The Power of Giving

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"We have all experienced gift-giving. By exploring ceremonial gift-giving in the baroque Saxon court and the Kwakwaka’wakw Big House, this exhibition challenges us to look under the surface of this everyday human activity and think about how gift-giving is both a physical and symbolic exchange. Participating in this ground-breaking collaboration creates an exciting opportunity for us to share Kwakwaka’wakw culture with European audiences. It's also an historic opportunity to share treasures of the Saxon court with our community and with Canadians who have never before been able to see them in Canada." - Sarah Elizabeth Holland, Executive Director, U’mista Cultural Centre.

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World Premiere: An Indigenous museum meets the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden!

“The Power of Giving” – An Exhibition collaboration between the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and the U’mista Cultural Centre of the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations in Canada

“The Potlatch in the Kwakwaka’wakw Big House from the Canadian Northwest Coast”

May 7th – August 21st, 2011

Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau

Dresden, Germany

Open Hours: Daily 10 A.M. to 6 P.M.

Closed Mondays

“The Power of Giving: Gifts in the Saxon Rulers’ Court in Dresden and the Kwakwaka’wakw Big House”

April 22nd – August 28th, 2011

U’mista Cultural Centre

Alert Bay, Canada

Winter Hours (up to Victoria Day, May 23rd, 2011): Tuesday – Saturday: 9 A.M. to 5 P.M.

Summer Hours (after Victoria Day, May 24th, 2011): Open Daily: 9 A.M. to 5 P.M.

When we hear the term “giving” we usually associate it with a positive, happy, or surprising event, but not with power. What is the association between "the gift" or the act of “gift-giving” and power? A unique exhibition project between the U’mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay, BC, Canada and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Dresden State Art Collections) in Dresden, Germany will examine this question extensively. Both institutions will exchange objects from their collections and present them in simultaneous exhibitions. The venues for the special exhibition “The Power of Giving” will be the U’mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay, BC, Canada and the Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau located in Dresden, Germany. The exhibition “The Power of Giving: Gifts in the Saxon Rulers’ Court in Dresden and the Kwakwaka'wakw Big House“ will be on display starting April 21st in Alert Bay, B.C. Canada. In Dresden, the exhibition entitled “The Power of Giving: The Potlatch in the Kwakwaka’wakw Big House from the Canadian Northwest Coast” will open on May 7th. Despite being thousands of miles away, both exhibitions will maintain a close dialogue. The German Federal Cultural Foundation has generously agreed to fund this project. A unique collection of stunning masks, vessels, and regalia from the Kwakwaka’wakw First Nations of Canada’s Northwest Coast will be sent from Alert Bay, BC, to Dresden. Some of the approximately 50 artifacts are 300 years old. This will be the first time the majority of the masks will be on display collectively outside Canada. These remarkable objects are used in the ritual dances and rites of potlatch, a traditional ceremony marking political, economic, spiritual, and social matters for individuals, family units, and communities. The birth of an oldest son could be a reason for holding a potlatch. A central aspect of potlatch is the role of the gift. The giving of gifts honours guests for witnessing the events and transactions of a potlatch, and, therefore, validates a family’s claims.

The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden will be sending a selection of diplomatic and princely gifts and decorative objects from the Saxon Sovereign Court in Dresden to Alert Bay. The artifacts to be exhibited include technical equipment from the Kunstkammer (Art Cabinet), ceremonial weapons and tournament equipment from the Rüstkammer (Armoury), and vessels and figurines from the Grünes Gewölbe (Green Vault) and Porzellansammlung (Porcelain Collection). These objects are representative of the economic activity, the chivalrous and allegorical self-representation, as well as the splendid court festivities and the royal hunts of the Saxon rulers during the early modern period.

“To me it is important that the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden not only collaborate with great and world-famous museums, but that the resulting collaborations enhance the inter-cultural dialogue and discourse between art and ethnography as well. The idea of cultural exchange and the simultaneous presentations planned to take place in Dresden and Alert Bay are of special importance. I would like to thank my colleague Sarah Elizabeth Holland, Director of the U’mista Cultural Centre, for taking a risk with the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden to study and present the social phenomenon of giving within two diverse cultures. I am especially looking forward to working with the extraordinary exhibition designer Corrinne Hunt. She has not only designed the medals for the Olympic Games in Vancouver, but will also develop the exhibition design in Dresden. We are very glad to have secured her since she is very familiar with the topic of potlatch”. - Martin Roth, General Director of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

“We have all experienced gift-giving. By exploring ceremonial gift-giving in the baroque Saxon court and the Kwakwaka’wakw Big House, this exhibition challenges us to look under the surface of this everyday human activity and think about how gift-giving is both a physical and symbolic exchange. Participating in this ground-breaking collaboration creates an exciting opportunity for us to share Kwakwaka’wakw culture with European audiences. It's also an historic opportunity to share treasures of the Saxon court with our community and with Canadians who have never before been able to see them in Canada. " - Sarah Elizabeth Holland, Executive Director, U’mista Cultural Centre.

“Only the latest scientific research within the field of ethnography makes this exhibition cooperation possible. It compares two societies that could not be more different in terms of cultural and historic development. Moreover, the exhibitions raise the question of which role the act of giving will play in the social and economic realms of the future” - Claus Deimel, Director of the Staatliche Ethnographischen Sammlungen Sachsen.

Sylvia Winkler
E-Mail: Sylvia.Winkler@skd.museum

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