Note to self: on scaling way up ethnographic research into interdisciplinary reflections “beyond the normal procedure”
When my colleague anthropologist Laurence Douny landed a job at the cluster Matters of Activity, she probably didn’t expect her long-time research object on wild in West African silk would ignite the fantastic exhibition project DAOULA | sheen. Joined by Karin Krauthausen and Felix Sattler, team managed to go beyond the anthropological exhibition, beyond the way results are usually presented. They bridged convincingly anthropology, materials science, microbiology, design, cultural theory and curating (and as careful critical scholars, they made sure anthropology also reflected its approach). They brought together, using the exhibition as an adjacenting device, communities of silk weavers, imaging specialists and wordsmiths across continents. As Karin shared with me: “The idea of the exhibition project was to accompany the interdisciplinary research process on African materials and by doing so activate a space of reflection for each discipline to go beyond its normal procedures.” It is the paramount case of an exhibition-as-research that turned right, with engagement from every side, fascinating documentation from local video and audio artists, partnership with the local museum for a show on the spot. Karin again: “Four interview films of the South-African film maker Thabo Thindi and his composition of the film material from Burkina Faso (his ‚director’s cut‘ so to say) are at the center of the exhibition.”
The last months of the show are already upon us, and this tour came across as a deeply matured story on a social aesthetic phenomenon. “In Burkina Faso ›daoula‹ is a term meaning ›sheen‹ or ›charisma.‹” How do these women shine in society while communicating their emotions? How do craftspeople make deal with microbes to get them to dye the clothes? What do biofilms have to do with this traditional process? How can designer translate the work of caterpillars into onsite text sculptures using similar growth algorithms? How to bring the community to share their techniques while shining back on them the importance of endangered traditional everyday arts? Many more questions are asked and answered in this marvellously weaved exposition at Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin. Sometimes, interdisciplinary is not just wishful thinking, and wisdom comes pouring out of these insightful constellations.
Special thanks for Karin Krauthausen for her comments on a previous version of this text, who made sure that I got it write: this is not an anthropological exhibition. It is much more than that.