Museum exhibitions lend contemporary context to artefacts: Expert

New Delhi, March 20: The age-old inclusiveness of Indian culture is second to none globally and a landmark exhibition currently on in the country’s capital mirrors its range and depth, according to renowned art historian Neil MacGregor, who is director of the British Museum.

‘The Body in Indian Art’, which opened in National Museum last week showcasing a broad spectrum of aesthetics in the representation of the human body, exemplifies the harmonious coexistence of religions in the subcontinent over the past four millennia, the London-based expert noted in a lecture here.

“Ideally, museums have to be a secular space. The exhibition reveals its grand extent,” he said in his talk on ‘What can Exhibitions do for Museums’ which was the third in a monthly series that brings together experts and practitioners from the field of world art and culture for Indian audiences.

Dr Neil MacGregor, Director, British Museum,
 speaking at the Third National Museum Lecture at the National Museum, Delhi

Dr MacGregor said it “is indeed remarkable” that the National Museum has pulled together artefacts from over 40 institutions in the eleven-week show here, considering a general reluctance among museums to lend their objects for exhibitions. “This, when there is a surge in public appetite to view and experience cultures from across the world,” added the speaker, who has been heading the British Museum in London for 12 years after having been director of the National Gallery in the same city.

On its part, the British Museum that gets over 6 million visitors a year has been sending its artefacts for exhibitions round the globe in a big way for the past two decades, earning not just admirers from across regions and cultures but also triggering fascinatingly different interpretations to the historical pieces. Redefining old objects is a major benefit of such an exercise, which can also help museums gross additional money through increased footfalls, he added.

Dr Neil MacGregor, Director, British Museum, speaking at the Third National Museum Lecture
 at the National Museum, Delhi (2)

The lecture on Tuesday came amid the March 14-June 7 show curated by Dr Naman P Ahuja of Jawaharlal Nehru University here in association with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

“Objects mean different things to different peoples,” Dr MacGregor said, recalling the variedly fascinating response the esoteric Cyrus Cylinder got when British Museum showed the 6^th century BC artefact in four American cities in 2010.

While it was seen more as an art object in the US, the Cyrus Cylinder was revered when it was displayed in Tehran on a loan to the museum in Iran. Recently, it was exhibited in Mumbai as well.

Similarly, an armchair throne made of decommissioned (Western) weapons — a representation of the end of a bloody civil war in Mozambique in the late 1970s — underwent a change of profile when it was shown to a different audience. While the object gained its shape following a peace-loving priest’s call to barter guns for gifts, its 2012 display in the British Museum lent the exhibit a completely different perception: it is all European ammunitions that are used in African battles.

International exhibitions can also conjure up contemporary art inspired by ancient works, pointed out the 67-year-old author who has played a vital role in British Museum’s recent leap from being traditional to contemporary and popular. For example, an exhibition of a Roman copy of the famed Greek ‘discus thrower’ sculpture of the 5th century BC prompted a Chinese artist to mould a clothed version of it recently, he pointed out, screening the contrasting image of middle-aged Sui Jianguo’s ‘Drapery Folds’ work at Beijing Museum in 2012.

“When you lend an object, everyone interprets it in his own way, in his own tradition…. We want museums to speak to everybody, especially those who are not concerned about high cultural objects…. Museums are the place where dialogues and discourses can take place which is not possible in any other public place,” he contended.

Expounding on the theme, the art historian said an exhibition in the British Museum on the Haj turned out to be a crowd-puller, attracting a mixed and eclectic gathering and 40 per cent of them were first-time visitors.

“Citizens across the globe feel they share the inheritance, and museums have a central role to play in creating a fusion through democratic discourses and dialogues,” he asserted. 

Dr MacGregor is in India on the occasion of the Third Leadership Training Programme for Museum Professionals which is organised by the Union Ministry of Culture in collaboration with British Museum. The annual project will train 20 young museum professionals in museum management and leadership.

The participants at the training range from museums at the national level (like Bhopal and Hyderabad) to small private museums, say, in Kargil.