Critical Traces of the Future in Exhibition Projects About Migration: The Case of the Project Meinwanderungsland

Abstract

Using parts of the praxeographic and network-based approach of a knowledge regime analysis, this article looks at future-making practices in exhibition projects about migration in Germany. Using the example of the outreach project Meinwanderungsland (my immigration country) (2018–2020) and its critical practice of imagination and anticipation, the article argues that future-making practices in exhibition projects transform the knowledge production of migration. The article not only examines the project’s critical practice, it also looks at the after-effects of critique within the exhibitionary complex of migration. Critique is not understood here as a total withdrawal from museum spaces and institutions, but as an intervention. It can be shown that Meinwanderungsland used para-institutional practices, narratives, and networks for a different musealization of migration.

Keywords

• future making practices
• perspective of migration
• knowledge regime analyses
• exhibition projects
• musealization
• exhibitionary complex of migration