Residential privileges: Tassilo Adams’ color photographs of a European residence on Java

This lecture turns the colonial gaze inward by examining the work of plantation manager, photographer, and filmmaker Tassilo Adam (1878–1955) and his color photographs (autochromes from around 1920). These show the residence of the European tea and quinine plantation manager in the Dutch East Indies: Karel Albert Rudolf Bosscha (1865–1928). Analyses of photography in the colonial context often focus on how Western photographers visually captured the colonized Other and documented indigenous peoples, communities, architecture, and landscapes as objects of ethnographic study or spectacle. In comparison, Hanin Hannouch will show how the Bosscha residence was a living space centered on a tension between necessity and taste: its hybrid architectural forms – which adapted to a certain extent to the tropical climate of Java – contrast with the richly decorated European-style interiors, which served to anchor and maintain Dutch cultural norms and preserve the identity of European settlers abroad.

Lecture in German language
To participate in the event, all guests need a valid museum ticket.
Participation is free for annual ticket holders, Weltmuseum Wien Friends, Patrons, Members and Ambassadors as well as ICOM members and holders of the Kulturpass.
Registration: online (Link to follow)
Meeting point: WMW Forum
Admission from 6.30 p.m.