The Vitrine
The Chinese Museum at the Palace of Fontainebleau was established in 1867. Most of the collections were plundered by the British and French forces during the Opium War. In view of this event, these collections can be constructed in three distinct viewing experiences: the first is the moment right before the foreign invasion when the Western “Perspective Linรฉaire” technique was introduced to the Qing imperial court, which became an important exchange between East and West in visual history. As part of the post-invasion period, the second moment, Chinese artefacts were looted and brought to Europe, some of which were remodelled by members of the French court by incorporating Western artistic styles. This “Pastische” re-creation strips these objects of their original sculptural functions and enshrouds them with a distinctive hegemonic meaning. In the early morning of March 1, 2015, a theft incident happened again in the Chinese Museum at Fontainebleau, which marked the third moment in the contemporary context of these cultural objects. The display of colonial looted items is undergoing an important change under the current political and economic climate, highlighting the fundamental ideological problems of Western museums displaying the collections relate to colonialism. It also implies the involvement of huge political forces and the trading network under the table. Using storytelling as a medium, the sound installation The Vitrine transforms the exhibition site into a crime scene of a stolen museum, which not only provides audiences with a starting point to review the problematic Asian collection in Western institutions, but also responds to the critic Ariella Azoulay and Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung’s review on Wandile Kasibe's concept of “museums as crime scenes”.
Installation view of The Vitrine © LIUSA WANG Gallery
