director of Museum Rietberg, describes the book as an attempt to create “space for polyphonic narratives, foregrounding voices historically marginalized.” Essays by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Aileen Moreton-Robinson offer perspectives seldom represented in European institutions.

However, the exhibition raises questions about restitution. Of the 320 objects cataloged, only 28 have complete provenance records. Museum Rietberg is committed to researching its holdings, but Stefani acknowledges the slow pace of these efforts. “Transparency is a priority,” she emphasizes, “but collaboration with source communities requires time.”

Critics note the tension between the museum’s progressive programming and its historical acquisitions. “Museums are still grappling with the legacies of their own collections,” observes O’Connell. “An exhibition like this is necessary, but it doesn’t absolve institutions from addressing the origins of the objects they display.”

As Shifting Perspectives concludes its run on February 18, 2024, its impact will likely extend beyond Zürich. With plans to tour the exhibition to institutions in Germany, Belgium, and Nigeria, Museum Rietberg joins a movement to confront colonial histories through art. The exhibition not only reflects on loss but also prompts consideration of how these histories shape the present and future.

Whether these dialogues will lead to concrete actions, such as restitution or policy changes within institutions, remains uncertain. As Stefani puts it, “Acknowledging these histories is only the first step. What we do next is just as important.”