DECOLONISING MUSEUMS

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FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE VAN ABBEMUSEUM, EINDHOVEN – CHRISTIANE BERNDES Michael Rakowitz, The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, 2009-2010 plywood, packaging and newspapers from the Middle East, graphite on vellum, audio, dimensions variable. Collection Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven L’INTERNATIONALE ONLINE – CHRISTIANE BERNDES – 38
FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE VAN ABBEMUSEUM, EINDHOVEN – CHRISTIANE BERNDES Contemporary art and ethnography Could the contemporary artist be the new anthropologist? This question came to mind while reading Clémentine Deliss’ text “Collecting Life’s Unknowns”, and finding connections with works in the Van Abbemuseum collection. This context leads us to highlight The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist (2009- 2010), an installation by American-Iraqi artist Michael Rakowitz that was acquired and installed at the Van Abbemuseum a few years ago. The work is centred on the looting of artefacts from the National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad, in the aftermath of the US invasion in April 2003. It was only after severe criticism from the international community that the government came to help. Approximately 15,000 objects—the oldest dating back to around 4000 BC—have been destroyed, or stolen and sold on the black market. At the moment about 7,000 are still missing. The installation consists of papier-mâché reconstructions of the missing artefacts made from the packaging of Middle Eastern foodstuff and local Arabic newspapers. Rakowitz lives in the United States but has roots in Iraq. Using the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute database and Interpol’s website, he created the copies together with a team of assistants. These are displayed on a long table that borrows its form from Aj-ibur-shapu, the ancient Babylonian Processional Way through the famous Ishtar Gate. The title of the installation, The Invisible Enemy Should Not Exist, is derived from this name. Thus, the second element of Rakowitz’s installation links the looting of 2003 to a story from the beginning of the twentieth century which is told in the framed drawings hanging on the walls. Carl Einstein, the German theoretician of African art mentioned by Deliss as the advocate of the Dynamic Museum, wrote about his ideal museum where “collections would reflect extremes of intellectual exploration and exhibitions would speak of human experience and knowledge”. During excavations in 1902, the L’INTERNATIONALE ONLINE – CHRISTIANE BERNDES – 39
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FROM THE COLLECTION OF MUSEO NACION
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A SALT BOX AND A BRACELET CONVERSIN
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DECOLONISING MUSEUMS

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