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In recent years several Museums have reorganized their galleries of Islamic art and developed new approaches towards their aesthetical and contextual presentation. While museums and galleries increasingly become important forums for public interest in Muslim cultures, there has been little discussion on content, categories of order and their new role in the light of modern museology and museum pedagogy. This is true to a certain degree for the contextual research on objects of Islamic art. What are the stories embedded in objects and how can they be told?

These themes were explored in a workshop entitled Layers of Islamic Art and the Museum Context. The workshop coincided with the projects of re-conventionalizing the Museum for Islamic Art at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin and designing the new museum for the Aga Khan Collection in Toronto. These two projects of international partners should provide the opportunity to rethink our concepts of Islamic art and its role for the public today.

Press: 

Nikolaus Bernau: Wie groß sind die Vitrinen?
Berliner Zeitung, 20.01.2010

Andrea Nüsse: Schönheit oder Aufklärung?
Der Tagesspiegel, 18.01.2010

Museumsinsel: Mehr Platz für islamische Kunst
Der Tagesspiegel, 14.01.2010

Nikolaus Bernau: Islamische Kunst auch für deutsche Muslime
Berliner Zeitung, 14.01.2010

Gabriele Walde: Museum für Islamische Kunst wird doppelt so groß
Berliner Morgenpost, 13.01.2010

Die Gelegenheit ist einmalig
Ad Hoc News, 13.01.2010

Schedule:

Wednesday, January 13
7 pm 
Opening: Michael Eissenhauer
Welcome note: Wolf Lepenies

Keynote lecture
Oleg Grabar, Collecting and Exhibiting: The Role of the Museum in the Study and Knowledge of Islamic Art; the Past and the Future

Reception

Thursday, January 14
10 am — 11.30 am
Introduction
Benoît Junod, The Aga Khan Museum in Toronto
Stefan Weber, Plans for the New Museum of Islamic Art Berlin
Christine Gerbich, "A painted room with many doors" — Asking Visitors at the Museum of Islamic Art Berlin

11.45 am — 1.15 pm
Object and Concept
Avinoam Shalem, Multivalent Paradigm of Interpretation and the Anima of the Object
Responding: Alnoor Merchant and Christian Sassmanshausen

2.30 pm — 4 pm
Eva Troelenberg, Islamic Art and the Invention of the "Masterpiece"
Anne-Christine Taylor, The Aestheticizing versus Contextualising Debate and the Musée du Quai Branly
Responding: Jens Kröger

4.15 pm — 5.45 pm
Kjeld von Folsach, Concepts of the New Installation of Islamic Art in the David Collection, Copenhagen
Ladan Akbarnia, The Option of 'Interim' Reinstallation: Brooklyn Museum's Arts of the Islamic World Galleries
Mary McWilliams, Sub-themes and Over-painting: Exhibiting Islamic Art in American Art Museums
Responding: Miriam Kühn

Friday, January 15 
10 am — 11.30 am 
Islamic Art or Material Culture?
Gülru Necipoglu, Islamic Art: Concepts and Approaches
Responding: Julia Gonnella and Lorenz Korn

11.45 am — 1.15 pm
Beshara Doumani, The Social Life of Things as the Backbone of New Narratives
Gudrun Krämer, The Cultural Turn, the Spatial Turn, and the Writing of Middle Eastern History
Responding: Munir Fakher Eldin

Saturday, January 16
10 am — 11.30 am 
Meaning and Audience
Nasser Rabbat, Islamic Art at a Crossroad
Responding: Martina Müller-Wiener and Kirsten Scheid

11.45 am — 1.15 pm
Riem Spielhaus, Islamic Art as a Space of Public Culture
Susan Kamel, Christine Gerbich, Susanne Lanwerd, Do you speak Islamic Art? A Project on Curating, Museum Studies, and Audience Development
Responding: Vera Beyer

2.30 pm — 4 pm
Oliver Watson, Doha – and the Acceptance of Other Audiences
Juliette Fritsch, Islamic Middle East: The Jameel Gallery. Working from Vision to Reality
Responding: Nadya Sbaiti

4.15 pm — 5.45 pm
Anton D. Pritula, The Hermitage Concept of Islamic Art: Projects and Plans
Iman R. Abdulfattah, Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo Revisited
Responding: Seif al-Rashidi