Δ The Look into ones one’s Face

The Western image of Tibet is often one-sided and imbued with clichés which are either about Chinese repression or the myth of the legendary “Shangrila”. The fact that Tibet is a complex modern society is far more rarely perceived. In 2009, Lhasa, the capital, is a mixture of Chinese small-town streets lined with billboard-decorated concrete buildings and an ancient Tibetan city centre with gold-gleaming temple roofs. Lhasa is a meeting point for pilgrims from all directions and, at the same time, a garrison town and a commercial centre.

In the last years, in spite of all restrictions, a vibrant art scene has established itself. Its development is thriving on far-reaching changes within the subjugated Tibetan society – on a thin dividing line between post-communist movements, global internet culture and Buddhism. A handful of young artists, among them Chinese colleagues living in Tibet for a long time, have founded a gallery in the heart of the old town. It bears the name of Gendün Chöpel, the first modern artist and scientist who is an icon of the secular freethinking people of Tibet.

For the first time, photo documents from eleven artists of the Gendün Chöpel Gallery are to be seen in a Western country. These allow some very personal insights into the Tibetan everyday life between tradition, repression and the debate over a modern Tibetan identity. The title of the exhibition – “The look into one’s own face” – has been chosen by the photographers themselves because it is an old Tibetan phrase. In Buddhism it means the moment when a man or a woman reaches a fundamental knowledge of his or her own being unhampered by prejudice – that is when s/he is “enlightened”.

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Δ Sevrugian

The exhibition “Sevrugian. Images of the Orient in Photography and Painting, 1880 to 1980” shows 97 works of two Armenian artists and relocates them in the context of their family’s history. The two artists are father and son who come from a family of diplomats in Tehran.

Antoine-Khan Sevruguin (ca. 1840-1933) – the photographer – and André “Darvish” Sevrugian (1894-1996) – the painter – belonged to the upper-class of Tehran, and being cosmopolitans, they maintained transnational, cross-border exchange relations in cultural, scientific and artistic affairs with their contemporaries. Antoine Sevruguin and André Sevrugian – the latter using his family name in its original Armenian spelling - were at home in the Armenian diaspora of Tehran, and although Christians, they were deeply involved with Persian culture.

Antoine-Khan Sevruguin was a photographer at the court, from Shah Nasser ad-Din to Reza Pahlevi. During his many journeys within Persia he photographed and documented the traditional ways of life of different groups of people. He also photographed the monuments of Iranian antiquity, his pictures often being reproduced in the books of German archaeologists but without mentioning the artist’s name. Thus, in contrast to the USA and England, Antoine has remained widely unknown in Germany.

The artist André “Darvish” Sevrugian dedicated many years of his life to Persian poetry, and managed to convert its literary images into paintings following the style of Persian miniatures. Through coloration and design he lent depth and perspective to his paintings while his figures gained a strong emotional expressivity. He became famous for his 416 illustrations to the Shahname, the “Book of Kings”, composed by Firdowsi in the 11th century CE, as well as for also having illustrated the poetry of Islamic mystics such as, for instance, Omar Khayyam (1048-1128).

André "Darvish" Sevrugian, 1924 - 1934. Illustration taken from the "Shahname" Epic of Firdousi.
Having received an important letter of their army commander Geshdawz, Giv, Gudarz, Bahram, Farhad and Gorgin meet at Tusz to discuss it. Private collection: Dr. Emanuel Sevrugian. Photo: Horst Ziegenfuß.

In the same way that Antoine Sevruguin and André Sevrugian were at home in two cultures – the Armenian and the Iranian – so their artistic oeuvres were pervaded by their belonging to both cultures. The special attraction of this exhibition lies in the parallel between the multicultural life-world of the Sevrugian family and the interaction of Eastern and Western art which finds expression in the photographs of the father and in the son’s work as a painter.

The exhibits are partly shown for the first time in Germany and come from the collection of Emanuel Sevrugian who today lives in Heidelberg and is the son and grandson respectively of both artists. The exhibition results from the cooperation of the Museum of World Cultures in Frankfurt and the Committee for the World Heritage Site of Lorsch Monastery.

Responsible for concept and subject matter of the exhibition Dr. Ulrike Krasberg, Frankfurt on the Main / University lecturer at Marburg University.

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Δ Travelling and Discovering.

The exhibition Travelling and discovering: from the Sepik to the Main puts 124 objects taken from the internationally renowned Oceania Collection of the Museum of World Cultures on show. At the beginning of the 1960s these had been acquired in Papua New Guinea by scientists of the Frobenius Institute for the Frankfort Ethnological Museum. During two research expeditions heading for the Sepik River area in the north eastern part of the island they collected carved ancestor figures, debating stools, paintings on palm leaf sheaths and “sacred flutes” – counted today among the highlights of the museum. In Frankfort these have been exhibited only twice in the past: in 1964 in the Städel’sches Kunstinstitut and in 1987 in the Kunsthalle Schirn.

Visitors are invited to enter the flow of time and undertake a journey in the company of the exhibits. We’ll start on the Sepik River at the beginning of the 1960s to gain a view into male and female spheres of life and an understanding of the institution of the men’s house. Continuing our way we will gain impressions of the collecting activities of the researchers in the field. A series of photos will introduce us to the transport of the collection from the Sepik River to the Main.

As an exemplary mode of the presentation of ethnographic objects in a museum the style of the 1960s is reconstructed: considered as scientific evidence objects are staged in the form of dioramas with photos and text panels. At the end of the journey all objects have become ‘pure’ works of art and have arrived in the gallery of the present.

In a replicated museum’s storeroom visitors will have the opportunity to get more information on the exhibits. An explorer’s handbook will help children to find the way to their own research station where they can touch things themselves.

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