Wereldmuseum Rotterdam, maker onbekend
, NL, 0
The collection of the Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam consists of around 100,000 objects and 100,000 photographs (from 1860 onwards), albums, prints, geographical maps and atlases, drawings, slides and posters. The ethnographic collection enables visitors to learn everything about world cultures and their rituals, stories and artefacts.
Ethnic artists transform their material into a new reality. The material is not used to represent or refer to a different reality, but has itself become that other reality. The aesthetic value that we in the Western world attribute to art is of secondary importance to ethnic artists: an object either ‘works’ or ‘doesn’t work’. Quite often, an ethnographic object serves as an intermediary between everyday reality and the invisible spiritual world of grandparents and gods. This is why the object has social status within a community and is treated with respect.