Matrimoines / ReMatriation

The Matrimoines / Rematriation project brings together some twenty museum professionals, academics, artists and mediators around a common vision: provenance research is, for museums and source communities alike, a memory work. The hybrid history of African objects preserved in Europe opens up the possibility of writing new shared narratives. With this in mind, the aim of this project is to conduct research that is capable of listening to and restituting the plurivocality of its sources and memories. We will be working on the matrimoines of private collections, which are not inalienable and can be rematriated. The old French word “matrimoine” originally meant mother’s inheritance (mater = mother in Latin). It was eliminated from the French language in favor of the term “patrimoine”, the inheritance of fathers, which became synonymous with all inheritance, and therefore material heritage. Here, Matrimoines are tangible and intangible heritages that have become invisible because of their familiarity, their low market value and their “domestic” character. Rematriation is defined by a double movement: the recognition of invisibilized knowledge and epistemologies, and restitution to the source communities. Our general hypothesis: by investigating these heritages, we can better know and value both the objects conserved and the communities that produced them. This implies a triple shift in perspective: from iconic African heritage to familiar and unknown or “ordinary” heritage; from partial cartels to living knowledge; from hypothetical repatriations to actual rematriations. The project revolves around three common questions: How can memories be awakened, knowledge initiated or reactivated? What kind of heritage should be valued, restituted and “rematerialized”? How can we share the stories told by objects?  The program involves investigations, mediation and exchanges between Germany, Benin, Cameroon, France and Togo, and is organized around 5 axes/activities. 1 Racontottes (Togo-Europe): tales, research and narration of familiar objects preserved in Europe; 2. Les Voyages d’Ajogan (Paris-Porto-Novo): documentation, film and rematriation of Ajogan; 3. Lumière sur le patrimoine Missionnaire du Bénin et du Togo à Lyon: inventory and provenance research on the collections of the Sociétés des Missions africaines de Lyon; 4. Everyday heritage in Paris, Cologne and Bafoussam: diaspora, memory work and the collection of contemporary stories; 5. Restitution / Rematrier : listening to, transmitting, infusing and energizing the memories of dispersed heritages (scientific publications and public mediation).

The expected impacts of the project are in-depth, renewed and enhanced knowledge of three collections (the Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum in Cologne, the Sociétés des Missions Africaines in Lyon and the Gilbert Rouget collection in Paris); the building up of a research project with equal provenance; greater understanding and cooperation between German, African and French players in the fields of museums, research and creation.