Feminist Museology Applied to the Leipzig Museum of Arts (The MdbK)

Abstract

In this article, I explore how museums navigate the contradictions between contemporary discourses and the presence of colonial European art. Museums as sites of education and collection of items have been approached critically by various feminist artists and activists in recent decades. And in response, museums have begun to hold exhibitions that embrace feminist narratives. Therefore, I connect these peculiarities at a museum in former East Germany and its attempt to appeal to these discussions. For my case study I have chosen das Museum der bildenden Künste (further shortened to the MdbK) in Leipzig. I explore how local and global agendas play out in current exhibitions, how and by whom feminist frameworks are applied to its collection, and what dynamics can be seen in its permanent and temporary exhibition projects. For the purposes of the “Connecting Eastern Europe and Latin America” project, I focus on the exhibition entitled Olga Costa: Dialogues with Mexican Modernism that took place at the MdbK from 1 December 2022 to 26 March 2023. I ask the following questions: Do these temporary projects educate the museum’s team and challenge the narratives that are being told through the permanent exhibitions and publications? Do those temporary exhibitions transform the museum’s general narrative? I turn to how large exhibitions, which are curated by the core museum’s team, present gender, race, (in)justice, German nationalism, and equality.