lb/db. While searching for objects of Philippine material culture held in museum collections in Switzerland and kept in storage, studiyo filipino was contacted by the Museum der Kulturen Basel (MKB) in 2023. MKB houses 750 objects whose origins are attributed to the Philippines. The following year, several members of the association visited the museum’s depot. In over more than 100 years, the museum has acquired a diverse range of objects, including textiles, weapons, jewellery, ritual objects and materials, among many other items.
Subsequently, in 2025, under the supervision of studiyo filipino founding member and social anthropologist Doris Bacalzo (PhD), and with the support of MKB in collaboration with Sivlia Greber, students who attended Doris’s courses at the University of Lucerne were given the opportunity to gain initial insights into critical provenance research. They examined not only where an object might have come from, but also the unequal power relations that shaped its history and meaning. This initial research project, which has just been completed, has helped identify important and pertinent questions for further scientific inquiry.
Photo: sf members inside the MKB depot, with curator Richard Kunz and provenance researcher Silvia Greber (© studiyo filipino)
