[stekemest]

What can be seen in the first few photographs is part of an art project called "fremd" (foreign). For the German speaking among us, here is more information: http://www.taz.de/!5275607/

Unfortunately, political correctness has become a dogma that spreads into all kinds of cultural institutions. To display foreign cultures is being understood as an instrument of white supremacy and it is often countered by the sort of "irony" as on these display cases. Ethnological museums nowadays struggle to distance themselves from the allegation of being a sort of "human zoo", and in many cases, it is the exhibits that suffer from this anticipatory obedience. It is hard, for example, to find tsantsas (shrunken heads) in German language museums nowadays. Everything that could evoke wonder, exitement and exoticism is somehow dubious. The director of grassi, Nanette Jacomijn Snoep, said that it is the goal of a museum to dismantle exoticism ("Eigentlich ist es Ziel eines Museums, Fremdheit abzubauen"). But why? It is the feeling of wonder and strangeness that creates science!