Discover Germany | Special Theme | Zurich’s Top Cultural Programme in 2018
Exhibition Auto Didactica. Wire Models from Burundi.
Garden view of the Zurich Ethnographic Museum.
Exhibition Devotion. Image, Recitation, and Celebration of the Vessantara Epic in Northeast Thailand.
Discover the world of objects Located in the oasis of the Old Botanical Gardens of Zurich, within walking distance to the top sights of the city, the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich is a must for any visitor interested in the fascinating and revealing world of human skill embodied in objects. TEXT: NANE STEINHOFF I PHOTOS: KATHRIN LEUENBERGER, © ETHNOGRAPHIC MUSEUM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH
Why do people in present-day Thailand still today celebrate the two-thousandyear-old story of a Buddhist prince in a prominent annual festivity at the end of the agricultural year? The exhibition Devotion (until 13 May 2018) provides manifold insights into the religious beliefs and practices of Thai-people in the Isan, northeastern Thailand. What do miniatures of race cars, motorcycles, airplanes and helicopters made from wire by young model builders in Burundi tell us about the technical skills of these autodidacts? In the exhibition Auto Didactica (until 18 February 2018) visitors have the chance to ‘meet’ some of those young men, investigate their models and listen to their personal narratives. And what can be the impact of images? The exhibition Made Images (until 28 January 2018) displays selected engravings 48 | Issue 58 | January 2018
and early photographs of ‘dervishes’, thus proposing a reflection on the production processes as well as on the far-reaching influence of images. With its regularly changing exhibitions, the Zurich Ethnographic Museum invites its visitors to explore the material knowledge and technical skills of humans on all continents, currently in particular in Asia, Africa and the Americas, as well as their social organisation and world view embodied in the objects they create. And it offers, next to the exhibitions, a rich accompanying programme, including lecture sessions on current world topics, as well as an extraordinary monthly ethnographic film beyond the mainstream. A small but exquisite shop offers books and carefully selected articles. A substantial book collection is kept in the museum’s library, open to the public and equipped with a comfortable reading room with a splendid view into the garden.
As a public museum with a history dating back more than 125 years, and at the same time a teaching and research institution of the University of Zurich, the Ethnographic Museum strives for dialogues between science and the public in an open and comprehensible way. Entrance to all exhibitions and most of the programme activities is free, and media guides as well as most exhibition catalogues are available in German and English. www.musethno.uzh.ch ADDRESS Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich Pelikanstr. 40, 8001 Zurich Link to the electronic newsletter: www.musethno.uzh.ch/museum/ newsletter.html
Exhibition Made Images. The Dervish as Object of Fascination and Cipher for the Orient.