Symposium: „Tithu Between Wor(l)ds. Cultural Items as Art or Artifact”.

The symposium, which is connected to the current exhibition “Lightning Symbol and Snake Dance. Aby Warburg and Pueblo Art” (MARKK) and the students’ online exhibition “Die Wanderer. Katsinam, Tithu und Aby Warburg” (Goethe-Universität, www.diewanderer.info) will discuss the representation of Hopi culture, Katsinam, and, specifically, tithu (known as Katsina dolls or figures). The main question is how the latter should be represented between the poles of ethnography, art, religion, and Hopi culture. What are the possibilities for appropriate representation in light of the ongoing process of decolonizing museums and academic institutions?

The main topics are:

1. The representation of these so-called Katsina Dolls (tithu). As representations of the supernatural Katsinam and given to girls as gifts at ceremonies, it has to be discussed if tithu, which have been commodified since the late 19th century, are some kind of teaching aid, toy, or sacred objects – or a combination of all. This will lead into a discussion how they can and should be handled and exhibited in museums.

2. The appropriation of Hopi art (particularly tithu) by Europeans and Euro-American artists, scholars, and museums (e.g. Aby Warburg, Emil Nolde, André Breton, Man Ray). In this context, the symposium will consider whether there are differences between the American and European views of the figures. Cultural transfer or cultural diffusion is also not a one-way street but occurs in many ways and in many different directions. Therefore, we will also ask whether the Europeans' and Americans' views of the artifacts has changed the Hopis’ view of these objects during the decades.

Even though the symposium focuses on Hopi culture, it will be an example of how museums and descendant communities can discuss problems of representation – particularly in the case of museum objects that are connected to the religious sphere.

PROGRAMME:

THURSDAY, 10/06/2022 (public with registration)

09:00 am Registration
09:30 am Welcome Address
Barbara Plankensteiner, Director MARKK
09:45 am Introduction
Markus Lindner, Frankfurt; Hilja Droste, Bonn; Christine Chávez, Hamburg

10:00 am Session 1: Collections 1

Markus Lindner, Frankfurt am Main: The Wanderers. A Students‘ Project with the Ferretti Collection of the Nordamerika Native Museum (NONAM), Zürich

Christine Chávez, Hamburg: Representations of Katsinam in the Warburg Collection and other MARKK Collections.

11:15 am Coffee Break

11:30 am Session 2: Aby Warburg’s Perspectives on Pueblo Art

Claudia Wedepohl, London: From Adventure to Field Trip. Warburg‘s Journey to the American Southwest through his Diary, Letters and Notes

Uwe Fleckner, Hamburg: The Grasping Man. Aby Warburg’s Metaphor for the Formation of Concepts and Symbols Among the Pueblo

12:45 pm Lunch Break
01:45 pm Session 3: European Interpretations of Hopi Culture and Art

Erhard Schüttpelz, Siegburg: Aby Warburg and Claude Lévi-Strauss on Pueblo Masked Dances and European Folklore

Hilja Droste, Bonn: Reflections on Hopi in European Art

03:00 pm Coffee Break

03:15 pm Session 4: Hopi Cultural Representation

Justin B. Richland, Irvine: Cooperation Without Submission. Some Lessons Learned from Non-Hopi Collaborations with the Hopi Tribe

Colleen Lucero, Kykotsmovi: Gifts for the Community from a Hopi Women’s Perspective

04:30 pm Break

07:30 pm Public Keynote
Peter Whiteley, New York: What Is a Katsina and Why Does It Matter? Hopi Representations in Non-Hopi Spaces

FRIDAY, 10/07/2022 (public with registration)

09:30 am Session 5: Trading Tithu and Hopi Art

Hans-Ulrich Sanner, Berlin: Riding With Coyote. A 1990 Field-Diary Entry on Tihu-Selling

Janice and Joe Day, Second Mesa: What I Have Learned Buying and Selling Hopi Art. A Trader's Perspective

11:30 am Coffee Break
11:45 am Session 6: Collections 2

Peter Bolz, Berlin: The Antes Collection of Tithu in the Ethnological Museum Berlin. A German Artist Looks at Hopi Art

Kelley Hays-Gilpin, Flagstaff: The Collection of the Museum of Northern Arizona

01:00 pm Lunch Break

02:00 pm Session 7: Hopi Art 1

Victor Masayesva, Hotevilla: Farming Art

03:00 pm Coffee break

03:15 pm Session 8: Hopi Art 2

Ramson Lomatewama, Hotevilla: Perspectives of Traditional and Contemporary Hopi Art

04:15 pm Public Closure and Farewell

The symposium is organized by Markus Lindner (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt) and Hilja Droste (Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) in cooperation with Christine Chávez (MARKK Hamburg).
This project is made possible with support from the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.