Biographies of Things: Communicating Object Provenances in Ethnological and Art

The doctoral project operates at the intersection of provenance research, museum studies, and cultural theory, focusing primarily on a central component of provenance research: the communication of its findings. Provenance research examines the ownership and acquisition history of cultural assets in the broadest sense, and it has become an increasingly important task for museums in recent years.
But how exactly do museums approach this task? Which methods and frameworks guide their communication strategies? What does 'provenance' mean in this context: a simple chain of ownership, or a broader contextual enquiry? What potential lies in making provenance research accessible to the public? Could this lead to new narratives, alternative forms of mediation or new ways of making history tangible?
These and related questions form the core of the project. The research combines expert interviews with provenance researchers in selected institutions, ethnographic and cultural analyses of exhibitions, and quantitative visitor surveys.
The project aims to provide an overview of current strategies and their effects, while also contributing to the emerging field of provenance research from a theoretical perspective. Employing a triangulated approach that combines qualitative and quantitative methods, it allows for a nuanced, empirically grounded perspective on contemporary museum practices.