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- Convenors:
-
Saskia Kersenboom
(University Of Amsterdam)
Johannes Beltz (Museum Rietberg, Zurich)
- Location:
- 25H38
- Start time:
- 25 July, 2014 at
Time zone: Europe/Zurich
- Session slots:
- 2
Short Abstract:
Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) poses urgent, contemporary questions to local concerns and global ambitions. Curating ICH turns out to be a contested site of cultural praxis: Performing Arts, Indigenous Curation, Participatory Design -all form part of a 'New Museum'.
Long Abstract:
In 2003 UNESCO proposed its 'Convention for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage'; within a short span of time this Convention secured a high number of international ratifications. A bright promise lit up for "oral traditions, languages, performing arts, social practices, traditional knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe, and traditional artisanship".
This panel aims to take a critical look at the framework of this Convention in terms of several historical agendas: that of Anthropology, of Colonialism, of Nationalism, Post Colonialism and of 'New Age Fetishism'. What has been achieved today and what not ? Which are the problems involved in nomination, implementation and sustainable 'safeguarding'. Critical reflection on Intangible Cultural Heritage is needed as a force that can shape Local self-awareness, dignity and identities within Global horizons.
'Curation' emerges as one of the 'Key-Concepts'in cultural policies to commit Heritage either to an Archive, or to a living Repertoire. Traditional Musea and their potential for transformation might play a crucial role here. This panel invites scholars and practitioners in the field of Curation of Intangible Cultural Heritage to share their insights, proposals and practices on:
1. Transformation of traditional Museal practices, including novel design, indigenous co-curatorship and reaching new, contemporary audiences.
2. Curation of Performing Arts by self-reflexive performers of music, dance and drama; modern media of representation, performance, exchange and storage of their Heritage.
3. Indigenous curation of ICH by local experts operating in local venues, traditional or novel of cultural encounter.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Johannes Beltz (Museum Rietberg, Zurich)
Paper short abstract:
The paper discusses an educational project, which brings together children, art educators, curators and religious representatives. It addresses questions about the role of public musea as places of intercultural learning, integration, authentic and authoritative knowledge, religion and arts.
Paper long abstract:
Curators and art educators of the Museum Rietberg have always dealt with non-European religions. Centre of attention were material objects to be admired either in the permanent collection or in temporary special exhibitions. The underlying logic was that visitors should enjoy the aesthetic appeal of the original artwork.
Questioning this principal idea, a new program has been set up, based on the assumption that any museum object needs to be understood in the context of its embeddedness of multiple social, religious, historic and ritual meanings. The new educational program offers a radically different approach: First the museum team goes to local schools to establish the first contact right in the classroom. Second the museum team will include local "religious representatives", who will offer indigenous insights into religious practices. As agents of immaterial knowledge they show for example how to perform a Hindu puja, recite a text, practice Indian dance or how to make clay idols for worship. The normative authority is no longer with the art educator or teacher alone; they rather become moderators and translators.
This paper shows how new meanings are created through a dialogue between children, art educators, curators and religious representatives. It aims to contribute to the debate on material and non-material cultural heritage, which currently dominates the museum landscape. It not only discusses questions about the legitimacy of ownerships, provenance research and art education; it also offers a survival strategy for Asian art museums in Western Europe.
Tiziana Leucci (CNRS)
Paper short abstract:
The paper deals with the 'patronage' of South Asian performing arts by the Musée du quai Branly as a case of intangible cultural heritage's implementation. It focuses on the role played today by this institution as promotor of forms of oral and living cultural world heritage.
Paper long abstract:
In 2006, three years after the publication of the Unesco document on the Intangible World Cultural Heritage, the Musée du qui Branly was inaugurated in Paris. Soon, the newly built institution, under the aegis of the French Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Research and Education, represents today in the French capital one of the major places for the patronage and promotion of the living performing arts, among which those of South Asia. In this paper I will focus on the various forms of patronage of performing arts done by this Museum, and its relation with the above mentioned Unesco notion of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Being 'heir' of the main collections and libraries of two other major parisian Museums (i.e. the Musée de l'Homme and the Musée des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie), Musée du quai Branly became, since its foundation, a very active international institution for the promotion of those performing arts, their study and spreading among scholars, students and the large audience too. In the same time I will compare its patronage of South Asian performing arts with the one practiced by other older Museums in Paris, like the Musée Guimet specialized in the Asian Arts, by underlying the specificity, differences and similarities as well. The presentation will through light on the criteria of selecting and promoting those South Asian performing arts listed in the ICH, by analysing the data collected during interviews and the documents found in those Museums' libraries and archives.
Ayla Joncheere (Ghent University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper presents an overview of the history of Kalbeliya dance from its origins (in the 1980s) till present, focusing on the evolution of this performing art as a consequence of the recognition as world heritage by UNESCO.
Paper long abstract:
Rajasthani 'gypsy' performances, featuring a dance designed by the nomadic Kālbeliyā community, have recently become popular among tourists in India as well as on Western world music stages. The state of Rajasthan, where the Kālbeliyās hail from, is celebrated as "India's heritage state" by the Indian Government in its promotion of tourism and in the international dissemination of Indian culture through performances and festivals. Within this framework, Kālbeliyā dance is currently portrayed as a symbol of "traditional folk art". Kālbeliyās are also depicted as the ancestors of the European gypsies, connecting them to the broader, international discourse on the migration of gypsies from India to Europe. Kālbeliyā dance developed only within the last few decades; as such, one could call it an "invented" tradition. Still, it was recognized as Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO in November 2010. In this paper, I sketch the evolution of Kālbeliyā dance from its origin in the 1980s up to the nomination by UNESCO. Moreover, I discuss the effects of the recognition as world heritage on its style and tradition. The recognition of Kalbeliya dance as 'heritage' further evokes questions on UNESCO's selection process of the candidates. This paper aims to explain the reasons for the nomination of Kalbeliya dance (How and why was UNESCO convinced to recognize it as a suitable candidate?) by relating this to continued processes of nationalism and romanticism, economic strategies of the cultural tourism industry and the commodification and commercialization of Indian folk arts.
Karin Polit (University of Tuebingen)
Paper short abstract:
On the basis of thick ethnographic descriptions of ritual performances in North India, I will discuss hegemonic power structures and global hierarchies of knowledge and link processes of heritagization of ritual performances to important discussions related to the politics of "intangible heritage".
Paper long abstract:
The proposed paper will discuss processes of negotiations within hegemonic power structures and global hierarchies of knowledge as played out in the context of heritage discourses. I will combine a thick ethnographic description of ritual performances in the Garhwal Himalayas, North India with more theoretical reflections on ritual dynamics, intangible heritage and various imaginations and desires connected to modernity. I will refer my work on the heritagization of ritual performances to the important discussions on marginalization, heritage, art and modernity in local and global contexts. These ideas will be illustrated by ethnographic data on the local deities, Jakh, Chandikah and Nanda Devi as well as the praxis of intangible heritage in the state of Uttarakhand. The ritual transfers I have witnessed over the past decade and researched are, I argue, direct results of historical processes, which produced categories such as folk art and folklore. At the same time ritual practices are also, on a different level, involved in the production and consolidation of caste hierarchies and discrimination based upon them.
Mahadevi Aiahanna (Karnataka State Open University, India)
Paper short abstract:
The world famous traditional Dasara festival which was celebrated by Mysore wodeyars,and its historical importance will be discussed in detail.
Paper long abstract:
The 'Dasara' festival is one of the ritual cycles that are performed yearly in various forms across India.Traditionally it has to be celebrated with pomp and glory. In South India, 'Dasara' gained great fame under the Wodeyar Kings of Mysore.
According to mythology, this ten days festival celebrates the Great Goddes during nine nights under different names. The festival concludes on the tenth day with an elaborate Durga Pooja and grand procession, therefore it is familiarly known as Dasara the 'tenth'.
Subsequent developments made by the Mysore Wodeyars made MYSORU DASARA world famous and worthy of the status of UNESCO Inatgible Cultural Heritage. Thus, in the State Karnataka, the 'Dasara' festival turned in to a NADAHABBA or' peoples festival' that portrays the culture and tradition of popular, local historical and mythological characters.
Saskia Kersenboom (University Of Amsterdam)
Paper short abstract:
Ritual music and dance have traditionally framed worship in Hindu temples. 'MURAI' researches, documents and supports the Intangible Heritage of Tamil melakkarar. Their family repertoires, manuscripts, oral histories and contemporary praxes form its point of departure.
Paper long abstract:
* General appreciation of ritual music and dance has differed through the ages. In1947, three months after India's Independence, dance reached its lowest point when dedication of women and their performance in temples were forbidden by law. The Devadasi Act coincided with forceful transfer of this professional,female heritage to an amateur national and global stage. Such drastic disenfranchisement continues to affect the entire community of melakkarar. Today music for ritual dance can be heard only in temples but its accompanying dance is no longer to be seen.
* 'MURAI - the Right to Perform' aims to safeguard the heritage of musical and dance by melakkarar performing artists in several ways: firstly, by recording and editing their repertoire to enhance public awareness of the implicit force of music and dance in structuring Hindu rituals and Cosmologies.Secondly, by sharing these findings through lectures, workshops, conferences and other media. Thirdly, by experimental adapatations of melakkaraar music for dance in situ, where contemporary and hereditary artists meet, share and create a new relevance, vitality and sustained interest in the expertise and well-being of these professional communities.
* In collaboration with Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, nomination of Melakkarar Performing Arts as Intangible Cultural Heritage is sought under terms of the ICH UNESCO Convention, 2003.