Hawai'i revisited

The James Cook Collection Göttingen in Dialogue with Contemporary Art October 3, 2018 - May 5, 2019

Hawai’i has been a U.S. state since 1959 with a very special history.

Discovered and settled more than 800 years ago by Polynesians, it was not until 1778 that Captain James Cook became the first European to reach the islands.

Until 1893, the archipelago was a sovereign kingdom, whose last queen was overthrown in the face of fierce opposition from the Hawaiian people. Regaining lost independence remains an important long-term political goal for many Hawaiians.

In the exhibition, contemporary works by Hawaiian artists meet unique 18th-century objects from the University of Göttingen’s Cook/Forster Collection – current explorations of Hawaiian present and future combine with glimpses into a significant past.

Ever since humans discovered and settled the island worlds in the Pacific thousands of years ago, there have been many connections between the widely scattered land areas in the largest sea on earth.

In cooperation with:
Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, China Center Tübingen, HFT Stuttgart

With kind support:

Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Karl Schlecht Stiftung, Tübinger Vereinigung für Volkskunde e.V., Universitätsbund Tübingen e. V., Stiftung Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Netzwerk transformierender Lehre in Baden-Württemberg, Verein Freunde Hochschule für Technik Stuttgart