Captain Cook & Co.

250 years ago, Captain James Cook returned to England from the longest voyage of exploration in British naval history. Accompanying him were two German scholars: Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Georg Forster, the scientific companions of Cook’s second voyage. The expedition opened up the Pacific to Europe, a milestone of the Enlightenment. Yet it also marked the beginning of the brutal colonial era in Oceania.

The Journal of the voyage – held by the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin for over two centuries – was kept by Johann Reinhold Forster aboard Cook’s ship Resolution. It served as the basis for the official expedition report. It also underpins the most brilliant travel account of Cook’s voyages, A Voyage Round the World by Georg Forster. Most notably, the Journal provides insight into the origin and acquisition of cultural objects that were “collected” at the time in Tahiti, Tonga, or on Easter Island.

On the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the “Return from the South Seas” the presentation Captain Cook & Co. brings together two key elements: original cultural objects from the Ethnological Museum in Berlin, brought to Europe from the Pacific during Cook’s voyages, and first hand notes on these artifacts recorded in Forster‘s Journal – collaboratively reflected upon by researchers and artists from Oceania.