Artistic Provenance Research

What can art and artists bring to researching the origins and biographies of objects? How do they shed new light on - or even unsettle - existing approaches to such questions? Proposing the new term - artistic provenance research - the contributors to this innovative book illuminate art's capacity to expand provenance research in critical and provocative ways. Artists, anthropologists and curators offer perspectives on a recent artwork that implicates human remains, potential histories and the politics of visibility. Through theorizing historical and contemporary examples, contributors explore knowledge-imagination dynamics, and the transformative potentials of artistic provenance research.

About the author

Tal Adler is a conceptual artist and researcher at the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage (CARMAH) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. He specializes in creating collaborative, long-term projects for social transformation, engaging critically with difficult heritages, conflicts and ethical dilemmas.
Sharon Macdonald is Alexander von Humboldt professor of social anthropology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, where she directs both the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik and CARMAH (the Centre for Anthropological Research on Museums and Heritage).

Product details

• Assisted by: Tal Adler (Editor), Sharon Macdonald (Editor)
• Publisher: Transcript
• Languages: English, German
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 27.11.2025
• EAN: 9783837665536
• ISBN: 978-3-8376-6553-6
• No. of pages: 260
• Weight: 500 g
• Illustrations: 60 farb. Abb.
• Series: Cultural Heritage Studies; Cultural Heritage Studies 5
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Humanities (general); Management und Managementtechniken, art, Cultural History, Art History, Cultural Management, Culture, Fine Arts, Exhibition, Collections, Art Management, Artistic Research, museums, Human Remains, provenance research