Since the beginning of the winter semester 2023/24, the Mainz University Library has provided a new presentation, listening and meeting room in the transition area between the Central Library and the Georg Forster building. This not only creates a permanent exhibition space for the university collections, but also creates an axis to the neighboring Archive for African Music (AMA).
While the collection showcase presents selected unique pieces from the more than 30 university research and teaching collections in three spacious showcases – for the first time permanently – the AMA Lounge invites visitors to take a seat on the sofas of a furnished listening station and follow the sounds and diverse styles of African (pop) music. In the undisturbed juxtaposition, observation and listening come into play just as much as the possibility of transcultural dialogues.
Naturally, the presentation of the currently almost 60 exhibits and collections is as diverse and varied as the research and teaching areas from which they come. Centuries-old artefacts alongside modern everyday appliances and utensils, natural history finds alongside documents from a wide range of eras or vis-à-vis scientific models, laboratory and demonstration objects: The temporal, material and aesthetic leaps – not least the distances between their places of origin – could hardly be greater. As a "hodgepodge" in the best sense of the word, the showcase lives precisely from the juxtaposition of precious and everyday objects, the artistic and natural beauty, the elaborately designed to the purely functional or sometimes bizarre. And yet the heterogeneity of the objects and the apparent randomness of their encounter also gives rise to reflection on the similarities and analogies of their respective specific histories. Literally placed in a new light, one or the other object, removed from its original context and former purpose, may become an object of aesthetic contemplation.
As a laboratory that is open to everyone (and openly accessible), the collection showcase and the AMA lounge are not designed to be unchangeable or monofunctional, but include the change of displays and regular exhibit changes. The result is a place that invites you to exchange, retreat, learn and take a break – in short, a place to meet, view and communicate.
