Local Savages

Title	Local Savages
Subtitle	Alpine Primitivism and Decolonization Strategies of the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva’s Conches Annex (1976 – 2013)
Lecturer / head of project	Nora Landkammer and Thomas Sieber
Author	Trinity Mesimé Njume-Ebong
Date	FS 2023
Institutional affiliation	Master Art Education - Curatorial Studies (DKV_FAE_MAE_VCS.alle)
Study path	Master
Keywords	Curatorial Studies Master Art Education Art Education
Genre / discipline	Kunstvermittlung
Description	The «Conches Annex» of the Ethnographic Museum of Geneva was developed to house the recently purchased «Amoudruz collection»; containing an extensive and classified variety of objects from the local alpine region. The curators had great ambitions for these newly acquired objects, most notably the objective to «decolonize» the Alps, which was said to be long appropriated since the eighteenth century through literature, travel tales and nationalist narratives. The term «colonize» is omnipresent in many discourses today, and its use is heavily associated with European imperialist economic missions on external territories for the purpose of trade, labour, and national or religious expansion. The main question for this thesis is the following: Can the term «colonize» also be used in the context of early industrialization on European territory, which was followed by vast urban expansion and exploitation of rural territories and communities?

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