… or can this go? Napoleon’s chamber pot, Ulbricht’s kitchen chair and Aunt Marta’s christening gown. Between everyday life and aura or: Why do history museums collect?

Studio exhibition 7th October 2020 – 9th May 2021                
Böttchergäßchen Building, Böttchergäßchen 3, 04109 Leipzig

The warehouses of history museums are usually full of things which are unusual, aesthetically very sophisticated and, in many cases, connected with a fascinating history. Nonetheless, many of these objects have not seen the light of day in many decades. Why is this? Because, somehow, they never really fitted into a current exhibition project – a pity really.

This exhibition is intended to bring some of these objects out into the open and to help answer the question of why history museums collect and what the much-invoked aura of these objects is all about.

Numerous outstanding objects from the museum’s collections will be brought together in one exhibition even though, at first glance, they have little in common. A rhino, several door handles and the hunting coat of Kaiser Wilhelm II come together, just like the trio referred to in the title. The context is only established by telling the story which each of these objects stands for. And just how changeable the view of our ancestors’ material possessions can be is illustrated by the fact that the visitor can select various lines of narration and, as a result, find out something about the social-history, city-history or sanitary aspects of the chamber pot, the kitchen chair or christening gown.

In spite of the noble word “aura”, the exhibition promises an entertaining tour of the heirlooms from our past and the realisation that, in this case, there are, at least, three sides to everything.