To the finissage of our special exhibition ‘Cabinet of the Unknown’ you will get an insight into the so called Cabinet d’Ignorance, an integral part of the princely collections of the Saxon Court at the beginning of the 18th century. It refers to a fascinating museological tradition of presentation of unknown objects. During the conversation between Dr. Michael Korey (Senior Curator/ Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden) and Ece Pazarbaşı (Fellow Curator/ Cabinet of the Unknown) you will learn about cultural backgrounds and be sensitized to perceptual practices for approaching unknown objects through a light shed from conventional and contemporary museologic strategies.
At the same time discovering intriguing unknown objects from the Dresden collection. Dr. Jonas Tinius (Postdoctoral Research Fellow/ Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage) moderates the talk.
This evening will be the last opportunity to see the special exhibition.
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Since 2002, the science historian and curator at the Dresden State Art Collections, Dr. Michael Korey studies mathematical and optical instruments in their cultural contexts, especially in relation to early-modern princely courts. His current research ranges from the world's oldest refracting telescopes to 18th century Judaica collections. He has initiated and is now head of the interdisciplinary project ‘Deus ex machina’ that is devoted to Renaissance planetary automata. From 2013 to 2017 he served as Secretary of the Scientific Instrument Commission of the IUHPST.
Ece Pazarbaşı is the curator of the exhibition project ‘Cabinet if the Unknown’ developed within the Fellowship program Internationales Museum der Kulturstiftung des Bundes. Among her professional curatorial and artistic experiences are exhibition projects as “Memory Plates”, Hamburger Bahnhof (2017), “Muscle Memory”, Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien (2017), IDEAS CITY – New Museum: Istanbul (2012). Together with René Block, she co-curated the exhibitions “12/12” and “Turkish Art Nice and Simple” at TANAS Berlin (2011-2012). She was the assistant curator of the Turkish Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Bienniale (2007). In 2013, she was part of Olafur Eliasson’s Institution for Spatial Experiments with a special research grant.
Jonas Tinius, PhD, is anthropologist of art and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at CARMAH / Institute of European Ethnology, Humboldt-University Berlin. His current research project explores how Berlin-based art institutions engage with notions of otherness and alterity through critical curatorial strategies. He is Co-founder of the Anthropology and the Arts Network of the European Association of Social Anthropologists.
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The “Cabinet of the Unknown” project is funded by the International Museum Fellowship Program of the German Federal Cultural Foundation.
