Aktuelles aus den Abteilungen

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.