Colonial Shadows
Special exhibition from January 22nd, 2025
SPECIAL EXHIBITION
from Januar 22nd, 2025
ADDRESS
To the online exhibition
CONTACT
museum[at]uni-tuebingen.de | +49 7071-29 77579
The Palauan legacy of Elisabeth Krämer-Bannow in Tübingen
The expedition
Elisabeth Krämer-Bannow, who was part of the expedition as self-taught illustrator, photographer and ethnologist, used her access to the women of Palau to document their daily lives and culture from a rare perspective. While male explorers often lacked access to this world, she was able to provide intimate insights that often went unobserved in ethnological research at the time. Her watercolours and photographs, on display in the exhibition, offer a vivid picture of Palauan life and a critical reflection on the colonial view of the period.
The exhibition
The objects on display - many of which were collected by Elisabeth Krämer-Bannow and her husband Augustin Friedrich Krämer and are of particular significance to Palauan women - offer a new perspective on colonial history and the unequal balance of power between the colonial powers and the indigenous population. Some of the artefacts from the Krämer collection at the University of Tübingen reflect the Palauan's agency, as they were not always willing to sell their most valuable possessions.
Alongside everyday objects, highlights of the exhibition are artistic plaster casts of painted wooden reliefs on bai houses (meeting houses) by Elisabeth Krämer-Bannow. These houses, which could be found probably in every village in Palau at the beginning of the 20th century, have now almost all disappeared. With her documentation, Krämer-Bannow contributed to the preservation of this unique cultural heritage.
The exhibition is the result of interdisciplinary practical seminars for students of ethnology, history, art history and the master profile 'museum & collections', which critically examined the significance of Elisabeth Krämer-Bannow for the expedition as well as her artistic and ethnological documentation.
To the exhibition
Vernissage
January 22nd, 2025, 18.00 c. t.
Knights' Hall (Rittersaal) | Hohentübingen Castle
Burgsteige 11 | 72070 Tübingen
Programme
Professor Dr. Gabriele Alex
Director of the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, University of Tübingen
Greeting
Dr. des. Annika Vosseler
Provenance researcher at the Museum of the University of Tübingen MUT
Greeting
Dr. Markus Schleiter
Custodian of the Ethnological Collection, University of Tübingen
Introduction
Dr. Stephanie Walda-Mandel
Head of department „Oceania“, Linden Museum Stuttgart
Presentation „Navigieren in zwei Welten: Umgang der Southwest Islanders von Palau mit den Auswirkungen von Kolonialzeit und globalen Transformationen“ (Navigating two worlds: The Southwest Islanders of Palau's handling of the effects of colonial times and global transformations)
Student Team
Introduction to the digital exhibition
