Following the success of the symposium on Colonial Nostalgia of 17 March this year, Tropenmuseum is hosting a second symposium on Thursday, 22 September 2011 entitled Popular Imagination: Fiction with a Message based around the museum’s Africa collection. Tropenmuseum collects material witnesses to African culture. Over the last twenty years, the museum has also looked for examples of popular art and popular culture. What is the significance of this popular art and for whom is it intended? What role do and should museums play in collecting, researching and giving meaning to these objects? How do museums relate to the makers and the original target group, and to the academic world?

Various specialists will speak at the symposium and will engage in discussion with each other and the audience. Keynote speaker is Johannes Fabian, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Amsterdam University (UvA).

During the symposium the third part of the Tropenmuseum collection series will be presented: Africa at the Tropenmuseum (Paul Faber) – published by KIT Publishers. The symposium is the second in a series of ongoing public debates organised by the Tropenmuseum.

Programme
19.30 Welcome Jan Donner (President of the Royal Tropical Institute)
19.45 Fang, an epic journey film by Susan Vogel
20.00 Africa at the Tropenmuseum Paul Faber (Tropenmuseum Africa Curator)
20.20 Presentation Africa at the Tropenmuseum collection book
20.30 INTERMISSION
21.00 Popular Imagination Introduction Wayne Modest (Tropenmuseum Head of Museum Affairs)
20.55 Popular Imagination Johannes Fabian (Emeritus Professor Cultural Anthropology at Amsterdam University – UvA)
21.20 Reaction to Johannes Fabian
Birgit Meyer (Professor of Religious Studies at Utrecht University) and
Bambi Ceuppens (Researcher affiliated with Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium)
21.40 Open debate with audience led by moderator
22.00 RECEPTION
Voertaal: Engels Language: English