Stories

The masterpieces on this website present compelling images and information that allow the telling of forceful stories. Stories that draw attention to the similarities and differences between civilizations. Stories that enhance mutual understanding of cultural differences and highlight similarities. Stories that stimulate dialogue between peoples and illuminate their histories. 

In this section of the VCM website, the museums present these stories in the form of virtual exhibitions and presentations, that will appeal to a worldwide audience of the curious.
 

Stories on display now:

Sovereign Splendour
Imperial porcelain from Shanghai

Only the best was ever good enough for the court of imperial China. The Shanghai Museum possesses the largest collection of imperial porcelain in China. One hundred masterpieces from the collection of the Shanghai Museum, exhibited for the first time outside Asia, in the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague, the Netherlands (16/04 –23/10 2011), are presented on the VCM. The pieces are of the finest quality and illustrate the sophisticated lifestyle enjoyed by the emperors over many centuries. The opportunity to hold the exhibition came about as the result of a very special relationship between Dutchman Henk Nieuwenhuys and the Shanghai Museum. A few years ago, Nieuwenhuys donated his private collection of Chinese export porcelain to the Shanghai Museum, where it is now on permanent display.
 

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The Hidden Base of Borobudur

Borobudur in Central Java is one of the most spectacular monuments of the Buddhists and of mankind. In 1885, an amazing discovery was made: the stones of the lowest terrace masked a set of 160 wonderful reliefs depicting the law of cause and effect, earth, heaven and hell. This series of reliefs, known as “the Hidden Base of Borobudur”, were photographed by Kasian Cephas in the 1890’s before being covered again. Cephas’ photographs constitute a unique and invaluable testimony.
The VCM is proud to present, for the first time online, the whole series of reliefs from Borobudur’s Hidden Base, accompanied by a clickable map and an analysis by Dr. Nandana Chutiwongs. 

 

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The Art of the Old World

The National Gallery in Prague will present a new permanent exhibition in the Kinský Palace prepared in cooperation with the National Museum in February 2011. The large collection of over a thousand artworks encompasses seven thousand years of the development of art in the Old World cultures of Asia, Europe and North Africa. 
 

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A Passage to Asia
25 Centuries of Exchange between Asia and Europe

The Center for Fine Arts in Brussels opens a special exhibition about the Asian and European exhanges. Europe and Asia have had close relations for thousands of years. Commercial and political networks developed both on land - via the Silk Road - and on sea. Conquerors like Alexander the Great, Attila, and Genghis Khan set out in search of glory, wealth, and power; travellers like Marco Polo, Zheng He, and Magellan were fascinated by riches, silk, spices, porcelain, etc. Trade opened the way for the spread of major religious and philosophical trends, inexhaustible sources of inspirations for art and culture. A Passage to Asia draws on the treasures of twenty different countries to highlight 2,500 years of exchanges between Asia and Europe. Both the exhibition and a festival will coincide with the ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) 2010 summit.
 

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Cultural dynamics and diversity of Sumatra: the New Museum project

The New Museum is a cooperation project of the National Museum of Indonesia in Jakarta and the Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden, the Netherlands. Objectives are sharing knowledge about the collections of Indonesian art and material culture in both museums, through organizing exhibitions and workshops and publishing books together. One of the results is an exhibition on the cultural diversity and dynamics of the island of Sumatra: Treasures of Sumatra was held in Jakarta in 2009 and Sumatra tercinta- the beloved island in Leiden. The exhibition is at present in Singapore (Asian Civilisations Museum). 

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Posing Questions: Being & image in Asia & Europe

Posing Questions: being & image in Asia & Europe is the second exhibition in the ASEMUS portraiture project. It complements the pioneer show, Self & Other: Portraits in Asia and Europe, which toured Japan in 2008-09 and surveyed how people in Asia have imagined Europeans (and vice versa) from before first encounters up to the present. The new exhibition shows that in both continents portraits do similar things, but that in modernism, whether European or Asian, portraits that claim to reveal 'character' as an inner attribute are open to question. 

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Self & Other: Portraits from Asia and Europe
The ASEMUS travelling exhibition in Japan

Organized by Asia-Europe Museums Network (ASEMUS), with more than 20 museums from 18 countries participating, Self and Others seeks to show changing mutual perceptions of Europeans and Asians through “portraits” in its broadest sense. The misrepresentation of others before and after first contact, the representation of the self and others on their terms and in their mediums, and the self and other in contemporary oblivion are a few of the themes explored.

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"Stories of the Mekong" travelling exhibition opens in Hanoi

After 5 years of cooperation, MuSEA opens up to the public through a travelling exhibition. "Stories of the Mekong" will be on display in 7 different venues in 4 countries, sharing the challenges and dreams of people in the Mekong region.

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Sharing cultural memory

"Sharing cultural memory" is a cooperation-project of the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna and the Museum Siwalima on Ambon. Objectives are indexing and research on the conjoint heritage of ethnographic objects of the Moluccas, the publication of the outcomes of this research, and therewith to deepen the cultural relations of Austria and Indonesia. 

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Made in Japan

To celebrate the 2009 Japan year, the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna has planned a yearlong program series, “Japan for All Seasons". The exhibition “Made in Japan”, assembled from the most important Japanese collections in the Viennese Museum of Ethnology, illustrates cultural contacts between Austria and Japan during the two last centuries. This contribution to the VCM presents the highlights from this exhibition.

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In northern Sumatra: the Batak

This exhibition (musée du quai Branly) is an invitation to discover a collection of remarkable artefacts created by a people from the Sumatran highlands: the Batak. Deeply immersed in ancestral customs connected to the mythology of the beginnings of things and to natural forces, the Batak live in the north of the island of Sumatra, in a mountainous region cut through by steep valleys. The works (acquired from the former Barbier-Mueller collection in Geneva) give a fascinating glimpse of daily life among the Batak: living conditions, rituals, and items fashioned for everyday use items. Highly finished works, created with an evident care for ornamentation, the artefacts in the exhibition invite the visitor to lose himself in the intricacy of their detail, to share in the secrets they contain. 

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"The Smile of Buddha - 1600 years of Buddhist art in Korea"


The Belgian Center for Fine Arts in Brussels contacted the National Museum of Korea in Seoul in 2006 and proposed a special exhibition and other activities.
The exhibition was held in Brussels from 10 October 2008 until 18 January 2009. "The Smile of Buddha – 1600 years of Buddhist art in Korea" brought for the first time 130 extraordinary Korean pieces of art to Belgium and explained the history of the development of Buddhism. The purpose was to introduce Korean Buddhist art and to share recent research results. All this could only be achieved by the cooperative efforts by the National Museum of Korea and its eight branch museums. It is an excellent example of Asian- European museum cooperation.

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Vietnamese museums share collections with colleagues in Asia


Virtual Collection of Masterpieces is a platform for the sharing of collections between museums in the virtual world.
Vietnamese Museums not only share virtual, but also real objects with their colleagues in Asia.
It is a positive example of cooperation and a laudable effort to have people in other countries enjoy Vietnams rich cultural heritage.
We show you examples of exhibitions in three countries: Singapore, Korea and China.

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"We have eaten the forest", 
Georges Condominas in Sar Luk

This exhibition (musée du quai Branly and the Vietnam museum of Ethnology) pays homage to fieldwork carried out by the great ethnologist Georges Condominas, who collected almost 500 artefacts between 1948 and 1950 in the Vietnamese village of Sar Luk, of which the Musée du quai Branly possesses an extensive collection.

“The first time that I met a "Moï" was in Binh Khê, a sort of outpost in the Vietnamese marches, in the montagnard zone. I was ten years old at the time...”

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