Edited by Tal Adler and Sharon Macdonald. Bielefeld, Germany: transcript Verlag, 2026. 208 pp. ISBN 978-3-8376-6553-6. Print €35.00. PDF open access. https://www.transcript-publishing.com/978-3-8376-6553-6/artistic-provenance-research/?number=978-3-8376-6553-6.

Reviewed by Cheryl Oestreicher [PDF Full Text]

Archivists are very familiar with provenance. When acquiring collections, knowledge or documentation of who, what, where, when, and why are important both for acquisition and research purposes. Archivists are also familiar with situations where provenance is not clear, a donor does not have all the information, the creator is not available to provide details, or documentation about acquisitions is scant or nonexistent. Artistic Provenance Research is a volume of essays that expands upon and interrogates these aspects of provenance through thought-provoking exhibits, art, theatrical productions, and other projects that provide intriguing perspectives about the meaning of provenance.

The volume is composed of essays written by artists, curators, and academics who have backgrounds in anthropology, fine arts, theatre, ethnology, African Studies, history of science, and political science. Individually, the authors interrogate and deconstruct the premise of provenance to present its complexity. Together, the essays elicit questions related to provenance, curatorial practices, exhibition practices, archives, museums, objectification, science, art, restitution, postcolonialism, racism, storytelling, narrative, and memory. To summarize all of this in a review does not do the essays full justice; they are complex, with thorough analysis and theories, and often the authors raise more questions than answers. There are so many interesting threads throughout the book, I had a difficult time—in a good way—of pulling out the highlights. The essays are interconnected and build upon each other and upon common themes. It is a book that cannot be read quickly because each essay causes the reader to stop and reflect before moving on. I believe that is what makes a great book, especially one related to archives and written by researchers: I want to appreciate their perspectives and how they relate to archival practice.

Artist and editor Tal Adler clearly states the goal of the volume:

This book aims to introduce artistic provenance research into wider debate and practice. Artistic provenance research (APR) mobilizes artistic approaches and sensibilities to engage with questions concerning the histories and ownership of objects, including the very modes of investigating these. (p. 11)

He further clarifies that within this context, the word “artistic” does not mean research about artworks, but instead is “concerned with other kinds of objects, ideas, or topics connected with provenance (such as the very notion of ownership or the politics and dynamics of provenance research)” (p. 11). As demonstrated throughout the book, provenance research itself is both an art and a science, and the authors conduct this research in myriad ways.

A single skull is the focal point of the first few chapters authored by Tal Adler (artist), Friedrich von Bose (curator), and Marion A. Hulverscheidt (history of science researcher). The Gall skull, housed at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, was named for how Franz Joseph Gall marked up and used the skull to attempt to prove his theories of phrenology. The university was a partner in an exhibition planned by Humboldt Lab and proposed displaying the Gall skull. Internally, there were differing opinions about the ethics of including the skull; staff recognized that it might be triggering or culturally insensitive to some viewers yet were also concerned that not including it would be construed as censorship and would deny their audience the chance to learn about this aspect of history. The Humboldt Lab brought in external consultants for input on the decision, and the recommendation was to exclude it. However, Adler proposed an alternate solution: to have the vitrine empty of the skull and instead present a discussion about the ethics around exhibiting human remains or making them available for public research.

Prior to the exhibit “Who is ID8470?” no research had been done to determine the identity of the person from whom the skull came. The authors narrate a complicated and fascinating history of identification, ownership, and display of the Gall skull. The person’s unknown identity opened up the concept of artistic provenance research; as von Bose writes, “the installation decentres the narrative of ‘what we know’ and emphasizes the questions about ‘what we don’t know’ and ‘what we could have known’ if there had not been an explicit institutional impetus of forgetting” (p. 117). Hulverscheidt adapted approaches from the arts and humanities for their research, writing “I have sought to show how provenance research can serve as an entry point into history for discovering and awakening possible, horizon-expanding—albeit not necessarily entirely factual—stories” (p. 137). Their research posed several plausible scenarios, described as “spirit narratives” (p. 35) and “tentative object biographies” (p. 20), of who the person was and where they came from, based on contemporaneous historical context of who, how, and why human remains were collected.

Creatively, part of the exhibit was a video where people narrated these possible biographies as an interactive visitor experience. As the visitor viewed and listened to the narratives, they were reminded that the skull was once a person and further encouraged to question the issues and ethics of preserving and displaying human remains. Using the “tentative object biographies” and “spirit narratives” approaches allow provenance to be investigative and suggestive instead of precise and restrictive. Initially, this may seem counterintuitive to archival and museum collecting practices, but acknowledging the gaps, inconsistencies, and absence of concrete facts presents research and creative opportunities. I found it compelling that a single skull inspired a years-long, interdisciplinary collaborative project that resulted in the development of artistic provenance research.

The remaining essays take the same issues and questions and set them within the framework of different experiences to demonstrate the versatility of artistic provenance research. A theme throughout the book is the concept that a seamless or solidly proven trail of evidence documenting every phase of production, ownership, or use of an object is more of an exception than a rule. In her essay, Larissa Förster details how she and a colleague embarked on a research project that started when a piece of an African individual’s scalp resurfaced at the Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary Research at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. The research began with “a label and faded inscription on the scalp,” which led to one and a half years of research in the university’s archives as well as various museum archives, raising more questions than answers about the person to whom the scalp belonged (p. 142). Researchers “amassed a wealth of contextual information” from which they constructed “three different, speculative, but highly plausible object biographies” of how the scalp came to be in the collection in the 1950s (p. 145). Yet, aligned with another theme throughout the volume, the results are not and likely will never be concrete. But leaving the possibilities open is part of the significance of provenance research.

Of all the essays in this volume, Konradin Kunze’s is the most difficult to summarize to fully capture how artistic provenance research led to multiple and years-long creative projects that had a profound effect on people in both Germany and Tanzania. Provenance research starts with an object or collection, but Kunze’s journey started “from a void, from a place where someone is missing” (p. 157). Kunze collaborated with Isack Peter Abeneko, a Tanzanian performer, to create a performance, a companion lecture, and later an exhibit about German colonialism of East Africa (Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi today). Their projects focused on the Maji Maji War as well as the “racist colonial practice of trafficking ancestral remains” (p. 153), and specifically how the historical representations differed between the two countries. Kunze’s lecture performances mimicked “the techniques and gestures of a scientific lecture while often presenting made-up content” (p. 157). The performances involved audience participation and elicited many emotional responses. For a subsequent exhibit, research brought forth photographs from German archives of African peoples from the time period, never seen by their ancestors. Kunze also collaborated with scientists to research and trace locations of human remains held by museums, and through DNA testing (with permission), they successfully identified some of the remains. These are only a few of the highlights from Kunze’s multi-year projects, and he weaves a captivating narrative of how the start of one project expanded into others, and how meaningful provenance research can be.

The final two essays are excerpts of conversations that discuss artistic provenance research. These discussions continue some of the points authors raised in earlier essays and bring forth additional context and ideas. One is about photographer George Mahashe’s work about the Vhalovedu (Balobedu) nation of Southern Africa. The discussion “makes the case for an appreciation of more diverse spiritual ontologies that may be operating in heritage and museum settings and reflects on their manifold affordances for rethinking provenance and art practice today” (p. 176). The final essay is a conversation between co-editors Adler and Sharon Macdonald and artist and writer Edmund de Waal. The essay title aptly captures the conversation: “Provenance Is Many Journeys: It’s Plural, It’s Complicated, It’s Contingent.” 

While extensive provenance research is, as acknowledged by the authors, a time-consuming practice that may or may not yield final results, it is a worthwhile endeavor. This book is for anyone wanting to delve into the theory of provenance and how creative projects can open opportunities for new and expanded research about objects and collections.