Public lecture by Prof. Dr. Julia A. B. Hegewald: The Jaina religion originates in East India in about the sixth century BCE. It reached the South Indian State of Karnataka in about the second century CE. From the fifth century CE onwards, Jainism appears to have risen steadily to a position of supremacy in the region. The hegemony of the Jainas and their control of all areas of life throughout Karnataka was especially pronounced from the eighth to eleventh centuries CE. However, from the twelfth century, the influence diminished rapidly and the Jaina community ended up in a position of severe asymmetrical dependency. This presentation will focus on the reasons for the initial rise and the subsequent irreversible decline of the Jainas in the State. Causes are to be found in religious, social, political and economic areas.
Veranstaltungen
Im kommenden Sommersemester veranstaltet die Abteilung für Asiatische und Islamische Kunstgeschichte vom 21. bis 25. Mai 2024 die Exkursion "Asien in London entdecken". Der geplante Schwerpunkt der Exkursion liegt auf Kunst und Architektur mit Asienbezug. Am Mittwoch, den 14. Februar 2024, bieten wir um 11.00 Uhr eine Informationsveranstaltung im Seminarraum der AIK (Adenauerallee 10, EG.) an. Themen der Veranstaltung sind der Exkursionsablauf, Kosten und Finanzierung, Anrechnung, sowie Teilnahmevoraussetzungen.
"The Vienna World's Fair of 1873 and the Beginnings of Chinese Art History": Public lecture by Prof. Dr. Lukas Nickel: The World’s Fair in Vienna of 1873 was the largest and most ambitious of the early World’s Fairs. The organisers went out of their way to include states that had been underrepresented in London and Paris. China was among the countries that had their first formal presentation at the international exhibition. The Chinese pavilion became the most comprehensive show products of Chinese nature, industry and art until then. As it came at a time when museums across Europe began establishing East Asian collections, it arguably shaped the European understanding of Chinese material culture of the late 19th century. During the talk we will trace the process of how the show came into being, characterise its displays, and discuss the impact it had on the field of art history both in Europe and in China.
Public lecture by Dr. des. Sandra J. Schlage: "Travelling Images: Some Observations on Angkor Sculptures and the Cultural Exchange between South- and Southeast Asia.": Visiting the ancient temples of the Angkor Empire in Cambodia is a unique experience for anyone familiar with (South-)Indian art. Although, many mytho-logical scenes and deities of the Hindu/Buddhist pantheon can be easily identified, they display individual traits and decorative designs which are unique to Khmer art. What can these sculptures tell us about the cultural exchange between India and Mainland Southeast Asia? What can we find out about the creative process of the artists? I am going to share my thoughts about these questions based on an analysis of my favourite motifs, (re-)discovered during our Cambodia excursion in summer 2023.
Art Nouveau’s style and ideology were developed as an answer to the need for a new approach to art and design at the end of the nineteenth century. At the backbone of this development was Japanese art (and Japonisme), which provided a major inspiration to the art and design world of the time. However, the popularity and global development of the movement in its turn provided a new impetus to the art and design worlds of its land of origin, which was struggling with similar problems. In Japan, Art Nouveau encouraged artists to transcend art and design genres, and to re-evaluate traditional crafts and designs, activities that can be said to be the starting point of modern Japanese craft design. This lecture will provide an introduction to Japanese Art Nouveau. It will introduce some representative artists, and will focus on the development of the movement in the medium kimono in specific.
In Kooperation mit der ANDHERI HILFE e.V. und der Bonner Filmfair: Filmvorführung und Diskussion mit Maja Meiners (Regisseurin), Dr. Heike Kluve (ANDHERI HILFE) und Dr. des. Sandra J. Schlage (AIK, Uni Bonn): "BREAKING BARRIERS: The Casteless Collective": The Casteless Collective is a protest music band from Chennai, South India, playing an exciting mix of folk music and Gaana art coming from North Chennai’s slum area, combined with modern musical styles of rap and rock. The songs are dealing with diverse social issues pertaining to people from underprivileged and marginalised backgrounds, as represented by the band members themselves. The film shows the young band’s powerful attempt to break cultural stigmas and joins their journey towards an Indian future of casteless mentality and reality. Im Anschluss an die Filmvorführung (Englisch) findet eine interaktive Panel Diskussi-on (Deutsch/Englisch) statt.
Publich lecture by Dorothée Kreuzer: The spate of recent publications on late 15th century Timurid book art opens up critical space for reconsidering the conventional text-image relationship approach. A close reading of the sumptuous three double page opening sequence of the Cairo Bustan reveals the illumination program of the manuscript not only as meta-commentary to Sa’di’s text but emerges as literally pre- and pro-scriptive: showing what precedes words and a guidance to how to read the following text. Taking my cue from the unpublished double-page spread placed between the famous frontispiece and the gateway to the written text or incipit, the issue of beauty appears as the non-trivial steppingstone en route to the ineffable. Very much like the Platonic agalma as launch pad to the higher good, the intricate montage of the figures of goose and phoenix draws the reader’s attention to processes of understanding.
Workshop: South India between the 4th and the 6th century CE: We wish to apprehend this period in a comparative perspective, in order to put into context the specific situation of the Tamil-speaking South, as opposed to Central and North India, as well as Sri Lanka. Our approach will be multidisciplinary, combining history, art history, epigraphy, numismatics and archaeology. Possibility to attend the conferences online through pre-registration. Send your request by 19 October 2023 (9 am) at ariane.desaxce@dainst.de
Songs of Love and War from Classical Tamil Poetry (2 BCE - 2 CE) through Bharatanatyam: The Sangam anthology contains poems of love and war which dates back to over two millennia. The literature is lesser known due to the linguistic complexity of the poetry. The body of literature brings out the inextricable link of the external landscape which has a direct connection to the internal emotional states. In today’s world, where people are slotted based on several stereotypes of gender, religion and language, Sangam poetry comes as a breath of fresh air since it observes human nature instead of ordering them. Since Bharatanatyam is a versatile language to communicate, the sheer humanness of the poems makes the poetry from over two millennia to have a message which is alive and relevant in today’s context. The aim is to promote the body of literature as not only the pride of Tamils but a treasured contribution of India to world literature, dance and theatre.
The robbing of temple statues of Koh Ker, the tenth century Angkorian Capital in Cambodia, is a unique crime story, whose investigation is still ongoing. The collaborative work of archaeologists, lawyers and government officials of various countries have revealed an entanglement of art collectors, experts and museums leading to the discovery and return of numerous statues so far. Not being part of this investigtation, the opportunity to attend the arrival of some statues personally in Phnom Penh in 2021 nevertheless inspired me, to design a seminar for the summer semester of 2022 at the University of Bamberg on the debate of disputed objects in Western museums, in which the participants created physical and digital evidence boards on the objects’ history, the people and institutions involved, debating also their legal status. This talk will be an update of my presentation on the Koh Ker statues.
Wir besuchen gemeinsam die Ausstellung „Ambedkar. Blick von Außen“ von Frank Rogge, Olivier Graine und Niteen Gupte, die im Rahmen der Indientage der Deutsch-Indischen Gesellschaft e.V. Köln stattfindet. Die drei Künstler aus Köln positionieren sich mit ihren eigenen künstlerischen Mitteln zu B. R. Ambedkar, der am meisten portraitierten historischen Persönlichkeit im heutigen Indien. B. R. Ambedkar (1891-1956) übte enormen politischen Einfluss als Vorsitzender des indischen Verfassungskomitees aus. Er wurde der erste Justizminister des neugegründeten indischen Staates. Besonders bedeutsam ist seine Rolle als Anführer der ehemals Unberührbaren und seine Beiträge zu der Dalit-Bewegung. Teil des Ausstellungsbesuchs ist ein Gespräch mit den Künstlern. Wenn Sie an dieser Exkursion teilnehmen möchten, melden Sie sich bitte bei Sandra J. Schlage (Schlage@uni-bonn.de). Mehr informationen zur Ausstellung: www.digkoeln.de
"Typological-Stylistic Observations on Early Gandhāran Buddha Images in Stone, c. 1st–3rd Centuries". Online lecture by Dr. Corinna Wessels-Mevissen: I shall present my recently developed model of gradually evolving typological stages of the Buddha image, during late pre-Kushan and Kushan rule, in the region referred to as “Gandhāra”. Particularly, the question of the origin and date of the earliest anthropomorphic representation of the historic Buddha (lived ca. fifth-fourth centuries BCE) has been explored for a long time. However, the extremely intricate factual situation has not allowed to arrive at a widely accepted result yet. I shall explain my arguments for a particular typological-stylistic order of succession, almost exclusively based on features observed on the head portions. One of my new suggestions concerns the possible choice of traits pertaining to the Kushan rulers and their immediate predecessors themselves for designing the Gandhāran Buddha image.
Public lecture by Nathalie Neumann M.A.: Felix Ganz (1869-1944) was a successful businessman from Mainz and managing director of Ludwig Ganz AG, which imported and manufactured oriental carpets and textile products for furniture and home décor. He was also an art collector with an important collection of art objects from the Middle East and East Asia. In 1934, Ludwig Ganz AG was ‘aryanized’. In 1942 he and his second wife Erna were deported to Theresienstadt, where they survived for two years, and were murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp in October 1944. His art collection disappeared with only have a rough description of the items from restitution claims. In 2019 some objects belonging to Felix were discovered in the Landesmuseum in Mainz. Adam Ganz is the great-grandson of Felix Ganz. In autumn 2018 he and Nathalie Neumann successfully applied to the German Lostart Foundation (DZK Magdeburg) to research the fate of the collection in conjunction with the University of Mainz.
Im Rahmen des BA-Seminars „Kunst?! Architektur, Skulptur, Malerei und mehr aus Tamiḻ Nāṭu“ veranstaltet die Abteilung für Asiatische und Islamische Kunstge-schichte eine Tagesexkursion zur großen Tamil-Sonderausstellung im Lindenmu-seum Stuttgart. Wir haben vor Ort auch eine 90-minütige Kuratorenführung mit Herrn Dr. Noack gebucht. Mehr Informationen zu der Ausstellung finden Sie im Internet: https://www.lindenmuseum.de/sehen/ausstellungen/von-liebe-und-krieg Wenn Sie an dieser Exkursion teilnehmen möchten, melden Sie sich bitte bei Sandra J. Schlage (Schlage@uni-bonn.de). Sie erhalten in der zweiten Woche des Sommersemesters eine verbindliche Antwort, da wir vorher nicht die Teilneh-merzahl des BA-Kurses kennen.
Slavery in Northern Mozambique, trade dynamics and past interactions in India Ocean: Ilha de Moçambique, 900 AD to 1800: Mozambique’s coast is marked by different cultural horizons that span from hunter-gatherers to the establishment of Bantu farmers and later proceeded by Swahili trade settlements that were interconnected within the Indian Ocean Trade Network. New perspectives from archaeological (terrestrial and maritime), historical and anthropological research are bringing to light a complex body of knowledge about slavery in this section of southern East Africa, which has been based chiefly on Portuguese sources (customs, colonial administration archives, etc.). This exclusion of indigenous and Swahili sources has left gaps relevant to the understanding of this process. It is then critical to look at different sources to better comprehend the complex past slave trade activities and their impacts on Mozambique.
Onlie workshop by Prof. Dr. Julia A. B. Hegewald: Following the lecture on Tuesday, we will together aim at finding explanations for the striking approach, which builders of Jaina temples took during the period starting from the fifteenth century onwards, which strongly expressed Islamic design principles and regularly followed Muslim planning rules. Despite this general acceptation of Islamic approaches in art and architecture, the Jainas appear to have been especially open towards adopting Islamic ideas in their temple constructions. We will examine these and other possible explanations and it is likely that it was not simply a single but in most cases a series of reasons which might have led to the creation of this intriguing hybrid style of architecture.
Online Lecture by Prof. Dr. Julia A. B. Hegewald: “Islamic Aesthetics for Jaina Temples in Crisis: Dependency, Destruction and Creative Adaptation for Survival”: The arrival of Islam in the Indian subcontinent drastically changed the political, religious and cultural landscape. While historic accounts and inscriptions portray a situation of crisis for indigenous religious groups and destroyed statues and temples are still visible today, the available architecture also displays a surprisingly creative response to this threat. Despite at times violent persecutions of the Jainas, the stylistic influence Islamic art has had on Jaina religious buildings is startling. This presentation draws attention to this fascinating phenomenon and considers a series of possible reasons for this hybrid style.
Old Goa developed as one of the major port cities of the Indian Ocean during the sixteenth century, as the Portuguese attempted to control maritime trade routes by occupying the region’s major coastal settlements and blockading others. The city became both a trade emporium and a religious center for the Portuguese State of India (Estado da Índia), an “informal” empire that stretched from Eastern Africa to the Pacific Ocean rim. In this presentation, I will describe Old Goa’s urban development during the Early Modern period, focusing on slavery, caste and religion as essential aspects in shaping the city. Addressing issues such as urban layout, segregation, sacral landscapes and dwellings, I will highlight how the most vulnerable and disenfranchised population groups fared in Old Goa’s multilayered society.
Public lecture by Dr. Anna Grasskamp: The creative reuse of materials “made in China” has a short history in the daily practices of middle-class households, but a long history in art, craftsmanship and design. When Ming dynasty potters in China’s “porcelain capital” Jingdezhen made plates, cups, and bowls, they could not have known that their work would be reused to decorate European sites, for examples as hats in two sculptures at Berlin’s Charlottenburg Castle; likewise, factory workers and ragpickers on contemporary garbage dump sites in China may be unaware of artworks made entirely of discarded objects exhibited in exclusive urban art spaces all over the world. This paper discusses and analyzes historic and contemporary practices of upcycling in art and design with a special focus on materials and objects “made in China” in relation to research on the social lives of things and ecologies of matter.
Tanzschritte, Handgesten, eine Mrdangam Trommel, ausdrucksstarke Mimik und oft sehr humorvolle Texte, dass ist die Mischung, die den aus dem südindischen Kerala stammenden Thullal Tanz so attraktiv machen. Der Freiburger Künstler Hartmut Schmidt beschäftigt sich seit über 30 Jahren sehr intensiv mit dieser bis heute populären Kunstform. In seiner Lecture Demonstration stellt er die unterschiedlichen Stilrichtungen vor und erklärt anhand zahlreicher Beispiele die Besonderheiten von Thullal. Sechs Geschich-ten wurden von ihm aus der Originalsprache Malayalam ins Deutsche übertragen, sind so nachvollziehbar für das kleine und große Publikum bei seinen Auftritten an Schulen und in Theatern.
Dekolonisierung, Postkolonialismus, Provenienz, Restitution, Rückforderungen sind aktuell heiß und kontrovers diskutierte Aspekte in der Museumslandschaft der westlichen - ehemals als Kolonialmächte aufgetretenen - Welt und der ehemals kolonisierten Länder. Nach einem Blick auf die Diskussion um die Rückgabe der Benin-Bronzen richtet sich der Vortrag auf den hierzulande eher unbekannten Dialog zwischen der Republik Indonesien und der seinerzeitigen Kolonialmacht Niederlande. Gegenstand von Verhandlungen zwischen den beiden Ländern ist ein immenses Konvolut herausragender kunsthistorischer und ethnographischer Objekte sowie Manuskripte in niederländischen Museen und Bibliotheken. Dieser Prozess geht einher mit der Aufarbeitung der kolonialen Vergangenheit und insbesondere mit der auf beiden Seiten lange verdrängten bzw. glorifizierten Geschichte der Unabhängigkeitswerdung Indonesiens 1945.
Am 14.12.2022 bietet die Abteilung für Asiatische und Islamische Kunstgeschichte eine Informationsveranstaltung für Studierende (alle Stufen) zur Summerschool in Kam-bodscha im August/September 2023 an. Geplant ist eine ca. dreiwöchige Summer-school, die in Kambodscha von Prof. Dr. Ulrike Niklas und Team durchgeführt wird. Themen der Informationsveranstaltung sind z.B. der Exkursionsablauf, finanzielle Förderung, Anrechnung für das Studium und Reisemedizin. Frau Prof. Dr. Niklas wird online an der Informationsveranstaltung teilnehmen.
Workshop on Insights into the Archaeology and Art History of Sri Lanka including lectures by Dr. Nimal Perera "Prehistory of Sri Lanka", Prof. Dr. Osmund Bopearachchi "Avalokiteśvara, protector of Mariners", Prof. Dr. Nuwan Abhayawardana "Ancient water harvesting and management systems in Sri Lanka" and Dr. Ariane de Saxcé "Giribawa, an ancient glass production site".
Online conference:Creation stories addressing the origin of Earth and/or that of humankind are presumably among the oldest narratives known in many parts of the world. Similarly, there are ancient works of art depicting creation or, for instance in South Asian art, cycles of destruction and creation. While not scientifically accurate from the point of view of modern physics or evolution theory, these stories and images of the beginnings of (life on) Earth have nevertheless been profoundly true ways of perceiving reality for many people. In a two-day conference we seek to bring together expertise on different cultural, regional and historical backgrounds, addressing questions from various disciplinary vantage points.
Lecture by Prof. Pratyush Shankar: This talk will highlight the key moments during the colonial rule in India when many princely cities, beyond the gaze of the British masters, managed to carry out many experiments in city building leading to creation of new urban fabric and public places. Many of these experiments were a result of local concerns and were centred round social, economic and cultural reforms of Indian society. What was also remarkable was that these initiatives were a work of collaboration between Indian patrons and a range of international professionals and experts. This talk will try to highlight such moments of experimentation and its resultant outcome for future city planning.
Online conference by the Department of Asian and Islamic Art History, University of Bonn (Germany) and the School of Arts, University of Roehampton (UK). Welcome address – 2:00 pm (UK), 3:00 pm (Germany), 6:30 pm (India): University of Roehampton: Prof. Ann R. David University of Bonn: Prof. Dr. Julia A. B. Hegewald and Prof. Dr. Claudia Wenzel. Panel 1: Chair: Arunima J R, Speakers: Sandra Jasmin Schlage (University of Bonn, Germany), Anuradha Ramesh (VISTAS, Chennai, India), Giridhar Raghunathan (University of Roehampton, UK). Panel 2: Chair: Aryamba Sriram, Speakers: Dr. Varada Pandit (University of Mumbai, India), Shambik Ghose (Leeds Beckett University, UK). Panel 3: Chair: Sripadma Ganapathi, Speakers: Dr. Swetha Sundaran Mangalath (St. Aloysius College, Mangalore, India), Dr. Ayla Joncheere (Ghent University, Belgium). Keynote by Dr. Avanthi Meduri, Reader, School of Arts, University of Roehampton, UK: 5: 15 pm (UK), 6:15 pm (Germany), 9:45 pm (India).
Public lecture by Prof. Ryan R. Overbey: The Great Peahen Queen of Spells (Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī) is a dynamic Buddhist scripture containing lists of gods and demons, apotropaic spells, and protective rituals. This scripture and its artistic manifestations grew over time, with various forms of Mahāmāyūrī emerging in South, Central, and East Asia from the early centuries CE up to the present. In this lecture we will explore two aspects of the development of the Māhāmāyūrī corpus over time. First, we will examine the ways images of Mahāmāyūrī transformed as they moved from South to Central and East Asia. Second, we will investigate some ritual manuals and visualization instructions extant in Chinese, Sanskrit, and Tibetan sources. Comparison of these materials will allow us think critically about the relationship between art and ritual in the Buddhist traditions. Picture: Tokyo National Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Lecture by Dr. Sidh Losa Mendiratta: As civilizations’ most complex material expressions, cities have flourished and withered over the centuries. Among the world’s ruined cities, Old Goa holds a unique place. Following its thriving development as the Estado da Índia’s main port city during the 16th century, this cosmopolitan and commercial hub entered a long period of decline, mirroring the woes of the Portuguese Empire. In this presentation, I will describe how Old Goa’s archaeological and heritage structures were perceived from the late 19th century onwards, and how some of them were preserved and used during the final years of Portuguese colonial rule. Highlighting the handful of archaeological excavations in Old Goa, I will address how recent research allows us to form a clearer picture of the erstwhile port city, and to reassess its significance, not only for the fields of Architectural and Urban History, but also for the larger narratives of Asian/European cultural encounters.
Lecture by Prof. Dr. Finbarr Barry Flood: Asymmetrical Dependencies in a Maritime Cosmopolis: Reading a Medieval Iraqi Image Cycle. One of the most celebrated extant medieval Arabic manuscripts is an illustrated copy of the Maqāmāt (Assemblies) of Abu Muhmmad al-Qasim ibn ‘Ali al-Hariri (d. 516H/1122 CE), a popular text subject to frequent copying. Many of the images in the 634/1237 copy of the Maqāmāt exceed its specifications, extending the purview of the text in ways that reflect the impact of oral and textual lore concerning the Indian Ocean. My talk will focus on the most extensive image cycle within the manuscript, which narrates a sea voyage and shipwreck on a mysterious island. It will explore the ways in which various kinds of asymmetrical dependencies are depicted in the images.
Public lecture by Dr. Lianming Wang: "Transoceanic Trade Repictured: Coromandel Lacquer Screen and the Mobile Image in Global Exchange." This talk responds to the ingenious concept of the ‘image vehicle’ (Bilderfahrzeuge) coined by Aby Warburg, highlighting its potential and valence for studying the global migration of the image. Departing from a Coromandel lacquer screen with the portrayal of the Dutch paying tribute, now kept in the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, the discussion centers on the recurring theme of the transoceanic tributary trade found on a wide array of material surfaces.