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PACIFIC ISLAND PARADISES

Special Exhibition from October 11th, 2008 until June 7th, 2009

In its special exhibition »Pacific Island Paradises – Myth and Reality«, the Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum shows some 250 objects from Oceania. They came to Germany in the wake of German colonial enterprises at the end of the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century, as a result of keen collecting activities by missionaries, colonial officers, captains, and trading companies. This way, one of the most remarkable German collections of objects from the South Seas has been assembled in Hildesheim, select pieces of which are now being presented to the public for the first time ever.The exhibition shows the diversity of the island cultures of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. It gives us a good idea of the Pacific world under colonial rule. The exhibition focuses on precious pieces from daily life as well as from religious and social practices, which will fascinate visitors because of a wealth of materials, decorations and designs displayed. Among the most outstanding objects is an impressively minimalist figure from Nukuoro, one of only 15 specimens worldwide.In the colonial period, the South Pacific became an object of European dreams and desires, a paradise populated by easy-going, peace-loving people, seemingly free, natural and noble. The paintings, watercolors, and lithographs of the German painters Emil Nolde and Max Pechstein reflect the nostalgic fascination with the concept of the »noble savage«. In the Hildesheim exhibition, their works of art serve as counterpoints to the Pacific Island objects and represent unspoilt nature rather than the desire to understand the various cultures of the South Seas.The Hildesheim exhibition is truly remarkable in its attempt to introduce visitors to the »exotic« world of the Pacific Islands and to a view of the Pacific Island cultures that is different from the one which, up to now, has been determined by myth rather than by reality.




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