Intersections of travel and mobility, the practice of history, and institutions that pose themselves as didactic spaces are critiqued in this issue. The Jazz Century shows that institutions, in order to fulfill their specific mandates, sometimes choose to withhold crucial dimensions of history. Cay Sophie Rabinowitz holds Musée du quai Branly accountable for locating racism on the other side of the ocean, in denial of their own colonial past. Museums like Iris Häussler address history by purposefully exhibiting fictive archaeology. Joep Van Liefland’s project Video Palace tackles power play in cultural production, dissemination, and conservation through VHS technology. Reviews of recent art exhibitions by Gerard Byrne, Angus Fairhurst, and Robin Rhode also demonstrate that the questioning of mobility, dispersal, and institutions are alive and generative.
