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Nathalie François
Photo Director, Prisma Presse (France)
It seems like little doll shoes.
My favourite masterpiece:
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Ladies shoes, so called golden lilies, northern style
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Rabitah Banati
Postgraduate student at Edinburgh University
It is a really interesting masterpiece concerning the Persian impact to Southeast Asia.
My favourite masterpiece:
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Album of paper-cut nasta‘liq calligraphy
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David Jackson
Professor for Tibetan Studies at Hamburg University
The names written on thangka confirm the identities of most of the small figures, verifying that they probably represent the first Mongolian Jetsun Dampa (the monk-rulers of Mongolia) and his previous existences.
My favourite masterpiece:
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Incarnation Lineage of the Mongolian Jetsun Dampa and Jonang Tāranātha
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Anna Mey
Ethnologist
This particular mask shows the mythical Singhalese King Narendra Singha Raja. The 10-cornered part with the male and female figures is a very particular feature which has no counterparts in known collections.
My favourite masterpiece:
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Kolam Mask "Narendra Singha Raja"
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Tapan Kumar Das Gupta
Former research assistant at the Museum of Ethnology, Vienna
This Agni [relief] is so interesting because his meaning has changed so much in the course of the history of Indian thought. In the oldest literature, he was the most important god besides the great gods Indra and Varuna.
My favourite masterpiece:
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Kevin Nie
Chinese student
My favourite masterpiece:
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Bowl shaped like a six-petal flower
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Hong
Chinese visitor
Beyond words
My favourite masterpiece:
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Gérard Mermoz
Artist
The concept of masterpiece is problematic as it focuses our attention on the object and its supposed essence rather than on the ever changing significance it undergoes from the original time and context in which it was made and used to the successive contexts in which it is appropriated and put to different uses: as a collectable, a document, a work of art, etc. This process has been referred to as 'reification'. Philosophically this implements a form of 'essentialism' which situate meanining as 'in' the object rather than as projected by its 'owners', from the outside. From this perspective the 'cult of masterpieces' goes against an emancipated museography and museology and perpetuate the ideology of 'ART'.
My favourite masterpiece:
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Sitting Bulul figure holding a bowl
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