ABSTRACT
From 2012 to 2016 the research and exhibition project Objects in Transfer studied stories of objects from the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin, emphasizing transcultural perspectives. Within this research period, the team studied objects biographies and museum display and communication, and developed an innovative exhibition trail within the museum’s permanent collection. Through this trail the team discussed the arbitrary collecting methods of past centuries that still today influence the museum display, pointed to the limits of museological categories and how the objects themselves overcome them, and proposed innovative ways of display and interpretation. The paper discusses the project’s theses and the goals of the exhibition trail and frames them within museological discourse and practice of German-speaking regions.
