Planet Africa. Eine archäologische Zeitreise
In the organizer's words:
Africa has the longest history of man and his ancestors on our planet. This is where human history began, and from here new cultural techniques and nutritional strategies were spread throughout the world. The continent fascinates with its diversity. People have adapted to constant (environmental) changes and developed new survival strategies. These experiences have never been as important as they are today. Archaeological finds, images and written testimonies offer insights into the art, crafts, technology and environment of past times and provide evidence of exchanges over great distances. Settlement excavations reveal urban structures, while at the same time diverse mobile life forms existed.
"Planet Africa. An archaeological journey through time" is a unique, cross-continental exhibition project that focuses on African archaeology.
German and African exhibition venues
The exhibition tour will start at the end of 2024 with the opening at the James-Simon-Galerie in Berlin. The show will then be shown in Munich and Chemnitz and at other locations in Germany. At the same time, the exhibition will be shown at several locations on the African continent, where it will be overseen by local curatorial teams.
The locations that will open at the end of 2024 include the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Ghana in Accra-Legon, the National Museum in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Lobamba Museum, Eswatini. Joint activities between German and African locations are planned.
The exhibition is based on the research findings of the DFG priority program "Entangled Africa". African street artists will be involved, designing illustrations and cinematics on the topics presented.
Exhibition in six modules
The exhibition sheds light on more than two million years of human history, combined with over 200 years of research tradition. The multitude of research results is presented in six thematic modules, in which key findings are bundled:
- Diversity - Natural wealth through diversity
- Becoming human - First decisive steps
- Knowing how - Agile knowledge & flexible technology
- Signs & images - Knowledge is visualized
- Raw materials - Exchange, trade, power
- New perspectives - African archaeology today
The individual modules repeatedly make references to current research projects, which have provided a large proportion of the images, graphics and films. They range from the origins of the human species to the development of new cultural techniques and nutritional strategies that were carried from Africa into the world. The result is a panorama of a continent that fascinates with its natural diversity and which has constantly required new survival strategies due to constant environmental changes, adaptation processes and migratory movements.
Archaeology and research
Archaeological finds as well as images and writings provide comprehensive evidence of the art, crafts, technology and environment of past times - and of the connections between people over great distances. Excavations of settlements and urban centers reveal social and political structures of coexistence, while mobile ways of life existed in large areas of land.
In addition, the modern use of ancient knowledge and the archaeological exploration of their own past by the African researchers and artists involved in the research projects and the exhibition are shown. In this way, the exhibition also examines the viability of archaeology as a connecting link for pan-African and intercontinental solidarity.
Curatorial team
The exhibition project "Planet Africa. An Archaeological Journey through Time" is being developed by a team of curators led by Jörg Linstädter and Miriam Rotgänger, Commission for Non-European Archaeology and Cultures of the German Archaeological Institute, with the support of Wazi Apoh, University of Ghana, Accra-Legon, Gerd-Christian Weniger, Museum Consult, Matthias Wemhoff and Ewa Dutkiewicz, Museum of Prehistory and Early History, and a large number of African and German archaeologists.
The exhibition is funded by the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the National Museums in Berlin.
Thanks to the generous funding, the exhibition in the James-Simon-Galerie is free of charge for the public.
An exhibition of the German Archaeological Institute and the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte - Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
This content has been machine translated.Location
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