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SoSe 21: Text Cultures and the Art of Writing in East Asia: Magic, Myth, and Meta-Language of the Modern Era. Project Seminar in Cooperation with the Museum für Asiatische Kunst in Preparation of a Thematic Exhibition at the Humboldt--Forum

Shao-Lan Hertel

Information for students

Das Projektseminar findet in deutscher und englischer Sprache statt. Sprach- und Schriftkenntnisse ostasiatischer Sprachen sind von Vorteil, für die Teilnahme am Projektseminar jedoch nicht obligatorisch. Der Verlaufsplan und eine erweiterte Literaturliste werden zu Semesterbeginn bereitgestellt. close

Additional information / Pre-requisites

The project seminar is held in German and English language. Knowledge of East Asian languages is of advantage yet not mandatory for participation. The course syllabus and extended list of readings will be provided at the beginning of the semester. close

Comments

The project seminar is offered in combination with the seminar “Reading Between Lines and Lineages: Art Historiographies of Chinese Calligraphy” within the module Object-Based Research (East Asia). The project seminar is conceived as a cooperation with the Asian Art Museum, National Museums in Berlin (Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), in preparation of a thematic exhibition concerned with text cultures and the art of calligraphy writing in East Asia, to be held at the Humboldt Forum in autumn 2021. The exhibition will show a selection of mainly modern and contemporary artworks from China, Japan, and Korea, the majority of which stem from the museum collection. The exhibition’s thematic range encompasses historical, political, and material aspects as well as sociocritical and global positions in East Asian calligraphy.

Working in synergy with the seminar’s schedule of critical readings as well as in topical reciprocity with the concurrent lecture “Arts and Histories of Chinese Calligraphy: Plural Perspectives,” focal themes and key issues of the exhibition are to be carved out, and highlighted object-specifically, through an intensive dealing with the exhibits. One aim of the project seminar lies in the output of short texts for the individual pieces on display, to provide the wide public audience and exhibition visitors of the Humboldt Forum various entry points into the subject matter of East Asian writing and calligraphy. Given this incentive, the project seminar serves not only to collectively exercise close object study and analysis but also to discuss possibilities, concepts, and forms of contemporary presentation of East Asian (calligraphy) art in particular curatorial and museal contexts.

Should the given pandemic situation allow for it, short excursions will be undertaken to the Asian Art Museum’s storage as well as the exhibition space at the Humboldt Forum. close