“Asymmetric dependencies" are the subject of research at the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS). The cluster of excellence combines research from various disciplines, such as anthropology, archaeology, history, or religious studies, in numerous projects that investigate the conditions of emergence, systemic structures, and trajectories of asymmetric dependency relationships. These projects explore the concrete manifestations of asymmetric dependency under locally and temporarily specific political, economic, cultural, religious, legal, social, or colonial circumstances. The digital exhibition "Enmeshed and Entwined: Fabrics of Dependency" explores these questions and selected research results using examples of the production, use, and distribution of textiles.

It is an exhibition that, thanks to its narrative quilt structure, explores asymmetrical dependencies from diverse perspectives without establishing an explicit focus. By diversifying themes through contributions from different authors — all persons related to the BCDSS were and are invited to contribute to the growth of the exhibition — many different story patches come together to form a growing quilt narrative about asymmetrical dependency. At the same time, the interweaving of the individual narratives grows through contextual, temporal, or regional references, continually directing a focus once established to new stories.

With its conceptualization as a growing quilt narrative and the collaborative work of a collective —researchers from or related to the BCDSS — the exhibition is an example of how the diversification of authorship can strengthen commoning in science. By materializing the exhibition as a three-dimensional quilt, it simultaneously presents itself as a multimodal exhibit. It makes the exhibition's narrative quilt structure visually and haptically tangible and, at the same time, invites for a virtual visit to the digital exhibition via the provided QR codes or via this link: https://fabrics-of-dependency.uni-bonn.de/.

Beatrix Hoffmann-Ihde is a cultural anthropologist, focusing on critical heritage studies, decolonizing museum ethnology and Amazonian material culture. She holds a PhD from Free University Berlin. Together with representatives of local communities, citizen science activists and scholars she explores exhibition curatorship and museum’s research in larger teams. Latest results of this work are the exhibitions „Freiburg and Colonialism: Yesterday? Today!“ (Städtische Museen Freiburg, 2022/23) and „Enmeshed and Entwined: Fabrics of Dependency“ (2024, https://fabrics-of-dependency.uni-bonn.de/).