SonntagsZeitung, 25. September 2005
Berner China-Foetus soll wuerdig bestattet werden
Christoph Lauener

BERN * Neuer Wirbel um das umstrittene Foetusobjekt in der China-Ausstellung im Berner Kunstmuseum. Eine Phalanx von Rechtspolitikern lanciert naechste Woche eine Volkspetition mit folgenden Forderungen: Die Skulptur "Ruan" (bestehend aus einem Moewenkoerper und dem Kopf eines menschlichen Foetus) sei "sofort und endgueltig zu entfernen", und der Besitzer solle "fuer eine wuerdige Bestattung des Foetuskopfs" sorgen.

Die Initianten fordern das staedtische und kantonale Berner Parlament auf, Massnahmen zu beschliessen, welche "die Durchsetzung der Menschenwuerde in allen Bereichen des oeffentlichen Lebens sichern". Das Petitionskomitee wird angefuehrt vom SVP-Grossrat Thomas Fuchs sowie unter anderem den Nationalraeten Adrian Amstutz, Simon Schenk und Walter Schmid (alle SVP).

Nach den Protesten um "Ruan" hatten die Museumsverantwortlichen das Objekt zurueckgezogen und anschliessend in einem separat gekennzeichneten Raum untergebracht, wo es bis zum Ende der Ausstellung am 16. Oktober bleiben soll. Das Werk des chinesischen Kuenstlers Xiao Yu ist Teil der Ausstellung ueber zeitgenoessische chinesische Kunst. Es gehoert dem frueheren Schweizer Botschafter in China, Uli Sigg, der die weltweit groesste Privatsammlung kontemporaerer chinesischer Kunst besitzt.

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The Ottawa Sun, October 10, 2005 Monday
OF CABBAGES AND EMPERORS;
MUSEUM'S A TREASURE TROVE OF PRICELESS CARVINGS, CALLIGRAPHY, CERAMICS
BY PETER NEVILLE-HADLEY, MERIDIAN WRITERS' GROUP

When asked, "What's the most popular exhibit in the greatest collection of Chinese art in the world?" director Tu Cheng-sheng of Taipei's National Palace Museum looks slightly pained. "A cabbage," he says.
The museum has ancient bronzes, their surfaces crowded with Chinese characters, Song ceramics and the flamboyant Tang calligraphy on paper too fragile for lengthy display. There are imperial documents carrying fiery red marginal comments by the emperor of the day. In all, there are more than 650,000 items in the museum's collection. But the crowds want to see the cabbage.

In this cabbage the natural variation of colour from white to green in a block of jadeite has been exploited by a carver of genius to produce a completely convincing vegetable, ready for the chopping board. The Mandarin words for "green" and "white" sound the same as the ones for "innocence" and "purity," and the cabbage is topped by two delicately exe-cuted grasshoppers, symbols of fertility. It was the perfect bridal gift to accompany a new concubine for a Qing dynasty emperor.

More than 1,000 years ago the Chinese emperors, with the leisure and the funds to indulge themselves, began to build collections of the finest works of art they could find. Partly scattered during the messy transitions from one ruling house to another, they would be slowly rebuilt, until finally acquired for the nation as part of the abdication arrangements for the last Qing emperor, Puyi, in 1912.

In 1933, the Japanese invasion of China and the civil war between nationalist and communist forces sent 19,557 crates of artifacts off on an extraordinary 16-year Long March of more than 10,000 km, ending up in Taipei with the defeated nationalist forces in 1949.

While much of what's left in Beijing is in ill-lit rooms and only dimly perceivable through windows obscured by smears from the noses of decades of visitors, the greatest objects of imperial connoisseurship are now well-lit and labelled in English, a 30-minute journey from the centre of Taipei.

If you can't see past the eager visitors surrounding the glass case containing the cabbage, neighbouring cases have carvings of equal genius using chalcedony, lapis lazuli, agate, carnelian and different coloured quartzes. The colour variations in a piece of banded jasper have been exploited to the fullest by carving it into a piece of pork that looks so soft and moist that if you could reach through the glass and poke it, the surface would yield.

But however humble, the cabbage alone makes a stopover in Taiwan worth while.

PETER NEVILLE-HADLEY IS THE AUTHOR OF BEIJING (CADOGAN GUIDES) AND EDITOR AND CO-AUTHOR OF FROMMER'S CHINA.

 

 

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with kind regards,

Matthias Arnold
(Art-Eastasia list)

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

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