Design & Build
the
c.a.l.f.
manifesto
we investigate artefacts held by museums that have been stolen or acquired through dubious means
we demonstrate complexity of culture and the ‘aurameaning’ of artefacts by giving these artefact objects a voice of their own through intervention and documentation
we challenge the ownership of these artefacts
we aim to liberate stolen objects and return them to the people from who they were taken
we expose the predominant limited cultural perspective of contemporary museological practice and begin to dismantle the authority of traditional museological collection and presentation
we presuppose that the museum is a colonial institution yet is deemed responsible for the preservation of multiple cultures aesthetic histories
by telling the truth we interrogate how traditional museological practice might connect to contemporary sociocultural oppression and culturalaesthetic domination
through our activity we seek to question how museums collect artefacts and make records
we invite alternative perspectives into the right to ownership and the nature of property within a contemporary context of complex and diverse cultural realities through intervention investigation and documentation we ask that stolen artefacts be returned to the people from who they were stolen who are in turn allowed the freedom to do what they choose with the object even if that means destroying it.
Tristan Baliuag, Shuping Lee, Eliana Vargas, Rosie Strickland.
