Objects talk back

Objects Talk Back is a project about the possibilities of literature to open up new stories and relations through museum archives. International writers are invited to explore collections at the Humboldt Forum, to select an object, and write about it however they wish. Priya Basil, curator of the project, coined the term ‘fabulography’ for this approach: it involves working creatively with-from-through gaps, erasures and (un)truths around objects in order to expand narrative and imaginative landscapes that have for too long been patrolled and limited by the museum.

Objects Talk Back recognizes that museum collections are inextricably tied to violent colonial histories and on-going practices of domination.

The project reaches towards knowledges of resisting-surviving-transcending colonial ruptures; it is animated by living connections between people, places and things. How far might stories take us in understanding-experiencing-imagining different worlds? Let’s find out as Objects Talk Back.