Wo 20 mei: Another Gathering: The Beauty We Inherit
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This event is in English
Another Gathering: The Beauty We Inherit
Date: 20 May 2026
Location: Wereldmuseum Leiden, Netherlands
Partner: RCMC (Research Center for Material Cultures)
Admission: free
Another Gathering: The Beauty We Inherit, will take place on 20 May 2026 in Leiden, Netherlands. The symposium is organized by Museum de Fundatie in partnership with the Research Center for Material Cultures (RCMC).
This event is conceived within the framework of the exhibition Back to Benin: New Art, Ancient Legacy, currently on view at Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle until 7 June 2026. The exhibition brings together ten contemporary artists of Edo background in dialogue with Ama O Ghe Ehen, a bronze plaque from the Kingdom of Benin depicting a mudfish, which until its recent transfer of ownership to its rightful custodians was held in the museum’s collection since 1937.
While restitution brings back material heritage, it does not undo the rupture caused by their removal. This symposium asks: how do contemporary artists, curators and researchers work with this rupture today? In what ways they challenge or transform absence into new forms and ideas?
The gathering will bring together artists, researchers, writers, and curators some of whom have participated in the exhibition, its development, or its spaces to explore these questions through keynotes, screenings, conversations, and sonic and visual lectures, as well as performances.