Nachrichten und Veranstaltungen

Public lecture by PD Dr. Isabella Schwaderer: At the beginning of the 20th century, two relatively young arts developed in parallel and cross-fertilised each other - photography and expressive dance. In Germany in particular, photography was a welcome means for dancers to achieve a broad impact beyond the stage. A particular interest in art forms understood as "primordial" led to an exchange with with non-European dancers, whose art was perceived as superior because of its ancient tradition. From the 1920s, South Asian artists were increasingly present on European stages and in the studios of star photographers. An analysis of images of Indian dancers from the Weimar Republic to the Nazi era explores the origins of stereotypes and the interaction of dance movements and poses in front of the camera. This reveals a broad commercialisation of the media of dance, photography and film, but also how artists visually interacted and collaborated.

Kalamkari Performance mit Madhavi: Kalamkaris sind mit Naturfarben handgemalte Stoffbilder aus Südindien (vorwiegend aus Tamil Nadu und Andhra Pradesh). Madhavi bringt eine Auswahl ihrer schönsten Exponate aus ihrer über viele Jahre in Indien zusammengetragenen Kalamkari Sammlung mit. Nach einer Einführung in die Hintergründe der Kalamkaris werden die dargestellten Gottheiten des Hindu Pantheons durch Madhavis beeindruckenden Tanz im klassisch südindischen Tanzstil Bharata Natyam lebendig. Geschichtenerzähler, die mit gemalten Stoffbilderrollen von Dorf zu Dorf ziehen gibt es in Indien seit dem 2.Jhd vor Christus. Durch Erzählung, Gebärden und Tanz in moderner Form knüpft Madhavi auf diese Weise an alte Erzähltraditionen indischer Barden an.

The Labyrinth City of Loulan (Loulan micheng), now kept in the Museum of East Asian Art, Cologne, was created in 1992 by pioneer Modernist Chinese calligrapher Gu Gan (1942–2020). Featuring pictographic variations of ancient Chinese oracle-bone and seal scripts, it exemplifies the Modernist renewal of calligraphic arts in Post-Mao China. Relying on the long-standing premise of ink-drawn brush strokes as unique, cosmographic “mind paintings”, the work expresses an artistic mindset shaped by and shaping the creative generation of Gu’s time. Its composition is, decipherable as a diagrammatic, indeed cartographic spatial design, whose intricate labyrinth of written and painted ‘signposts’ emerges like a visualized mind map of sorts: allowing us to navigate across some of the tangled historical and geographical, epigraphical and archaeological terrains of Chinese art. The presentation so maps out Gu’s work as a “Modernist Metaverse” themed on the ruined ancient Silk Road city of Loulan.

Nächste Woche finden am Mittwoch (02.10.24) die Einführungsveranstaltungen für die neuen Studierenden unserer Abteilung statt: - 14.00 Uhr s.t. Bachelor-Einführungsveranstaltung - 15.00 Uhr s.t. Master-Einführungsveranstaltung Beide Informationsveranstaltungen finden im Seminarraum der Abteilung für Asiatische und Islamische Kunstgeschichte im Erdgeschoss der Adenauerallee 10 statt (gegenüber der Universitätsbibliothek).

The lecture takes a historical view to the question of urban development and morphology as related to the questions of modification nature. Cities by their very nature modify the natural condition in order to create conducive living environment. However this alteration of natural condition is not a constant phenomenon and has been undergoing a shift in recent past. This lecture will highlight case studies of South Asian historical cities to establish the pattern of natural modifications and its result in the formation of cities.

A Reimagining of Sikkim’s Sacred Landscapes: Narratives of Conflict and Controversy: Using the Buddhist sacred landscapes of Sikkim as a case study, this lecture examines the relationship between conflict and controversy in narratives concerning the conversion and establishment of sacred sites. Drawing primarily on ethnographic research embedded in the daily lives of Lhopo Buddhists, the presentation explores the belief narratives surrounding the transformation of the sacred landscape, driven by both natural and man-made disasters. It aims to demonstrate how local communities negotiate their beliefs and rituals, adapting to changes by creating new sacred spaces. In this process, the materiality of religious practices—embodied in altars, shrines, and ritual objects—plays a central role in transforming the landscape. By establishing new physical manifestations of their faith, these communities reshape their environment into a conflicted site of religious and cultural significance.

Online conference organised by the Department of Asian and Islamic Art History, University of Bonn, Germany and the Centre for Research in Arts and Creative Exchange (CRACE), University of Roehampton, UK: Join us for two days of exciting presentations on ‘Emerging Trends in Research on Classical Indian Dance’ and related topics. The keynote address ‘Interweaving Questions of Past and Future: Ram Gopal, Innovative Bharatanatyam Pioneer and Modernist’ will be delivered by Professor Ann R David. There will be a special contribution on ‘The Importance of Museum Archives for the Study of Indian Dance’ by Dr Johannes Beltz and a special lecture on ‘Interlinking Indian Dance with Architecture, Sculpture and Literature’ by Professor Choodamani Nandagopal.

Scholarship on religion and visual culture often posits that the birth of modern museums and art historical approaches brought to a secularization and aestheticization of religious art. This might also explain why many scholars of art have explored the intellectual and artistic networks created in the early 20 th century between Japan and India and centering on the encounter between the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore and the Japanese art historian Okakura Kakuzō, but they have not considered the importance of Buddhism in this transnational flow of visual culture. This presentation will trace recent scholarship on modern Buddhism that is shedding light on the role of Buddhist priests and intellectuals in the circulation of visual culture between Japan and South Asia, and will focus on the work of one specific Japanese artist, Nousu Kōsetsu, and on the way his art has been redeployed in modern spaces of Buddhist religious practice in a transnational context.

"Höre nie auf zu malen, höre nie auf, was du tun willst“, lautet die Botschaft des Films. Er blickt in das Leben der talentierten Naima, die alles fantasievoll bemalt, was ihr unter die Finger kommt. Als ihr Vater, ein Rikscha-Fahrer, schwer erkrank, steht die Familie vor dem finanziellen Ruin. Naima würde gerne Rikscha fahren, aber die anstrengende Arbeit ist nur Männern vorbehalten. Mutig und entschlossen sieht sie nur einen Ausweg: Mit abgeschnittenen Haaren und Jungenkleidung wird sie schließlich ein erfolgreicher Rikscha- Fahrer. Besonders ihr selbst bemaltes Gefährt ist sehr beliebt. Allerdings neiden andere Rikscha-Fahrer ihr diesen Erfolg, und ihr Geheimnis droht, entdeckt zu werden. – Eine Besonderheit des Films sind die farbenfrohen Bilder, die in einigen Szenen animiert werden. Im Anschluss an die Filmvorführung findet eine interaktive Panel Diskussion statt.

The dry-zone water-harvesting and management system in Sri Lanka is one of the oldest historically recorded systems in the world. A substantial number of ancient sources mention the management and governance structure of this system suggesting it was initiated in the 4th century BCE and abandoned in the middle of the 13th century CE. In the 19th century CE, it was reused under the British colonial government. Over the centuries,large-scale irrigation works were important to expand and develop the Dry Zone hydraulic civilization throughout the northern lowland plains and to enhance the livelihoods of the people by ensuring water availability throughout the year. After nearly five centuries of abandonment, the water management and governance systems in the Rajarata kingdom were reutilized under the British colonial regime.

This lecture will reflect on two distinct moments in the speaker’s curatorial practice where technology was and is a tool in breaking barriers across territories for public engagement with arts, heritage and culture. One, when a 3D map of an exhibition curated in Delhi, of Indian and Pakistani origin artists, was used as a teaching tool to expand the notion of ‘ownership’ of history. Second, a global collaboration of technologists and designers to create Augmented Reality filters for a guerilla tour about looted artefacts in a well known museum. Both experiences were moments where information disseminated through technology, and, using technology allowed for space of advocacy of complicated intangible histories through tangible objects. The lecture is a crystallisation of these learnings which the advantage of retrospect and reflection and a possible way-forward playbook on how these learnings can actionalise advocacy and change through the public, if circumstances and intent align.

The Contested Use of Siva as Icon and Subject: Using the format of a lecture/demonstration, we offer a glimpse into the dancing forms of Śiva, especially Śiva Naṭarāja, whose position in Hindu mythology and Western understandings gained popularity through the writings of Ananda Coomaraswamy (1918) and Heinrich Zimmer (1946) in the early 20th century. The allure and power of the famous Naṭarāja icon, deeply implicated and foregrounded as the Lord of Dance in the nationalist revival of Indian dance in this period, remains until this day. We illustrate how Śiva began to take centre stage in the dance form of Bhāratanāṭyam both in choreographies and in his presence onstage in sculptural form, providing a virile, hypermasculine ideal especially for male dancers. We show examples from Indian dancer Ram Gopal (1912-2003) as well as Rukmini Devi Arundale’s (1904-1986) new revivalist choreography on Śiva, titled Natanam Adinar (Tamiḻ: naṭaṉaṁ āṭiṉār).