It’s half time for the exhibition THE ETHIOPIAN CLOAK. It’s time to open the discussion, also towards Ethiopia. What do you think: should the cloak go back to Ethiopia? General Enea Navarini brought it from the Italo-Abyssinian war to Villa Freischütz in 1938. We do not (yet) know the exact circumstances: was the cloak a gift? Spoils of war? Does that make a difference?
But we are also very interested in feedback on the exhibition (and the podcast). What do you think about the way we show the coat? Is the presentation in the Red Salon of the Villa Freischütz appropriate or inappropriate? Are our texts too critical, too uncritical, have we overlooked something important?
We are the first museum in South Tyrol addressing the subject of colonialism – and we want to learn.
HERE we show a film about the exhibition and publish the exhibition texts (also in Amharic, Italian and German). In the exhibition itself, the cloak can be seen with a mix of three different titles. For legal reasons, we unfortunately cannot make it available online. But it is a mix of rather sentimental ‘film music’ and two violent and discordant titles. We also put this idea up for criticism.
We, Ariane Karbe and Hannes Obermair, are responsible for the project and are happy to receive comments (below) or emails: info@villafreischuetz.org.
