Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices closely collaborates with its partner program Connecting Art Histories in the Museum: Africa, Asia, the Mediterranean and Europe, 400–1900 (CAHIM, 2009–2019), a research and fellowship program of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz. CAHIM is directed by Hannah Baader, Gerhard Wolf, Michael Eissenhauer (SMB) and Jörg Völlnagel (SMB).

Program and Objectives: Fostering the Dialog between Art Histories in the Museum

Connecting Art Histories in the Museum (2009–2019) combines academic and museum research with curatorship. Set up as a joint project between the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (KHI Florenz) and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (SMB), the innovative fellowship program focuses on artistic and cultural interactions in Africa, Asia, the Mediterranean and Europe. Up to six outstanding international young art historians spend one to two years investigating artistic and cultural interactions of this region, based on the objects from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Additional emphasis is placed on the objects’ display in the museums.

The scholars study objects or groups of objects with the aim of fostering the dialog between Western, Byzantine, Islamic, Asian and African art histories in the museums. Instead of concentrating exclusively on the objects’ place in the history of pre-modern art, the research program is concerned with the modern repercussions and relationship between diverse historical topographies. These dynamics are examined in the light of the following questions: How can art historical research deal with the transfer and exchange of moveable or immoveable cultural heritage? How did museums in the past articulate political and cultural attitudes towards historical sites of the production, accumulation, and translation of artifacts? And how do museums, especially new museums, do this today? How do museum displays evaluate and present the ritualistic and aesthetic dimensions of objects? What possible dynamics can be created by the constellations of objects in the museums that are alien to each other in provenance and historical context of consumption?
 

Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the CAHIM Fellows

Museums play a key role in the ongoing redefinition of art and art history and their relation to aesthetics, anthropology, and politics in the decentralized, globalized twenty-first century. With their »universal« collections and ongoing remodellation, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin offer a unique opportunity for research using multidisciplinary approaches on artifacts from different cultures and civilizations.

International doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers in art history and related disciplines can apply for the fellowship program. CAHIM Fellows also have the chance to provide curatorial assistance on individual exhibitions, as well as contribute to the development of new concepts for exhibition practices. Through joint activities of the research group, such as seminars, workshops, excursions, and conferences, its interaction with the Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices program, the scholarly exchange and research collaboration both within and outside the museums have been optimally developed. A joint book series (SMB/ KHI Florenz) presenting the results of the individual projects was started in 2014.

Publication Series