Abstract
This paper will discuss the association and co-influences between intangible and tangible components in a Cultural Heritage Assemblage in a Museum, as well as their ultimate purpose. To demonstrate it I choose a showcase from “The Slow Life of the Song People” at Hunan Museum in 2020-2021; an exhibition about the lyrical and erudite way of life scholars lived during Song Dynasty.
http://www.hnmuseum.com/en/aboutus/exhibition-about-slow-life-song-people-launched-hunan-museum
Cultural Heritage Assemblage; its layering between intangible and tangible
Before the modernization of ICOM's definition of museum in 2003, when describing a museum as site of Cultural Heritage, institutions would most of all emphasize the preservation of tangible Cultural Heritage and displaying it for the public. From 2003 and inspired by UNESCO's endeavour to protect intangible Cultural Heritage around the world, ICOM defined a new definition of museum; one more open, modern and gathering a larger portion of Cultural Heritage, including intangible ones. (F.Mairesse 2019) This adding a certain degree of humanity and diversity of Cultural Heritage's components to present to the public.
In this regard, when analysing a showcase in a museum, one can try to observe if a portion of the exhibition contains an implicit or explicit intangible component. And how this intangible component, if there is one, assimilate, dissociate or confront itself with the tangible elements of the showcase. From this perspective we can define a showcase as a Cultural Heritage Assemblage, containing layers of intangible and tangible components, both can be intertwined in some part of an exhibition, opposed in others or simply one of them can be ignored to emphasize a certain meaning, thus having a certain purpose.
This perspective of an exhibition can be defined as hybrid as it includes components which are divers in nature, material, national provenance, style and type. It can assimilate different combinations between intangible and tangible components from one unique cultural heritage.
Furthering the perception of a showcase, it can include an emic or etic perspective depending on the artist or curator initial intention creating the showcase. An emic version would comply with the sum of specific cultural practices, rituals, materials and immaterial “ideals” and traditions, which will be under the Sacralisation of Cultural heritage's ethos (B.Meyer & M.Witte 2013) of a certain institution or national culture. An etic perception would not comply with it.
A showcase gathers components which contain as manifest the artist or curator initial intention, and depending on where, how and when it is presented, has a specific meaning. Such practice at its best reveal intangible and tangible Cultural Heritage components layers, unfolding a multitude of implicit meanings, memories and historical values which represent one cultural heritage's ethos at its essence.
“The Slow Life of the Song People” exhibition at Hunan Museum "Playing Guqin by the Window” showcase
Firstly, I will present the showcase's spatial sequence and detail each elements specificities. Beginning with the exhibit of the Guqin named “Wan He Song Feng” 万壑松风 , its length is 116cm, the shoulder's width is 18,4 cm, the tail's width is 14cm. It is a traditional Fuxi style, 7 strings Chinese Zither. This type of musical instrument was created more than 3000 years ago. The Guqin exposed here was produced during the late part of Song Dynasty, called Southern Song (1127–1279).
The Guqin is on a exhibit table specially designed in the style of traditional Guqin tables; the table's feet are at an angle and each side-foot are linked per pair. The Guqin is enclosed in a 180cm x 55cm bottomless glass case, the bottomless part is to avoid as much as possible light reflections between the glass and the Guqin, as this one's lacquer has been restaured to its original; avoiding extreme light in the case, which can meddle with the Guqin's wood, which is very sensitive to temperature and light changes but as well to simply not obstruct the view of the Guqin aesthetic itself.
The second part of the showcase, is a Chinese ink painting, canvased but unframed. It is displayed in a tall Traditional Chinese inspired structure which comprise 3 panels. The front two panels form a rectangle, made of wood and white transparent fabric, comprising at a center a round empty space where the unframed painting was placed. The third panel similar to the two front ones stands at the back, some what taller, producing a fuller background for the showcase. The painting made by Zhao Ji or better know as Emperor Huizong of late Northern Song (1082–1135), is called “Listening to the Qin” 聽琴圖. This painting represent the avid love the Emperor Huizong had for Guqin, painting and Chinese lyricism. I want to notify this painting is actually a copy, the original one can be find at the Palace Museum in Beijing. The original one is much bigger, presenting imperial seals and calligraphies, it can not be canvased as it would shatter the heritage and value of the painting itself.
Finally there is two intangible elements of this showcase which do not appear on the above photo, those being the Guqin's music playing in the background and a poem. Guqin's music and its practice have been disappearing the last decades as this instrument did not went through a rejuvenation process. Most Guqin's classics are then millennia old songs, those melodies and classics played in the background of the “ Playing Guqin by the Window” showcase.
The poem which infused the initial intention of the showcase is the Song of Pilgrimage by Su Shi. Su Shi is one of the most well know poet and artist of Northen Song Dynasty. In this showcase the passage: “a Guqin, a jar of wine, through the clouds by the mountain stream” is emphasized.
Cultural Heritage Assemblage's layering of “ Playing Guqin by the Window”
“Playing Guqin by the Window” showcase's hybrid perspective unfolds different elements in nature and type; the Guqin as music instrument, the painting as Chinese Art medium, the Guqin music played in the background and the implicit use of a Song Dynasty poem. When looking further we can see that 3 of the 4 Arts of Scholars are represented in this part of the exhibition: Qin 琴(Guqin), Hua畫 (Painting), Shu書 (Calligraphy and creation of poems). For this showcase the link between the 3 Arts of Scholars is primarily their lyricism in nature. So the intangible and tangible here are layered, connected and associated to one another on the notion of lyricism as base. The 4th Art, Qi 棋 (Chess, Gou) has been avoided due to its more strategical nature, devoid of lyricism.
Further the poem's passage: “a Guqin, a jar of wine, through the clouds by the mountain stream” by Su Shi has an explicit connection to every tangible elements of the showcase; painting and Guqin, but as well the intangible component of Guqin music. As back in Ancient China, Guqin was not a large public performance instrument, but an instrument for private, intimate music playing, played in nature; at a mountain's top, the edge of a lake or a stream...
The Guqin as physical and thematic center of the showcase is recurrent in the poem, painting and music background. To an extend it makes the visual and incorporeal connections in the intangible and tangible cultural elements, all appearing as the backbone of the showcase and means to an ultimate purpose.
The initial intention of the curator is focus under an emic perspective. It being perceived under the native curator's attempt to preserve China's ancestral culture.As well as the fact the showcase complies to a high level of Sacralised heritage (B.Meyer & M.Witte 2013) of Ancient China as it uses important elements such as 3 out of the 4 Arts of Scholars.
But one could oppose this emic view and intention, as temporally, politically and ideologically Modern China opposes most of Ancestral cultural elements, many would see an etic perspective here due to the fact the environment of the showcase is sterile, a public controlled place. The showcase could be more of a controlled narrative in this regard.
Finally, the showcase does not solely possess aesthetic and lyrical attributes, but has most of all an important philosophic reconstruction purpose: it tends to recompose implicitly the millennia-old Chinese Traditional Thinking's essence and its practice via Qin 琴, Hua 畫, Shu 書. This showcase exhibits a remnant of intangible Ancient Chinese Cultural Heritage which is recreated with the association of Song dynasty tangible cultural elements.
References
F.Mairesse, (2019) The Definition of the Museum: History and Issues retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13500775.2019.1638072
B.Meyer & M.Witte, (2013). Heritage and the Sacred: Introduction. Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and Belief. 9. 274-280. 10.2752/175183413X13730330868870.
Materials
H. Helfrich (1999) Beyond the Dilemma of Cross-Cultural Psychology: Resolving the Tension between Etic and Emic Approaches. Culture & Psychology. 5(2):131-153. doi:10.1177/1354067X9952002
D. Liang, (1972) The Chinese Ch'in: Its History and Music. San Francisco: Chinese National Music Association
K. McShine, (1999) The museum as muse: artists reflect. Harry N. Abrams Inc, NY
J.Watt, (November 1981) "The Qin and the Chinese Literati." Orientations 12
Hunan Museum website: http://www.hnmuseum.com
Guqin Archive details: http://www.yueqiziliao.com/guqin/202035906.html
