MUSEUM OF UNHEARD (OF) THINGS is the catalogue raisonne of the world-famous literary cabinet of curiosities in Berlin, which holds the record of being the most visited museum in the German capital (if one offsets the number of visitors to the square meters of the exhibition space). The museum collects unique objects to which curator Roland Albrecht has patiently lent his ear in order to hear the unheard (of) story each of them has to tell. This book is the first publication to assemble all the 78 stories in the current collection, all categorized according to weight, translated into English for the first time.
Included are unheard (of) tales about a clock of a Swiss inventor who promoted New-Time -where the day was only twenty hours long, an hour fifty minutes, and a minute fifty seconds-and was subsequently arrested by the authorities, the first portrait ID card in history created for Michel de Montaigne, a fork which reveals the secret history of a meeting of chefs in the Alps, the stone that inspired Thomas Mann to write many of his stories, or the scandalous relationship between the Brothers Grimm and alphabet soup. The book ends with a story about the museum itself which may make some readers ponder about the veracity of its existence. These extraordinary tales of seemingly ordinary objects invite the reader to imagine the world differently by listening more carefully and intimately to all the things that surround our everyday lives.
The present is always a story presented by the winners of history. With a gaze kindred to Walter Benjamin’s, Albrecht collects things which appear utterly trivial in the given here and now. With patience kindred to Sigmund Freud’s, he listens to them until they start revealing their stories. With a playful spirit kindred to Jorge Luis Borges, he writes them down. The result is a gentle but persistent wake-up call in the form of short stories, which cracks the tyranny of present and offers a glimpse into the unheard (of) world of things devoid of victors and losers, but full of tales that await to be told. - CODY EIKMAN
Berlin exists for Museum der Unerhoerten Dinge, or maybe the whole world exists for this small museum. Finally its secrets have been translated into English from German. - TOMOMI ADACHI
