The Brücke-Museum houses the collection of the estate of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Part of it is a body of works of more than 100 cultural works from over 20 regions in the world – among them New Guinea, Congo, Mexico.

The Transition Exhibition at the neighbouring Kunsthaus Dahlem contextualises this part of Schmidt-Rottluff’s collection from a critical perspective for the first time. It is a presentation of the collection as well as a critical engagement with the format of exhibiting collections from colonial contexts. Contemporary artists and cultural practitioners were invited by curator Paz Guevara to engage with the works and their colonial history. Their artistic interventions offer propositions for new narratives and attempt to problematise and unlearn colonial continuities in the presentation of the collection.

The intensive artistic engagement with the history of collecting and exhibiting impulses debates on the critical indexing of works from colonial contexts, provenance research and the restitution debate within the Brücke-Museum’s active work through its collection history.

With works by Ruth Buchanan, Mariana Castillo Deball, Lizza May David, Marina Dubia, Haytham El-Wardany, Manuela García Aldana, Lisa Hilli, Satch Hoyt, Saba Innab, Keiko Kimoto, muSa Michelle Mattiuzzi, Nnenna Onuoha, Gabriel Rossell Santillán, Hank Willis Thomas and once known creators.