WE ARE WHAT WE ARE NOT
At the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, you encounter an exhibition that does not show what is there—but what is missing. WE ARE WHAT WE ARE NOT by Yohannes Mulat Mekonnen turns your attention to absences within the collection: vanished objects, empty spaces in the archive, traces in inventory lists and catalogues.
Mekonnen works with colonial critique, archival research, and performative formats. Instead of displaying things, he transforms gaps into sensory experiences. An immersive installation makes collected dreams audible—as a response to a missing African headrest. In a dinner performance, he draws on edible archival objects. Analysis is not conveyed in a dry manner here, but made physically tangible.
The exhibition understands absence as a beginning – as an opportunity to rethink museum structures, power relations, and narratives.
Mekonnen works with colonial critique, archival research, and performative formats. Instead of displaying things, he transforms gaps into sensory experiences. An immersive installation makes collected dreams audible—as a response to a missing African headrest. In a dinner performance, he draws on edible archival objects. Analysis is not conveyed in a dry manner here, but made physically tangible.
The exhibition understands absence as a beginning – as an opportunity to rethink museum structures, power relations, and narratives.
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