Germany
Curator and Project Developer www.isabelraabe.de www.talkingobjectslab.org www.talkingobjectsarchive.org Isabel Raabe is a freelance curator and project developer based in Berlin. Her work focuses on curatorial and artistic strategies that break with Western perspectives and traditions of thought. In her projects, she seeks decolonial perspectives and new narratives. She mostly works at the intersection of art, politics, and science. In 2025, she was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for her work. 2020 Initiator and member of the curatorial team of TALKING OBJECTS - Decolonizing Knowledge. TALKING OBJECTS is an artistic research project dedicated to the decolonization of memory and knowledge. The curatorial team consists of Mahret Ifeoma Kupka (Frankfurt), Isabel Raabe (Berlin), Njoki Ngumi (Nairobi), Chao Tayiana Maina (Nairobi), and Malick Ndiaye (Dakar). The TALKING OBJECTS LAB has been developing over several years in think tanks, symposia, artistic interventions, artist residencies, and exhibitions. The TALKING OBJECTS ARCHIVE is designed as a digital archive for decolonial knowledge and went online in January 2024. www.talkingobjectslab.org 2019 Founding of raabe - arts and cultural projects gUG (limited liability) 2015- 2019 Initiator and project manager of the “RomArchive - Digital Archive of the Sinti and Roma” (together with Franziska Sauerbrey). The project was funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation, launched in January 2019 at www.romarchive.eu, and won the European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Award 2019 and the Grimme Online Award 2020. www.romarchive.eu 2007-2019 Founder and managing director of sauerbrey I raabe - büro für kulturelle angelegenheiten in Berlin (together with Franziska Sauerbrey): conception and implementation of art and cultural projects. Own initiative projects in an international context (interdisciplinary theater festivals, installations, audio walks, etc.) as well as events on behalf of, among others, the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Federal Agency for Civic Education, and the Goethe-Institut. www.sauerbrey-raabe.de
TALKING OBJECTS is an artistic research project dedicated to the decolonization of knowledge. It consists of two parts: the TALKING OBECTS ARCHIVE and the TALKING OBJECTS LAB. The think tank, exhibition and event series TALKING OBJECTS LAB explores plural forms and practices of knowledge of the African continent as well as poly-perspective strategies of mediation and visualization. Five thematic fields are in the foreground: decolonization of memory, decolonization of knowledge, re-evaluation of objects from colonial context, empowerment and chances of artistic perspectives, and questioning of classical museum forms of preservation and presentation. The TALKING OBJECTS ARCHIVE is a digital archive for decolonial knowledge production, which is was launched in 2025. www.talkingobjectsarchive.org TALKING OBJECTS was initiated by Isabel Raabe and is run by a curatorial team from Senegal (Malick Ndiaye, musée Théodore Monod, Dakar), Kenya (Njoki Ngumi, The Nest Colelctive, and Chao Tayiana Maina, African Digital Heritage, Nairobi) and Gerany (Isabel Raabe, Berlin, and Mahret Ifeoma Kupka, Frankfurt). www.talkingobjectslab.org
Projektleitung gemeinsam mit Franziska Sauerbrey. Das "Digitale Archiv und Forum der Sinti und Roma in Europa" wird gefördert durch die Kulturstiftung des Bundes.