Taking place between the July 21 and 24, 2020, Paola Ivanov and Jonas Bens represented the project A06 Contested Property at the 16th Biennial Conference of the EASA (European Association of Social Anthropologists). Taking part in Panel P030 „Making and remaking anthropology museums: provenance and restitution“, they presented a paper titled „Colonial Alexithymia: Affect and Colonialism in the German Humboldt Forum Debate“.

Built in the heart of Berlin, the Humboldt Forum has been the centre of an ever-growing debate involving German national identity. Because many activists contest how the objects acquired in colonial times are used in the Humboldt Forum, anti-colonial sentiments are emerging. In a cartography of the affective and emotional dynamics and genealogy of the Humboldt Forum debate in Germany, this paper unravels some of the strings in a complex web that connects people, objects, atmospheres and sentiments around the Humboldt Forum.