Creators

People and their works

11 April 2025 – 25 January 2026

The exhibition explores the creativity, the skill, and the biographies of the people who created the multifarious items in the museum’s collections; they range from simple, everyday things to ornate objects of ritual significance.

Who are the people who created all the objects in the Museum der Kulturen Basel (MKB)? That question is explored in the exhibition titled “Creators – People and their works”. Through texts, photographs, and film footage, it introduces visitors to those we know, but it also highlights other forms of authorship such as the collective.

At the same time, the exhibition delves into the creativity and skill of the makers. From a small paintbrush to a 12-metre-long dance beam, from a delicate feather headdress to weighty beer pots, from a simple spoon to an elaborately-wrought dagger: people have created objects in the most diverse forms using unusual materials that visitors to the exhibition can even handle. Whether they are everyday items or objects of ritual significance, all of the exhibits reveal the skill, knowledge, and dedication of their makers.

And today?
With some 250 exhibits, the exhibition not only examines the role of makers, it also shows the influence of indigenous communities on research. Why and when were details about makers collected? In audiovisual recordings, communities, scholars, film-makers, and artists additionally discuss the present-day importance of collections and of community memories of makers.

At the same time, the exhibition invites visitors to question contemporary manufacturing conditions. What do we know about the people who make our clothes, furniture, and everyday utensils? Visitors to the exhibition get the chance to become makers themselves by creating friendship bracelets of their own. The programme of related events as ever includes guided tours and workshops, plus visits to local studios. Another project involving the Neues Orchester Basel and school classes is devoted to composition and performance as creative processes.

entry fee
CHF 16 / CHF 11 REDUCED

Events

28 – Sat 29.11.2025

13.00–18.00 Uhr CONFERENCE

Fri 28.11. – Sat 29.11.

28 – 29.11.2025
13.00–18.00

Conference

(Un)known Creators from the Americas — The Role of Indigenous Authorship in Anthropological Museums

28. November 2025, 13.00 – 20.00
29. November 2025, 09.30 – 18.00

Organised by Museum der Kulturen Basel and Corpus Americanensium Antiquitatum-Kommission Schweiz

From small earrings to boats and houses, from light feather works to heavy stone blocks: The collections of Anthropological Museums contain an enormous quantity of things that invite us to engage with archives of human creativity. But who are the people who made them? Established practices of collecting and presenting things have often overlooked their creators. Conversely, Indigenous actors carefully and consciously chose what information about authorship to share with collectors, researchers, and museums.

This conference takes a closer look at the narratives about the artists, creators, makers (their lives, biographies and skills) of items of daily use, things of ritual significance, sound, photography, and movies preserved in museums. It also aims to shed light on the Indigenous impact on museum collections and the practice of collecting in general. The conference challenges the knowledge production of Anthropological Museums and provenance research practices.

Presentations will be in English, Spanish and Portuguese

Registration and Information:

jago.steidle@bs.ch and alexander.brust@bs.ch