While the nation-state gave rise to the advent of museums, its influence in times of transculturality and post-/decolonial studies appears to have vanished. But is this really the case? With case studies from various geo- and sociopolitical contexts from around the globe, the contributors investigate which roles the nation-state continues to play in museums, collections, and heritage. They answer the question to which degree the nation-state still determines practices of collection and circulation and its amount of power to shape contemporary narratives. The volume thus examines the contradictions at play when the necessary claim for transculturality meets the institutions of the nation-state. With contributions by Stanislas Spero Adotevi, Sebastián Eduardo Dávila, Natasha Ginwala, Monica Hanna, Rajkamal Kahlon, Suzana Milevska, Mirjam Shatanawi, Kavita Singh, Ruth Stamm, Andrea Witcomb.

Susanne Leeb works as a professor of contemporary art at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg. She is the cofounder (together with Beate Söntgen) of the program PriMus - Promovieren im Museum (PhD in Museums research program). Additionally, she is the cofounder of the book series 'Polypen' at b_books, Berlin. Her research focusses on post-, anti-, and decolonial art histories, with a focus on contemporary art. Nina Samuel works as a postdoctoral researcher at the 'Matters of Activity: Image Space Material' Cluster of Excellence at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. An art historian and curator, she has been the program director of PriMus Promovieren im Museum. Her doctorate was sponsored by a scholarship from eikones - Center for the Theory and History of Images at the University of Basel, and she has held various research positions, including at the Bard Graduate Center in New York. Her research interests are image theory and the history of science, knowledge practices, contemporary curatorial strategies, and a material epistemology of the museum.