Creating connections

Relational exhibiting in the grid

Abstract

The following article examines how the Humboldt Lab relates the exhibited objects to each other. In doing so, I develop the thesis that making and showing connections are essential curatorial strategies of the exhibition After Nature. The relational exhibition intervenes in the network of curators, visitors and objects and poses the question: who is speaking? Through a broad cultural-analytical perspective, the article also takes a cross-field view of other science exhibitions that deal with university collections in order to be able to work out the cultural specificity of the Humboldt Lab. I also follow the changes in curatorial practices over time and analyse past exhibitions at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. The latter will be examined in detail, for example by questioning the object constellations, the exhibition texts, the categories used and the structure and design in terms of how they negotiate the relational in each particular case.