fluktor -|||- study - office - newsletter June 11, 2005

pdo, June 08, 2005
Dong ethnic eco-museum unveiled in Guizhou Tang'an

The Guizhou Tang'an Dong Ethnic Eco-Museum was unveiled on June 6, which marks the formation of an ecological museum groups for the Miao, Bouyei, Han and Dong nationalities in Guizhou.

According to Xu Meiling, curator of the Suoga Ecological Museum, this is China's first ecological museum, which was founded in 1995 by China and Norway. It consists of 12 ethnic villages covering more than 120 square kilometers. The villages are still living in a natural economy where the men plough and the women weave. There is no writing. The people there record events by carving the bamboo. They have unique customs in wedding, burial, sacrificing ceremonies, music and dances.

The museum has no walls with each object, person and event being part of the collection. The villagers' articles for daily use, production tools and clothing and ornament are themselves exhibits. The only thing resembling traditional museum there is a simple database center where the past of the villagers is displayed in several wooden huts.

The ecological museum is a people-centered living museum, said Hu Chaoxiang, head of the implementation team of the Guizhou Ecological Museum Group. It is not an ordinary one since it is a community where the inhabitants share common language, common customs in dressing and building, common culture and mentality etc.

Su Donghai, a research fellow at the National Museum, said the core concept of the ecological museums is to protect a culture at its originating place. The economic conditions and high quality of citizens enable overseas governments and experts to withdraw from the construction of ecological museums once the initiation stage is over and the management falls on the inhabitants themselves.

However, since China's construction of ecological museums is still at the beginning the ecological museums will, in the foreseeable future, be mainly managed by the government and experts. Then with the proper training of the villagers and the elimination of poverty the villagers will become the true masters of their own culture.

By People's Daily Online

http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200506/08/eng20050608_189192.html

***************************

Pacific News Service, Jun 08, 2005
Activists Blast SF Museum's Exhibit of Tibetan Art
News Feature, Lisa Tsering,

SAN FRANCISCO--Priceless objects dating back to the 9th century, such as a gold and turquoise-encrusted drinking cup made from a human skull, an ornate copper and gilt statue of the thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara, a brightly colored silk thankga (scroll) painting of a serene White Tara -- are they harmless exotica, or the latest Chinese propaganda tools?

These items are among nearly 200 pieces to be shown June 12 through Sept. 11 in "Tibet: Treasures from the Roof of the World" at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

The San Francisco exhibit (the show has been to the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana and the Rubin Museum in New York City) is one of the very first times many of the treasures will be seen in the West. They were left behind when the Dalai Lama fled Chinese-occupied Tibet in 1959 for exile in India.

The show has sparked debate over just how political a force religion and art can be.

Pro-Tibet activists are calling the show Chinese government propaganda that capitalizes on the exotic appeal of spectacular religious items. "What the Asian Art Museum is exhibiting is something the Chinese are using to camouflage their brutal suppression of Tibetan freedom," says Topden Tsering, head of the Bay Area branch of the Tibetan Youth Congress.

Terese Tse Bartholomew, the museum's curator of Himalayan and Chinese decorative art, worked with two other curators as well as Chinese officials to prepare the exhibition. The objects come from the Potala Palace in Lhasa (the Dalai Lama's official residence), the Norbulingka (his summer palace) and the Tibet Museum in Lhasa.

But is the exhibit propaganda?

"They can say whatever they want," says Bartholomew. "But nobody told me what to put in the exhibition."

Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, helped to lead protests against the show in New York. "We are not calling for a boycott," she says. "We're not saying people shouldn't see it. But we're making the point
to everyone the context of the exhibition -- that it's being sponsored by the Chinese government."

China under Mao Zedong occupied Tibet in 1949, claiming it was a part of China. Chinese troops reportedly destroyed over 6,000 monasteries, and according to Tibet.com, the official Web site of the Tibetan government in exile, "hundreds of tons of valuable religious statues, thangkas, metal artifacts and other treasures were shipped to China either to be sold in international antique markets or to be melted down."

Dibyesh Anand, a Tibet expert at Bath University in England, observes, "What better way to neutralize Tibet as a political issue than to allow for exhibitions of objects from Tibet in the West, thus saying in effect: 'Look, we are good
caretakers of the Tibetan culture and religion.'"

But exhibiting religious items in the West is not a mere PR move, says noted Tibet expert Melvyn C. Goldstein, co-director of the Center for Research on Tibet at Case Western Reserve University.

"The Chinese have been trying to influence Western thinking for a long time," says Goldstein. "This is just another attempt to show that Tibetan culture and religion are alive in China. The conflict with the Dalai Lama and the exiles is primarily a political conflict and the Chinese always try to separate it from their acceptance of Tibetan religion and culture (as they see it and define its limits)."

The most contentious issue to local Tibetans and their supporters is that the photo of the Dalai Lama will not get central placement and instead will be shown for a limited time in a separate space, alongside a few religious programs such as a mandala creation and thangka painting demonstration. Within Tibet, it is illegal to possess a photo of the Dalai Lama.

"The leaders of Beijing are deeply distrustful of him and his exile movement, to the point where even his image is disturbing," explains Orville Schell, dean of UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and the author of nine books on China including "Virtual Tibet," "Mandate of Heaven" and "Discos and Democracy."

"And, so, the price of doing business with China is to quarantine both his movement in-exile and any representation of him," Schell adds.

To Bartholomew, setting an altar to Tibet's Nobel Prize-winning exiled leader in such proximity to artwork on loan from the Chinese government would be a slap in the face for the Chinese.

"Politics and art need to be kept separate," she says. "The Chinese government would definitely close the show."

To counter what they see as the show's pro-Chinese agenda, activists convinced the museum to present a lineup of alternative programs, including a Tibetan film festival. The Asian Art Museum is the only U.S. host that actively reached out to the Tibetan community for input. But activists still say the museum's efforts at a balanced view of Tibet fall far short, and that their demands have fallen on deaf ears.

They plan to rally outside the museum, handing out brochures and displaying the Tibetan flag and photos of the Dalai Lama. Giovanni Vassalo, president of Bay Area Friends of Tibet, says, "It's an opportunity for us to present the true facts about the situation in Tibet."

http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=b1c63e86568189b3223ddda1e8a31aaa

***************************

Korea Times, 06-07-2005
Art on the Frontline
By Bridget O’Brien, Staff Reporter

[image] Kim Yu-yeon, artistic director of DMZ?2005
The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is not only one of the most fortified borders in the world and in between, an unexpected ecological reserve; it is also strangely a fertile place for the imagination.

``Indeed, this liminal zone between the two Koreas, each a society in contradiction of the other, can only be accessed via the imagination, and by the projection of desire,’’ writes independent curator Kim Yu-yeon.

Kim, as artistic director, is organizing 20 international artists and 20 Korean artists to take part in an art project called DMZ_2005 for one month starting June 25. The artists will deal, in their own ways, with the idea of the border between North and South Korea.

``DMZ_2005 is an invitation to international artists to renew a focus on the philosophical, political, social, and cultural ramifications of the Korean DMZ, by addressing global and local issues of specific concern to them,’’ states Kim in the project’s mission statement.

Less than three weeks away, Kim told The Korea Times that despite still muddling through paperwork to obtain permission for activities that may perhaps only slightly risk encroaching upon the security of the area, she is very excited.

[image] A video work by Ham Kyung-ah "Kum Gang in North Korea"

For Kim, however the buzz comes with the intermingling of ideas, feeding from the diversity of artists she has invited who have spent their careers dealing with issues of borders and relationships of power.

Kim states, ``their works explore concepts about territory, zoning of memory, division of national identities, the politics of information, control and access to information, territory, and memory.’’

A total of 15 venues just south of the DMZ will facilitate the project, including Paju Book City, Heyri Art Village and Dorasan Station. Artists will take up ideas beyond trenches, towers and the question of information through multi-disciplinary and site-specific approaches.

Korean artist Ahn Sung-hee has daringly snapped flowers along the DMZ, accompanied by a local permit holder. The results of her escapade will be shown on an electronic billboard in Seoul.

Lyndal Jones will play the sounds of Australian birds across the wildlife sanctuary of the fortified zone. Santiago Sierra will employ soldiers to dig a trench, transporting the soil to another area, thus taking a metaphoric approach. Ahn Sung-keum will install her own reconstructed flags on top of the unification tower.

[image] Photojournalist for The New York Times Chang W. Lee's piece from his 2002 series on Afghanistan.

The question of the reliability of information will also be explored. Elgaland-Valgaland from Sweden will install speakers in Dorasan Station to send morse code from a gallery in Heyri.

Italian Armin Linke, formerly invited to Pyongyang to photograph the city, will contribute some of his documentation. Chang Young Hae Heavy Industries, known for such subtle web-based art works such as ``Operation NuKorea’’ and ``Cunilingus North Korea’’ will create another tongue-in-cheek jazz-plus-text flash work.

Some of the Korean artists experienced the turbulent times of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s in Korea and have strong memories playing a role in their construction of the Korean fratricidal division, while others are younger and their perceptions are formed by TV and movies.

Born in South Korea, Kim Yu-yeon grew up in northern Seoul and says the idea of the DMZ has played at the back of her mind for many years.

[image] Ursula Bieman's video work "Nasa Serialized"
As an independent curator based in Seoul and New York, Kim has organized many major international art events including the ``Exotica Incognita with Latin American Artists’’ for the 3rd Kwangju Biennale in 2000, the Asia-Pacific section in ``Cinco Continentes y una Ciudad’’ in Mexico City in 1998.

Kim’s other exhibits include ``The Eye Of The Tiger,’’ a panorama of contemporary Korean art in New York and Seoul in 1998 and ``Transversions’’ for the 2nd Biennale of Johannesburg in 1997. She is the co-founder of ``PLEXUS,’’ a New York-based Internet art organization.

For more information go to http://dmz-2005.org, http://dmz-worldwide.org or http://dmz-korea.net.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/200506/kt2005060719032811700.htm

__________________

with kind regards,

Matthias Arnold
(Art-Eastasia list)

http://www.chinaresource.org
http://www.fluktor.de

__________________________________________

An archive of this list as well as an subscribe/unsubscribe facility is
available at:
http://listserv.uni-heidelberg.de/archives/art-eastasia.html
For postings earlier than 2005-02-23 please go to:
http://www.fluktor.de/study/office/newsletter.htm


	June 11, 2005: [achtung! kunst] Exhibitions II : Guizhou Tang'an: Dong Ethnic Eco-Museum unveiled - San Francisco: Activists Blast SF Museum's Exhibit of Tibetan Art - DMZ: Art on the Frontline

	pdo, June 08, 2005 Dong ethnic eco-museum unveiled in Guizhou Tang'an The Guizhou Tang'an Dong Ethnic Eco-Museum was unveiled on June 6, which marks the formation of an ecological museum groups for the Miao, Bouyei, Han and Dong nationalities in Guizhou. According to Xu Meiling, curator of the Suoga Ecological Museum, this is China's first ecological museum, which was founded in 1995 by China and Norway. It consists of 12 ethnic villages covering more than 120 square kilometers. The villages are still living in a natural economy where the men plough and the women weave. There is no writing. The people there record events by carving the bamboo. They have unique customs in wedding, burial, sacrificing ceremonies, music and dances. The museum has no walls with each object, person and event being part of the collection. The villagers' articles for daily use, production tools and clothing and ornament are themselves exhibits. The only thing resembling traditional museum there is a simple database center where the past of the villagers is displayed in several wooden huts. The ecological museum is a people-centered living museum, said Hu Chaoxiang, head of the implementation team of the Guizhou Ecological Museum Group. It is not an ordinary one since it is a community where the inhabitants share common language, common customs in dressing and building, common culture and mentality etc. Su Donghai, a research fellow at the National Museum, said the core concept of the ecological museums is to protect a culture at its originating place. The economic conditions and high quality of citizens enable overseas governments and experts to withdraw from the construction of ecological museums once the initiation stage is over and the management falls on the inhabitants themselves. However, since China's construction of ecological museums is still at the beginning the ecological museums will, in the foreseeable future, be mainly managed by the government and experts. Then with the proper training of the villagers and the elimination of poverty the villagers will become the true masters of their own culture. By People's Daily Online http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200506/08/eng20050608_189192.html ************************* Pacific News Service, Jun 08, 2005 Activists Blast SF Museum's Exhibit of Tibetan Art News Feature, Lisa Tsering, SAN FRANCISCO--Priceless objects dating back to the 9th century, such as a gold and turquoise-encrusted drinking cup made from a human skull, an ornate copper and gilt statue of the thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara, a brightly colored silk thankga (scroll) painting of a serene White Tara -- are they harmless exotica, or the latest Chinese propaganda tools? These items are among nearly 200 pieces to be shown June 12 through Sept. 11 in "Tibet: Treasures from the Roof of the World" at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. The San Francisco exhibit (the show has been to the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana and the Rubin Museum in New York City) is one of the very first times many of the treasures will be seen in the West. They were left behind when the Dalai Lama fled Chinese-occupied Tibet in 1959 for exile in India. The show has sparked debate over just how political a force religion and art can be. Pro-Tibet activists are calling the show Chinese government propaganda that capitalizes on the exotic appeal of spectacular religious items. "What the Asian Art Museum is exhibiting is something the Chinese are using to camouflage their brutal suppression of Tibetan freedom," says Topden Tsering, head of the Bay Area branch of the Tibetan Youth Congress. Terese Tse Bartholomew, the museum's curator of Himalayan and Chinese decorative art, worked with two other curators as well as Chinese officials to prepare the exhibition. The objects come from the Potala Palace in Lhasa (the Dalai Lama's official residence), the Norbulingka (his summer palace) and the Tibet Museum in Lhasa. But is the exhibit propaganda? "They can say whatever they want," says Bartholomew. "But nobody told me what to put in the exhibition." Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, helped to lead protests against the show in New York. "We are not calling for a boycott," she says. "We're not saying people shouldn't see it. But we're making the point to everyone the context of the exhibition -- that it's being sponsored by the Chinese government." China under Mao Zedong occupied Tibet in 1949, claiming it was a part of China. Chinese troops reportedly destroyed over 6,000 monasteries, and according to Tibet.com, the official Web site of the Tibetan government in exile, "hundreds of tons of valuable religious statues, thangkas, metal artifacts and other treasures were shipped to China either to be sold in international antique markets or to be melted down." Dibyesh Anand, a Tibet expert at Bath University in England, observes, "What better way to neutralize Tibet as a political issue than to allow for exhibitions of objects from Tibet in the West, thus saying in effect: 'Look, we are good caretakers of the Tibetan culture and religion.'" But exhibiting religious items in the West is not a mere PR move, says noted Tibet expert Melvyn C. Goldstein, co-director of the Center for Research on Tibet at Case Western Reserve University. "The Chinese have been trying to influence Western thinking for a long time," says Goldstein. "This is just another attempt to show that Tibetan culture and religion are alive in China. The conflict with the Dalai Lama and the exiles is primarily a political conflict and the Chinese always try to separate it from their acceptance of Tibetan religion and culture (as they see it and define its limits)." The most contentious issue to local Tibetans and their supporters is that the photo of the Dalai Lama will not get central placement and instead will be shown for a limited time in a separate space, alongside a few religious programs such as a mandala creation and thangka painting demonstration. Within Tibet, it is illegal to possess a photo of the Dalai Lama. "The leaders of Beijing are deeply distrustful of him and his exile movement, to the point where even his image is disturbing," explains Orville Schell, dean of UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism and the author of nine books on China including "Virtual Tibet," "Mandate of Heaven" and "Discos and Democracy." "And, so, the price of doing business with China is to quarantine both his movement in-exile and any representation of him," Schell adds. To Bartholomew, setting an altar to Tibet's Nobel Prize-winning exiled leader in such proximity to artwork on loan from the Chinese government would be a slap in the face for the Chinese. "Politics and art need to be kept separate," she says. "The Chinese government would definitely close the show." To counter what they see as the show's pro-Chinese agenda, activists convinced the museum to present a lineup of alternative programs, including a Tibetan film festival. The Asian Art Museum is the only U.S. host that actively reached out to the Tibetan community for input. But activists still say the museum's efforts at a balanced view of Tibet fall far short, and that their demands have fallen on deaf ears. They plan to rally outside the museum, handing out brochures and displaying the Tibetan flag and photos of the Dalai Lama. Giovanni Vassalo, president of Bay Area Friends of Tibet, says, "It's an opportunity for us to present the true facts about the situation in Tibet." http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=b1c63e86568189b3223ddda1e8a31aaa ************************* Korea Times, 06-07-2005 Art on the Frontline By Bridget O’Brien, Staff Reporter [image] Kim Yu-yeon, artistic director of DMZ?2005 The Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is not only one of the most fortified borders in the world and in between, an unexpected ecological reserve; it is also strangely a fertile place for the imagination. ``Indeed, this liminal zone between the two Koreas, each a society in contradiction of the other, can only be accessed via the imagination, and by the projection of desire,’’ writes independent curator Kim Yu-yeon. Kim, as artistic director, is organizing 20 international artists and 20 Korean artists to take part in an art project called DMZ_2005 for one month starting June 25. The artists will deal, in their own ways, with the idea of the border between North and South Korea. ``DMZ_2005 is an invitation to international artists to renew a focus on the philosophical, political, social, and cultural ramifications of the Korean DMZ, by addressing global and local issues of specific concern to them,’’ states Kim in the project’s mission statement. Less than three weeks away, Kim told The Korea Times that despite still muddling through paperwork to obtain permission for activities that may perhaps only slightly risk encroaching upon the security of the area, she is very excited. [image] A video work by Ham Kyung-ah "Kum Gang in North Korea" For Kim, however the buzz comes with the intermingling of ideas, feeding from the diversity of artists she has invited who have spent their careers dealing with issues of borders and relationships of power. Kim states, ``their works explore concepts about territory, zoning of memory, division of national identities, the politics of information, control and access to information, territory, and memory.’’ A total of 15 venues just south of the DMZ will facilitate the project, including Paju Book City, Heyri Art Village and Dorasan Station. Artists will take up ideas beyond trenches, towers and the question of information through multi-disciplinary and site-specific approaches. Korean artist Ahn Sung-hee has daringly snapped flowers along the DMZ, accompanied by a local permit holder. The results of her escapade will be shown on an electronic billboard in Seoul. Lyndal Jones will play the sounds of Australian birds across the wildlife sanctuary of the fortified zone. Santiago Sierra will employ soldiers to dig a trench, transporting the soil to another area, thus taking a metaphoric approach. Ahn Sung-keum will install her own reconstructed flags on top of the unification tower. [image] Photojournalist for The New York Times Chang W. Lee's piece from his 2002 series on Afghanistan. The question of the reliability of information will also be explored. Elgaland-Valgaland from Sweden will install speakers in Dorasan Station to send morse code from a gallery in Heyri. Italian Armin Linke, formerly invited to Pyongyang to photograph the city, will contribute some of his documentation. Chang Young Hae Heavy Industries, known for such subtle web-based art works such as ``Operation NuKorea’’ and ``Cunilingus North Korea’’ will create another tongue-in-cheek jazz-plus-text flash work. Some of the Korean artists experienced the turbulent times of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s in Korea and have strong memories playing a role in their construction of the Korean fratricidal division, while others are younger and their perceptions are formed by TV and movies. Born in South Korea, Kim Yu-yeon grew up in northern Seoul and says the idea of the DMZ has played at the back of her mind for many years. [image] Ursula Bieman's video work "Nasa Serialized" As an independent curator based in Seoul and New York, Kim has organized many major international art events including the ``Exotica Incognita with Latin American Artists’’ for the 3rd Kwangju Biennale in 2000, the Asia-Pacific section in ``Cinco Continentes y una Ciudad’’ in Mexico City in 1998. Kim’s other exhibits include ``The Eye Of The Tiger,’’ a panorama of contemporary Korean art in New York and Seoul in 1998 and ``Transversions’’ for the 2nd Biennale of Johannesburg in 1997. She is the co-founder of ``PLEXUS,’’ a New York-based Internet art organization. For more information go to http://dmz-2005.org, http://dmz-worldwide.org or http://dmz-korea.net. http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/culture/200506/kt2005060719032811700.htm __________________ with kind regards, Matthias Arnold (Art-Eastasia list) http://www.chinaresource.org http://www.fluktor.de __________________________________________ An archive of this list as well as an subscribe/unsubscribe facility is available at: http://listserv.uni-heidelberg.de/archives/art-eastasia.html For postings earlier than 2005-02-23 please go to: http://www.fluktor.de/study/office/newsletter.htm