The starting point which lead to Staging Dioramas was the project entitled The Outpost, Or The Other Monster, which was developed as part of the group exhibition Returning to Sender. It took place at the House of World Cultures (Haus der Kulturen der Welt – HKW) in Berlin in 2014. Interrogating the institution and its role as producer of ideas, knowledge and meaning, the project focused on the infrastructure of the institution and how this simultaneously represents, enables and limits the production of different kinds of knowledge. The outcome was an open experimental workspace in the theatre hall of the HKW. In collaboration with Julia Diekämper (cultural scientist), Hanna Hegenscheidt (choreographer and pedagogue), Sebastian Quack (game designer and curator) and Peter Schäfer (product designer), the aim was to copy and transform specific infrastructural elements of the institution (the director’s office table, a labour contract, an opening speech and the annual report). These institutional elements were analysed and reproduced in order to deconstruct the notion of the institution by copying it. After that Stefan Aue, Jana Eske and Jessica Páez concentrated on the diorama in order to examine representational systems and negotiating themes as diverse as the history of museums as hierarchical institutions of knowledge production, the production of otherness, and the status of the object. In 2015 Staging Dioramas I and II followed.

Images (end of page): The Outpost. Or the Other Monster, Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Photos: Lars Hering
Image (top of page): The Indian Village, Diorama at the GRASSI Museum in Leipzig, Photo: Jana Eske

​