PRESENT VISUALITY AND THINGNESS OF TRANS-ETHNOGRAPHY IN THE CONTEXT OF UNREALISED FUTURE IN THE PAST by Liva Dudareva (METASITU) Denis Maksimov (Avenir Institute) Rana Ozturk
Moscow, 2016
by Avenir Institute, METASITU and Dr. Rana Ozturk
Avenir Institute is a post-disciplinary think tank with a focus on forensic research of possible futures. Its activities are clustered across contemporary art, design, political theory and philosophy. Theoretical and practical methodologies of the Institute are influenced by critical theory and poststructural philosophy. Deconstructive, critical and forensic analysis among other strategies are employed in various combinations to produce post-disciplinary synergies. The research teams of the specific departments develop continuous projects often in collaboration with external partners from various backgrounds of expertise. The processes and results of the investigations are presented in variety of mediums - performance lecture, installation, text, publication, digital art, visual art, design, etc. The Institute codirectors are Denis Maksimov and Timo Tuominen. METASITU is a collective for developing future urban strategies, and their projects are directed towards innovating strategies for resilience through building a body of knowledge and understanding about the way we inhabit urban territories. It was founded in 2014 by Eduardo Cassina and Liva Dudareva, at the time urban researchers at the Strelka Institute in Moscow. Born with the goal of expanding the discussions surrounding the inhabitation of the territory to different and wider audiences, at METASITU they look for means of storytelling that reveal the results of our urban investigation through different prisms. Their practice is research-based, highly mobile and trans-disciplinary, relying on the transnational networks, virtual and physical, where they draw our inspiration and fascination from. They often find solutions by shifting existing paradigms and subverting existing behaviors; redirecting existing systems towards other ends, rather than direct physical or design interventions of colossal scales. Dr. Rana Ozturk is a researcher, writer and scholar of contemporary art and exhibition studies. Her current research interests are transcultural curating, internationalization of art discourse, theories of global art and the contemporary, and exhibitions as tools for historicizing world art. Until now she has also worked as a translator, editor, curator, and coordinator for different organizations and art events. She curated We All Live on the Same Sea at Sirius Art Centre, Ireland (2014), Temporarily Shelved as part of the 3rd International Sinop Biennial in Turkey (2010) (co-curated with Vaari Claffey), and Slow Space Fast Pace as part of Cork Art Trail, Ireland (2007). She has been contributing to various art magazines, catalogues and publications since 2001.
Present Visuality And Thingness Of Trans-Ethnography In The Context Of Unrealised Future In The Past
We would like to thank v-a-c foundation for creation of the context and the support of the project. We extend special thanks to Beartice von Bismark, Benjamin Meyer-Krahmer, Wayne Modest, Bill Brown, Sarah Pierce among others for insightful conversations about thingness, which in one way or another influenced the methodology and contents of this publication.
by Avenir Institute, METASITU and Dr. Rana Ozturk
Trans-ethnographic: mapping unrealised future in the past In 1922, the Soviet Union was established on the basis of the principle of national self-identification for nationalities within its borders. The borders that were drawn by Bolsheviks for the new Soviet socialist republics created new geopolitical entities, that required symbols and ethnographic history for legitimization. Museum of Oriental Art in Moscow was founded in 1918, right after the October revolution, and was gradually expanding collections of the artefacts of the cultures of the Eurasian region since its inception. The excavation expeditions of the Soviet archeologists and ethnographers were working in the context of gradually transforming Soviet ideology, where the initial decision of national self-identification of new republics of the Soviet Union was dictated by the strategic intention of the group of Bolsheviks, led by Joseph Stalin with support of Vladimir Lenin, to fight ‘Russian chauvinism’. The decision implied necessity to accelerate transition of bureaucratic documentation, school education, etc. into national languages of ethoses in the areas, which in many cases had no writing culture appropriate for Bolshevik methods of possible conversion. The objects and things of ethnographic significance were appropriated as symbols of national self-identification. Between 1918 and 1922, in anticipation of the World revolution, the Bolsheviks were divided on the issue of how administrative borders within the future Soviet Union (as a part of new Socialist and later Communist world) would look like. One of the strongest positions implied lining out the map of the country in sectors disregarding historical, ethnographic, geopolitical, etc. cartography. If that scenario have been implemented in reality, organisation of Moscow Museum of Oriental Art collection and its appropriation would reveal a different set of narratives behind the things that matter. Today we are living at a time when notions of disparate nations, cultural identities and borders have become even more problematic and ambiguous as a result of a greater economic, cultural, political and technological interconnectedness across the globe. As a result of a process of globalization that denies time, space and place, today there is a “disturbance of our notions of the past” which also results in a “crisis in our imagination of alternative futures” (Andreas Huyssen, 2003, p.2) Yet, while the original dream of a united Communist world has not been realised, it is even more necessary to acknowledge the interrelations across the world and rethink the existing narratives reinforced by old-fashioned museological approaches to be able to imagine the future ethnography of our material world. The current display of the Oriental Art Museum which is based on the distinctiveness of separate places is in fact a product of the modernist project and observes cultural specificity only in spatial isolation while neglecting interactions with the beyond. As the cultural geographer Doreen Massey explains,
Present Visuality And Thingness Of Trans-Ethnography In The Context Of Unrealised Future In The Past
“‘Cultures’, ‘societies’ and ‘nations’ were all imagined as having an integral relation to bounded spaces, internally coherent and differentiated from each other by separation. ‘Places’ came to be seen as bounded, with their own internally generated authenticities, and defined by their difference from other places which lay outside, beyond their borders.” (Massey, 2005, p.64) Massey’s proposition of a ‘relational geography’, on the other hand, necessitates seeing cultural identities as interrelated, as well as sharing the same time and space. Her claim that “identities/entities, the relations ‘between’ them, and the spatiality which is part of them, are all co-constitutive”, challenges the modern conceptualisation of difference that was based on distinctiveness of places as reflected in culture. (Massey, 2005, p.10) Here, we would also like to refer to Peter Osborne, who discusses the contemporary “as the time of the globally transnational”. Accordingly, the concept of the contemporary refers to the present as a world-historical moment, not only defined by one place and time but shaped within a relational geography of co-existing places and times. Osborne specifically highlights ‘con-temporaneity’ as what best expresses the temporal quality of the historical present, meaning “a coming together not simply ‘in’ time, but of times: we do not only just live or exist together ‘in time’ with our contemporaries – as if time itself is indifferent to this existing together – but rather the present is increasingly characterized by a coming together of different but equally ‘present’ temporalities or ‘times’.” (Osborne, 2013a, p.17) Based on these ideas around the spatial and temporal reconfiguration of the present, we would like to propose a trans-ethnographic approach to the existing objects in the museum, which interweaves temporalities and expands into other times that include not only our present but also the future.
by Avenir Institute, METASITU and Dr. Rana Ozturk
Present Visuality And Thingness Of Trans-Ethnography In The Context Of Unrealised Future In The Past
by Avenir Institute, METASITU and Dr. Rana Ozturk
Present Visuality And Thingness Of Trans-Ethnography In The Context Of Unrealised Future In The Past
by Avenir Institute, METASITU and Dr. Rana Ozturk
Trans-ethnographic Buddha case studies Birth of Buddha Shakjamuni (Mongolia, 19 century, canvas, silk, mineral pigments)
Head of Buddha (Afganistan, 3-5 centuries AD, ganch, cast, thread)
Buddha Shakjamuni (Tibet, 20 century, bronze, cast, stamping, gilding)
Head of Buddha (sculpture, fragment, clay, printing with different stamps, assemblage, polychrome colouring and gilding)
Present Visuality And Thingness Of Trans-Ethnography In The Context Of Unrealised Future In The Past
Buddhas’ scupltures (Thailand, 19 century, metall, laquer, gilding, inlay with mirrors)
Buddha candle holder (China, 21 century, plastic, wood, glass)
Buddha plate (China, 21 century, plastic, paint)
Buddha sculpture (Afghanistan, 21 century, light projection)
by Avenir Institute, METASITU and Dr. Rana Ozturk
Present Visuality And Thingness Of Trans-Ethnography In The Context Of Unrealised Future In The Past
by Avenir Institute, METASITU and Dr. Rana Ozturk
Methodology We have selected several objects from the collection of Moscow Museum of Oriental Art and beyond for illustration of the trans-ethnographic narratives hidden in the dominant discourse of ethnographic representation. The visual and material appearance of Buddha as a subject of visual culture in history of what is approached by the museum as ‘Orient’ presents one of the richest narratives. Buddha’s trans-historical, trans-cultural and trans-ethnographic reincarnation in fine art, popular and visual culture makes it a perfect case-study for testing the limits of critical deconstruction of the museum’s political and cultural discourse at meta-level. Turning our attention to materiality, relations of exchange, signification and re-appropriation in the context of visual and popular culture, we emphasize the fluid dynamics of materiality behind the idea of ‘thingness’ within the particular objects of specific significance. Demystification of the object through revealing a set of characteristics that define its mobility and contextualisation is a crucial step towards enhancement of building the bridge between the museum as a ‘the tomb of objects’ in the world of bordered nation states to ‘laboratories of thingness’ in possible post-nation state future. The power of verification of significance and cultural value, accumulated in specific institutions as a consequence of historical monumentalisation of inequality, can and should be challenged by questioning the validity and importance of monolithic ‘realness’ or inherently subjective political ‘reality’ asserted by those institutions. Apart from the objects from the collection of Oriental Art Museum, we have selected objects that are present in the museum shop, objects from everyday life and popular consumerist culture, as well as monuments of cultural history that were forever lost but preserved in the memory through reconstructive visual technologies, and even an object of material culture that travelled outside of the Solar system.
Present Visuality And Thingness Of Trans-Ethnography In The Context Of Unrealised Future In The Past
by Avenir Institute, METASITU and Dr. Rana Ozturk
Colour
Material(s)
Technique
Made in
Utilized in (nationstate)
fu
IMG_2016 Buddha
multi-colour
clay
sculpture
Qing Dynasty
Mongolia
ido
IMG_0742 Buddha
gold
bronze
sculpture
Silla
Korea
am
IMG_0749 Buddha
black
bronze
sculpture
Sui Dynasty
China
am
IMG_2016 Buddha
beige
ivory
carving
Mughal Empire
India
de
IMG_0423 Buddha
metal
bronze
cast
Siam
Thailand
am
IMG_0421 Buddha
gold
wood
sculpture
Vietnam
Vietnam
ido
IMG_0420 Buddha
multi-colour
wood
carving
Japan
Japan
alt
IMG_0419 Buddha
gold
wood
sculpture
Japan
Japan
am
IMG_0415 Buddha
metal
wood
carving
Japan
Japan
ido
IMG_0414 Buddha
bronze
wood
carving
Japan
Japan
ido
IMG_0413 Buddha
metal
wood
carving
Japan
Japan
am
IMG_0411 Buddha
multi-colour
silk
tapestry
Qing Dynasty
Mongolia
de
IMG_0409 Buddha
multi-colour
silk
tapestry
Qing Dynasty
Mongolia
de
IMG_0407 Buddha
multi-colour
canvas
tapestry
Buryatia
Russia
de
IMG_0405 Buddha
metal
bronze
sculpture
Tibet
Tibet
ido
IMG_0403 Buddha
metal
golden paste
sculpture
Regional Kingdoms of India
India
ido
IMG_0402 Buddha
grey
stucco
cast
Kushan Empire
Pakistan
ido
IMG_0401 Buddha
rust
gypsum
cast
Sasanian Empire
Afghanistan
ido
IMG_0400 Buddha
beige
gypsum
cast
Sasanian Empire
Afghanistan
ido
IMG_0398 Buddha
multi-colour
clay
sculpture
Kushan Empire
Uzbekistan
ido
IMG_0397 Buddha
multi-colour
clay
sculpture
Kushan Empire
Uzbekistan
ido
IMG_0395 Buddha
multi-colour
paint
painting
Kushan Empire
Uzbekistan
de
IMG_0394 Buddha
multi-colour
plastic
cast
China
Russia
de
IMG_0393 Buddha
multi-colour
plastic
cast
China
Russia
de
IMG_0392 Buddha
white
plastic
cast
China
Russia
ca
IMG_0391 Buddha
black
plastic
cast
China
Russia
ca
Buddha
black
ink
needle work
Ukraine
Ukraine
tat
buddha_lu Buddha
green
glass
cast
China
Global
bo
Buddha
white
fruit
cast
China
Global
foo
bamiyan-b Buddha
light yellow
light
projection
China
Afghanistan
po
il_fullxfull.6 Buddha
gold
plastic
3-D prints
USA
Global
ac
il_fullxfull.6 Buddha
black
plastic
3-D prints
USA
Global
ac
IMG_0426 Buddha
multi-colour
plastic
cast
China
Global
pa
Buddha_lit Buddha
white
resin
cast
USA
USA
pu
Image nr
Description
Present Visuality And Thingness Of Trans-Ethnography In The Context Of Unrealised Future In The Past
unction
ol
Insurance Alternative value (USD) value
of Monetary Period value (USD) making (century)
Estimated amortisation period (y)
Usage in the present
Usage in futures
Acquired
80 spiritual
7000
19
200 exhibit
amulet
1937
mulet
540 spiritual
100000
8
10000 exhibit
amulet
1970
mulet
700 spiritual
150000
6
10000 exhibit
amulet
1950
ecoration
350 spiritual
27000
16
5000 exhibit
decoration
1918
mulet
415 spiritual
50000
19
10000 exhibit
amulet
1970
ol
50 spiritual
6000
19
100 exhibit
idol
1980
tar
650 utilitarian
130000
19
100 exhibit
cabinet
1980
33 spiritual
42000
14
100 exhibit
decoration
1918
ol
370 spiritual
35000
15
100 present
idol
1980
ol
370 spiritual
35000
13
100 present
idol
1980
mulet
390 spiritual
40000
13
100 exhibit
idol
1918
ecoration
100 utilitarian
12000
19
50 exhibit
decoration
1937
ecoration
100 utilitarian
12000
19
50 exhibit
decoration
1937
ecoration
35 utilitarian
5000
19
30 exhibit
education
1930
idol
1980
decoration
1950
mulet
500
20
10000 exhibit
ol
ol
130 spiritual
15000
9
5000 exhibit
ol
440 spiritual
60000
4
200 exhibit
exhibit
1950
ol
490 spiritual
80000
3
400 present
exhibit
1956
ol
490 spiritual
80000
3
400 present
exhibit
1956
ol
540 spiritual
100000
2
200 exhibit
exhibit
1960
ol
540 spiritual
100000
2
200 exhibit
exhibit
1960
1000 spiritual
300000
2
60 exhibit
exhibit
1960
ecoration
0 spiritual
ecoration
0 utilitarian
5
21
700 souvenir
exhibit
2016
ecoration
0 utilitarian
5
21
700 souvenir
exhibit
2016
andle holder
0 utilitarian
7
21
1000 souvenir
exhibit
2016
andle holder
0 utilitarian
7
21
1000 souvenir
exhibit
2016
ttoo
0 spiritual
70
21
45 amulet
ottle
0 utilitarian
4
21
od
0 nutritional
8
21
180000
21
10000 exhibit
olitical
5000 spiritual
200 packaging 0 food
decoration decoration
2050
none none
2015
ccessory
0 utilitarian
27
21
700 toy
exhibit
2037
ccessory
0 utilitarian
27
21
700 toy
exhibit
2047
ackaging
0 utilitarian
3
21
400 packaging
none
2020
7000
21
100 exhibit
exhibit
2016
ublic art
2000 communal
by Avenir Institute, METASITU and Dr. Rana Ozturk
Buddha functions based on the monetary value (USD)
Present Visuality And Thingness Of Trans-Ethnography In The Context Of Unrealised Future In The Past
by Avenir Institute, METASITU and Dr. Rana Ozturk
Alternative value of Buddha throughout the time
Present Visuality And Thingness Of Trans-Ethnography In The Context Of Unrealised Future In The Past
by Avenir Institute, METASITU and Dr. Rana Ozturk
Relationship between the Buddha’s materiality and value based on its amortization period
Present Visuality And Thingness Of Trans-Ethnography In The Context Of Unrealised Future In The Past
Distribution of Buddha according to place of utilization and amortization period
by Avenir Institute, METASITU and Dr. Rana Ozturk
Usage of Buddha today and in the future
Present Visuality And Thingness Of Trans-Ethnography In The Context Of Unrealised Future In The Past
by Avenir Institute, METASITU and Dr. Rana Ozturk
Links between the Buddha functions and place of utilization based on the century of production
Present Visuality And Thingness Of Trans-Ethnography In The Context Of Unrealised Future In The Past
by Avenir Institute, METASITU and Dr. Rana Ozturk
To be continued or future ethnography In August 25, 2012, Voyager 1 crossed the heliopause and became the first spacecraft to enter the interstellar space. It contains a gold-plated audio visual disc, that carries among other things photos of the Earth’s lifeforms, cultural artifacts, etc.
Present Visuality And Thingness Of Trans-Ethnography In The Context Of Unrealised Future In The Past
by Avenir Institute, METASITU and Dr. Rana Ozturk
Present Visuality And Thingness Of Trans-Ethnography In The Context Of Unrealised Future In The Past