Slovenski etnografski muzej

Branislava Sušnik
Where 
The first floor of exhibition house
From 
20. April 2021
TO 
1. March 2022

La Doctora: The Life and Work of a Slovene Researcher in Paraguay

The Slovene Ethnographic Museum in Ljubljana announces an exhibition about Dr Branislava Sušnik, a Slovene researcher in Paraguay.

In both Slovenia and Paraguay, the year 2020 is dedicated to the centenary of the birth of the important researcher, ethnologist, anthropologist and ethnolinguist, Dr Branislava Sušnik, who comes from a Slovene background and whose research work in these fields was devoted to the indigenous peoples of Paraguay.

The Slovene Ethnographic Museum will mark and reveal the life and work of Branislava Sušnik in Paraguay at a major international exhibition entitled “ La Doctora: The Life and Work of a Slovene Researcher in Paraguay”. The opening of the exhibition is planned for November 2020.

The initiative for the exhibition came from the Slovene Ethnographic Museum, the central national ethnological museum in Slovenia, and it will be developed in cooperation with the Andrés Barbero Ethnographic Museum in Asunción, Paraguay, where Dr Branislava Sušnik worked until the end of her life and of which for many years she was director.

The Slovene Ethnographic Museum and the Andrés Barbero Ethnographic Museum have been cooperating since 1997. In that year, the Paraguayan museum donated to its Slovene counterpart a collection of thirty objects from indigenous cultures (Mbyá-Guaraní, Aché-Guayakí, Nivaclé, Ayoreo and Chamacoco). In 2018 the museums signed a letter of intent regarding research for a joint exhibition dedicated to the memory and research achievements of Dr Branislava Sušnik.

The focus of the exhibition is thus a woman, an intellectual, who went to Buenos Aires in 1947 and chose an independent path that took her to Paraguay. She devoted her life to research work, for 45 years leading the Andrés Barbero Ethnographic Museum and lecturing in ethnology at the Universidad Nacional de Asunción. In recognition for her work, she received Paraguay’s highest national honour.

The exhibition will use objects, documents and photographs to present the life story of Branislava Sušnik, her research and museological achievements, and documentation from her field work among the indigenous inhabitants of Paraguay. The five different ethnic Paraguayan indigenous groups that she paid most attention to will be the focus.

The exhibition is being curated by Dr Mojca Terčelj, from Primorska University, and the scientific committee consists of: Dr Adelina Pusineri, Director, and Raquel Zalazar, curator, Andrés Barbero Ethnographic Museum, Asunción; Dr Marko Frelih, curator and Dr Tanja Roženbergar, curator and Project Leader, Slovene Ethnographic Museum; and Dr Irene Mislej, external collaborator.

Exhibition setup and architecture by Jasna Kralj Pavlovec MA; corporate image and design by Danijela Grgić.

Project partners:
University of Primorska, Faculty of Humanities
Museo etnographico Andrés Barbero
Fundación La Piedad, Asunción, Paraguay

Contact: PR: etnomuz@etno-muzej.si