Resonance Space # is inspired by post-digital ethnography, decolonial mediation practices, and Johannes Fabian’s theory of allochronism (Time and the Other. How Anthropology Makes Its Object, 1983). Fabian criticises that ethnography excludes the “Other” from the horizon of shared contemporaneity by denying coevalness. This lack of simultaneity (e.g. between “modern” and “primitive”) is described as a key form of epistemic violence and a foundation of racist knowledge production. Fabian analyses this as a visual structuring of difference. This anthropological visualism privileges a distanced gaze at the Other, replacing participation with observation. This affects not only ethnographic texts, sketches, and field notes, but also museum representations. Especially ethnographic objects, by virtue of their historicised condition, create a temporal distance from the viewer and thus contribute to allochronism. Resonance Space # takes up Fabian’s critique and proposes a reversal: rather than speaking about others, space is given to digital voices to resonate. At the centre is not representation, but the feeling of shared temporality or coevalness as a museum experience. Despite their mediated nature (a third medium), social media offer an aesthetic quality of proximity, processuality, and interactivity. In this sense, Resonance Space # becomes a tool against epistemic violence. Collective utterances on museal topics, whether in real time or archived, are made visible and drawn into the museum. This creates a space in which coevalness can be experienced. Visitors can participate actively via QR codes and their smartphones, for example by following, liking, or commenting on #BringBackNgonnso and thus becoming part of a transcultural discourse themselves.
Christoph Balzar is a provenance researcher at the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg and works on the decolonization of the "Alexander Ecker Collection," a substantial holding of human remains. As a curator at barazani.berlin, he initiates museum interventions and artistic formats on transcultural topics. His work bridges museum studies, cultural theory, and digitality.
