The grandmothers want to go home

In the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, there are stones that are not stones. For the Yanakuna in San Agustín, Colombia, these are their grandmothers. They belong to a living territory of springs, rivers, and mountains – and are still missing there to this day. The ethnologist Konrad Theodor Preuss excavated the sculptures in the south of Colombia in 1913 and brought them to Berlin. 23 stone sculptures from San Agustín and Briceño are still preserved in the museum, as well as six heads of other sculptures.

When asking about their return, one is not asking merely about administration or ownership. It is about a fundamental change in perspective: are these stones merely objects that we observe and exhibit – or are they themselves subjects that look at us, enter into relationships, and are part of a living world?

On November 13, the Colombian delegation from SIN TEMER („Without Fear“) will be visiting Lovelab Dreamspace. Their members have been accompanying the process of repatriating the Stone Mothers for years. On this evening, representatives from Misak Misak and Yanakuna, the civil society initiative that is accompanying the return, as well as from AISO, a movement for the political self-determination of indigenous communities in southwestern Colombia, will be talking with the audience. Seats are limited; advance registration is required.

Who is looking at us?

At the heart of the conversation are the relationships between the stone sculptures, the nature of the waters, and the other human and non-human life forms within a concrete indigenous territory in Columbia. What forms of reciprocity and responsibility can emerge when we listen to these beings rather than merely presenting them in a museum?

The evening begins with ceremonial cocoa. After that, a Círculo de Palabra y Escucha – a circle of words and listening. Instead of lectures, it’s about sharing experiences and jointly developing questions.

The circle is accompanied by a video mapping installation by the artist collective Posmonumenta/Videocrática, projected onto the open wall spaces and mobile panels. Since 2020, the collective has realized more than sixty interventions in public spaces with its muralismo fotónico, which explores memory, colonial heritage, and contested monuments—including in Bogotá and at the National Museum of Colombia. At Lovelab, the light projections meet the dreamscapes of Banu Birecikligil. Her exhibition “How Does a Nymph Feel?” is DREAM 7 at the Lovelab Dreamspace and centers on the theme of consciousness. This reframes the evening’s question in a different light: Where does consciousness begin, and to whom do we attribute it—a human, a nymph, a stone? A short film by SIN TEMER will also be screened.

For Lovelab, the event builds on a discussion that encompasses the Genesis exhibition as well as the exhibition on the art and cosmology of the Shipibo: on indigenous knowledge systems that go far beyond ethnographic musealization, that biologist and philosopher Andreas Weber has described as the "indi-genius" relationship to all things – including those beings that a museum logic has long declared dead.

Process

19:30 – Welcome by Tim Ra, ceremonial cocoa and start of the video mapping
19:35 – Short film by SIN TEMER
19:42 – Introduction by Julián Santana-Rodríguez
19:50 – Círculo de Palabra y Escucha with the Colombian delegation
20:50 – Talk with the audience, moderated by Tim Ra
21:20 – Conclusion

With: Jhon Alirio Córdoba Quinayas, Carla Isabel Espinosa Muñoz, Martha Jeannette Gil Gómez, Indy Piapya, Marleny Deli Yalanda Cuchillo, Adriana María Velasco Muelas and Julián Santana-Rodríguez.

An event as part of SIN TEMER 2026 – Rematriements and Re-existences (Fundación Colectiva El Cruce / Posmonumenta / Videocrática).

Further events by SIN TEMER in Berlin

So, 8.11., 12–19 p.m. · Spore Initiative, Hermannstraße 86, 12051 Berlin
Tue, 10.11., 15–20 o'clock · Spore Initiative
Fri, 13.11., 4–6 p.m. · Babylon, Rosa-Luxemburg-Straße 30
Sat, 14.11., 19:30–21:30 · SAVVY Contemporary, Reinickendorfer Straße 17, 13347 Berlin
Tue, 17.11., 15–19 Uhr · SAVVY Contemporary