Looking for power: images du Bouddha, un cas d’études cambodgien — Atelier et rencontre avec Erin Gleeson — Villa Vassilieff — Event — Slash Paris

Past: Saturday, June 11, 2016 5 PM → 6:30 PM

This workshop will revolve around the figure of a dismembered Buddha, held at the Guimet Museum in Paris, a figure which embodies a series of issues related to the constitution of ethnographic collections, the construction of a euro-centric view of their objects and colonial museology development, particularly in Southeast Asia.

“The move from aniconic to anthropomorphic representations of Buddha is yoked to changing notions of aliveness, multiplicity, interchangeability, and likeness or trace, among others. Using examples of whole and fragmented “Buddhist” statuary belonging to Cambodian history past and present, we will review select secular, religious, animate and inanimate methods of production and curatorial treatment. Throughout, we will consider our options of interaction and relation with this imagery, noting the act of looking itself and its links with leveraging power.” 

— Erin Gleeson.

Erin Gleeson is an art historian, director of Sa Sa Bassac, Cambodia.

Language: English.