What Is The Impact Of Met Ball'S "Exhibition Of Flowers And Water" On Chinese Cultural Relics?

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It is the focus of global fashion and art recently, and the New York Metropolitan Museum exhibition "China: The Mirror Flower Moon" is the key content of the Met Ball.

The artistic director of the exhibition is the famous director Wong Kar Wai. The exhibition is divided into more than 150 themes: cheongsam, martial arts, Peking Opera and so on.

And garments are all from the first-line fashion brands.

What is quite controversial is that the collection of Yuan Dynasty frescoes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Buddha Buddha map of the Yuan Dynasty, the Longmen Grottoes relief sculpture, the Northern Wei Emperor Xiaowen emperor's Buddha Buddha figure, the ringing temple stone cave Buddha, the Tianlong Mountain Grottoes Bodhisattva head, and the Li Daozan's Yi Yi Yi, the five hundred most commonly recognized statues of the Northern Dynasties statues, have become the background walls of the fashion show.

The Metropolitan Museum did not consider the possible damage done by the exhibition to these cultural relics.

To coincide with the annual fashion event of New York Met Gala and the 100th anniversary Asian Art Department, Metropolitan Museum of Art unveiled the exhibition entitled "China: mirror and water moon" in May 7th (China: Through the Looking Glass).

The exhibition was co sponsored by the Art Department of the clothing department and the Asian Art Department, and invited the famous director Wong Kar Wai to be the artistic director, aiming to "contrast the high fashion with Chinese costume, calligraphy and painting, porcelain and other art forms including film creation" to show the charming echo of the Chinese image.

(metropolis website language)

Before launching, the British Guardian pointed out that the theme of "the influence of China on Western fashion" was chosen by the Ministry of clothing and art as its theme. It itself had been criticized as the danger of cultural appropriation.

But this controversy is more like pedantic pedantry for fashion circles.

Andrew Bolton, director of fashion department and curator Andrew, responded: we are not showing real China, but a fantasy about China.

The Asian Art Department has provided all the exhibition halls for the exhibition as the venue for displaying the fashion. The most striking feature is the early Chinese Buddhist art, Arthur's (206 exhibition hall).

The largest exhibition hall in the Art Department of Asia contains the giant frescoes of the Yuan Dynasty, the Buddha map of the pharmacists, the relief sculpture of the Longmen Grottoes, the emperor of the Northern Wei emperor, the statue of Buddha, the statue of Buddha, the Bodhisattva head, the fingered citron, the Bodhisattva head of Tianlong Mountain Grottoes, and the five hundred most famous man-made statues of Li Daozan, which is recognized by the academia as the most famous statue in the Northern Dynasties.

The sekler exhibition hall was used as the venue for the press conference. During the exhibition, it was pformed into a huge fantasy space by the hanging screen and the huge lighting device, and most of the Buddhist relics disappeared in dim light.

This article hopes to point out that this carefully selected sekler exhibition hall has made a dull footnote for the so-called "illusion" of curator Andrew: this illusion not only erased a painful past in modern Chinese history, but also destroyed the conscience and reputation of several generations of American museums through extensive media coverage.

Let's start with the story behind the main relics of the sekler exhibition hall.

This is the pharmacist Buddha map, which occupies the entire west wall of the exhibition hall, 7.52 meters high and 15.12 meters long.

The middle of the mural is the main Buddha sitting on the lotus flower. The side of the mural is surrounded by sunlight, moonlight and Bodhisattva. There are two other gods.

The entire frescoes are flying in line, colorful and treasure stately, and can be called the classic paintings of Buddhist murals in the Yuan Dynasty.

Usually there are two benches in front of the murals for the audience to sit down and enjoy.

Many tourists come to sit in meditation and feel the compassion of Buddhism for saving the world.

This murals came from the rear Hall of Guangsheng temple in Hongdong County, Shanxi.

In the 20s of last century, China's political situation was chaotic and the local economy was depressed.

To repair the dilapidation of the Buddhist temple, Guangsheng Temple monk Zhen DA and Zhao county county magistrate Zhang Meng deliberated that they decided to sell the frescoes behind the temple to preserve the temple buildings, and the inscription on the side of the tablet said, "the building of the temple under the mountain has collapsed for a long time.

The people of the city want to repair, because they are not able to raise money.

From the end of the year, there is a distant visitor, and the walls of the Buddhist temple are painted.

The public thought that the temple had no capital, and regretted for many years, if it was left behind, it would inevitably ruin the wall and ruin it.

Because of repeated discussions with customers, selling silver one thousand and six hundred yuan is not enough to raise funds.

At the beginning of the last century, monks and Taoist temples were not uncommon. The most heartache example was that Wang Daosi of Dunhuang had sold tens of thousands of volumes of silk paintings he had discovered in the cave, and sold them to Western explorers who came to hear the news.

However, it is not difficult to see the pain and frustration of the local people.

The author quoted the antique dealer as saying that the buyers of the frescoes are well known and interested in cultural relics. This shows that for these locals who are devout but not familiar with the value of mural art, a good destination for frescoes is an important consideration besides money.

Although the Guangsheng Temple sold the murals to raise money to repair the temple to avoid the "helpless fate", the final destination of the two wall frescoes in East and West should be gratified.

The two frescoes in the new environment, on the one hand, become an important cultural asset that condenses the local Chinese origin and attracts Chinese tourists. On the other hand, even for foreigners who are not familiar with Chinese culture, they can directly feel the superb painting attainments and rich spiritual connotations of mural paintings even if they do not read the text descriptions, thus they yearn for the Chinese arts.

The regret of history has finally achieved a good deeds of cultural exchanges between China and the West.

However, the exhibition of "China: mirror and water moon" broke the serenity exhibition hall and added misfortune to frescoes.

From the news release to the official launch, the masterpiece of the Yuan Dynasty, which should have attracted the attention of the audience, has been reduced to a fashion scene.

What is even more heartache is that at the media conference held in February 16th, many celebrities including Wong Kar Wai and Wendy Deng gathered in front of the murals.

Under the frequent exposure of flash lights, people have totally ignored the destruction of the frescoes behind them.

For such a valuable murals, the common practice is to eliminate the necessary recording needs, even if the tested strong light will be avoided.

But the strong light and flash used in the conference are obviously not related to the recording of the murals.

As the frescoes of Yuan Dynasty painted over 700 years ago, the texture is fragile, the pigment is unstable, plus the experience of being pported and cut before, if not carefully protected, it is easy to cause an inevitable loss.

In recent ten years, with the enhancement of the consciousness of Chinese cultural relics protection, many ancient murals have already adopted glass screen without any light and black conditions, and at the same time restricted the number of visitors, and the height that people can touch under the murals. This includes many times competition, the night of the pharmacist's Buddha picture, the painting level is inferior to its murals of Ming and Qing Dynasties.

In the exhibition hall of the Chinese Buddhist temple in the Nelson Museum of Guangsheng temple, the artificial dark light was also used throughout the year. The museum also made a large-scale maintenance of frescoes in 2012.

Compared with the Nelson Museum, the metropolitan sekler exhibition hall has been using natural light. Although its viewing effect is ideal, its protection effect has been questioned more and more in recent years.

In this case, the museum did not consider how to improve and eliminate people's concerns, but at the press conference, it abused flash and glare.

The two museum directors, who did not consider the particularity of the protection of the frescoes, were delighted to take photos with celebrities before the frescoes.

It is a basic public knowledge to prohibit flash in museums. I wonder if they have thought about how these flashing videos and photos will convey to the public what kind of information they will bring to the reputation of the Metropolitan Museum?

When the official exhibition began, the lights of the shell hall were dim again.

However, it is found that this is not related to the preservation of murals, but to highlight the new screens and luminous fashion installations in the exhibition hall.

The information conveyed by these exhibits is neither closely related to Buddhist art, nor can they have dialogues with Buddhist collections that have been obliterate in darkness.

On the contrary, the frescoes of the pharmacist's Buddhist temple will have to see the sun again after experiencing more than three months of gloomy environment (exhibition May 7th 8 16).

People can not help but ask, how many times do these fragile murals stand up to such a mess? Besides, there are only simple isolation measures under the murals. How can we ensure that the audience will not touch the murals in a dark and noisy environment?

In view of this, the Metropolitan Museum did not consider the damage that the exhibition might cause to the murals, nor did it consider the coordination of the new exhibits and murals.

For the Guangsheng Temple believers who had no choice but to sell their mural paintings and expect them to be collected by the "Bo Gu Shi", Mr. Seckler, who donated the murals to the Chinese art and commemorated their dead parents, even the former members of the metropolis who worked hard to repair the frescoes and even those who still saw the remnants of the frescoes in the temple after the victory, and those who came to the exhibition hall to enjoy the glamour of art and religious pilgrims in front of the mural before the exhibition, were afraid that such an exhibition would be too slight and offensive to them.

Looking back at the havoc experienced by Longmen Grottoes at the beginning of the last century, we find that American Museum people who are called "Robbers" by some Chinese are always deeply impressed by Chinese culture and persistent concern about Chinese art in turmoil.

During his stay in Beijing, during his stay in China, he was converted to Buddhism and left a wish to bury himself in the Buddhist temple around China.

In the purchase of "Buddha Buddha diagram", he has always insisted on the fact that Longmen's stone carving has been unavoidable, and he has made contributions to the preservation of Chinese culture and world heritage.

He regards the Metropolitan Museum as the religious temple of modern people, and hopes that the ceremony can give viewers a glimpse of the glory of the whole Longmen Grottoes.

A similar story takes place in the collection of ringing halls and Tianlongshan stone inscriptions in the sekler hall, as well as on the statues of Li Daozan.

It is the generations of American museums who have won the understanding of most Chinese scholars and people through their respect for Chinese culture and their unremitting efforts in the preservation of cultural relics.

For example, in recent years, the digital engineering of the halls and Tianlongshan grottoes, carried out by the East Asian Arts Center of University of Chicago, will be scattered to two Grottoes in all parts of the world for photo taking, 3D scanning, and final digital restoration caverns, free of charge to scholars and the public through the form of online databases.

This project has won the support of the museums in the United States and has become a model for the United States to make good use of the scattered cultural relics.

The support for this project includes the Metropolitan Museum, with its collection of ringing halls and Tianlongshan statues in the sekler exhibition hall.

But in the exhibition of "China: mirror and water moon", they become the supporting role of the fashion show together with the ceremony and Buddha map.

In the dim and noisy environment, people can not imagine the glory of Longmen, but can not link these fragmented statues and their grottoes.