Δ Artful Resistance Sri Lanka – a tropical vacation paradise for many people, a decades’ long battleground of war for others: The island state, with its varied history and its rich cultural heritage, characterized by the confluence of different cultures, religions, and artistic traditions, conjures up manifold and often contradictory associations. Hardly known in Europe, however, is the country’s vibrant and diverse contemporary art scene. The exhibition Artful Resistance presents for the first time in Germany a comprehensive overview of paintings, graphic art, photography, sculptures, and installations by established as well as emerging voices in the Sri Lankan art community. With their innovative experimentation with new genres, materials, and ideas, these works stand in a tradition of visual expression which is on the one hand firmly rooted in local aesthetics and themes, but by engaging with European art trends has early on developed an independent modernity. In their works, Sri Lanka’s contemporary artists deal with issues of global concern – the simultaneity of tradition and modernity, urbanization, consumer society, gender roles, religion and politics, cultural difference, or the destructive effects of war and terrorism on society – and in their artistic self-consciousness resist both categorization by Western art hierarchies as well as confinement by national and cultural identities. Their provocative, ironic, or contemplative comments reflect a multi-faceted image of contemporary Sri Lankan society.



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Δ Being Object Being Art

Cultures contribute to the richness of this world through their uniqueness and variety – as do their material products. This is reflected in the high-quality ethnographic collections from Africa, the Americas, Southeast Asia, Oceania and East Asia at the Museum of World Cultures in Frankfurt/Main. For the first time, 130 ethnographica – everyday objects or ritual items from indigenous societies – taken from the abundance of a collection inventory comprising 67.000 items, are publicly presented from the point of view of 'the masterpiece' in an exquisite art project. The concept of 'masterpiece' comes from the century-old tradition of craft education. While a journeyman completed his apprenticeship with a 'journeyman's piece', only the one who was generally recognized as 'master' because of his excellent craftsmanship – among many other requirements to be fulfilled – received the title of a master.

Selected from a personal point of view by the regional curators, the beholder is meant to discover the extraordinary, the elaborate, the different, the perfect, the harmonic or even the disturbing in the objects concerned. Although the presentation of the works – the lack of space preventing from showing more than 98 items in the exhibition – underlines the aspect of art, the objects are also interpreted in their ethnographic contexts.

The title "Being Object. Being Art. Masterpieces from the Collections of the Museum of World Cultures in Frankfurt/Main" thus clarifies the intention of the curators: the issue 'art or context', discussed over and over again in presentations of non-Western-art – cannot be answered with an apodictic 'either/or' but with an 'as well as'.

The encounter with the objects which are incorporating the artistic, social and political concepts of indigenous societies promises to be a unique and fascinating experience of art. The latter is confirmed by a catalogue accompanying the exhibition in which all 130 works are reproduced: For this project the objects have been freshly photographed, some even for the first time.

The exhibition is accompanied by an extensive publication:
Being Object. Being Art
Masterpieces from the collections of the Museum of World CulturesFrankfurt am Main.
Sibeth, Achim (ed.): P. 323, 210 Illustrations, (ISBN 978 5 8030 3338 3)
€49.80
More information can be found at publications.
 

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