Seminars in Global Art History and Heritage

INVITATION

To the fourth and fifth meeting in the Seminars in Global Art History and Heritage (organized by Mary Bouquet – UCU, Stijn Bussels – LU, and Thijs Weststeijn — UU), which will take place on October 10^th and November 21:

Bambi Ceuppens (Royal Museum for Central Africa Tervuren) will speak about: The Reopened Africa Museum Tervuren

Date and time: Thursday 10 October, 15:30 – 17:00  hrs
Location: Pieter de la Court, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden, Room 1A20 (1st floor)

The Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren is known as one of the most beautiful and impressive Africa museums in the world. In December 2018, the completely renovated museum reopened its doors. Bambi Ceuppens played a crucial role in the intense renovation and the development of the new displays between 2008 and 2018. She will tell how the old museum has transformed itself into a modern museum about contemporary Africa, while looking back critically at the colonial past. Followed by a roundtable discussion.

Bambi Ceuppens received her PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of St Andrews. She has taught at the Universities of Edinburgh, Manchester and St Andrews and was a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University and the Catholic University of Leuven. Currently a senior researcher and curator at the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Bambi Ceuppens’s research focuses on the colonial history that the Congo and Belgium share, Congolese arts and cultures, Congolese in Belgium, museum representations of Africa(ns) and autochthony. She has curated the exhibition “Indépendance! Congolese Tell Stories of Fifty Years of Independence” (RMCA, 2010) and has co-curated “Congo Art Works: Popular Painting” (Fine Arts Centre, Brussels, 2016-2017; Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2017) with Sammy Baloji and co-curated “Congo Stars” (Graz, Vienna, 2018; Tübingen, Germany, 2019). She teaches anthropology of arts at KASK School of Arts (Ghent) and Sint-Lucas School of Arts (Antwerp).

Please register for this event.

Dr. Emilie Gordenker (Mauritshuis, The Hague) will speak about: The Making of the Exhibition Shifting Image. In Search of Johan Maurits

Time and place: Thursday 21 November, 18:30 – 20:00  hrs
Location: Leiden University, Academy building, Rapenburg 73, Small Auditorium

The Mauritshuis was named after the man who had it built, Johan Maurits, Count of Nassau-Siegen (1604–1679). His house has been home to the Royal Cabinet of Paintings since 1822, now one of the most famous museums in the world. In terms of art history, the museum has always emphasised Johan Maurits’s importance to art, architecture and science, but his life story is also part of Dutch colonial history, particularly its role in the development of Brazil and the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Emilie Gordenker will discuss the evolution of the exhibition at the Mauritshuis, and how it addresses the changing perception of Johan Maurits as well as its relation to current debates about societal issues.

Image: Albert Eckhout, Studies of two Brazilian turtles, c. 1640, Mauritshuis.

Please register via S.P.M.Bussels@hum.leidenuniv.nl