Pulling Matter From Unknown Sources is a participatory, arts-based research project that began in 2014 in collaboration with L’Union des Cultes Traditionnels du Togo (UCTT) in Agouegan, Aného, Togo. Through this collaboration, art&dialogue supports UCTT’s efforts to preserve and strengthen traditional Ewe culture in the Aného region.
In 2019, the collaborators began discussing the possibility of requesting the return or restitution of spiritually significant cultural objects held in Western collections. These conversations raised fundamental questions: Do the communities want these objects to return? If so, how might objects classified as “museum pieces” regain their original status as spiritual beings? What kinds of environments would support their return, and what possibilities could such a process open up for the UCTT communities?
Throughout the project, artists, scholars, cultural researchers, spiritual dignitaries, political activists, and cultural workers have come together to exchange spiritual knowledge and narratives, explore differences and commonalities, address conflicts, and learn from one another. By revisiting historical places and experiences, the project seeks to open up new possibilities for the present.
Pulling Matter From Unknown Sources aims to contribute to broader artistic, intellectual, and cultural efforts toward the decolonization of thought and the dismantling of structures that sustain Western power, borders, and privilege.
The material presented on this page emerged from the collaboration between members of art&dialogue in Berlin and the UCTT, with financial support from the Mondriaan Fund, Amsterdam; the Goethe-Institut; and the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK).