Study Day: "Ars Asiatica I–Construction des savoirs sur l’art asiatique dans la première Bibliothèque d’art et d’archéologie : les fonds photographiques"
Date: Thursday 9 February 2023
Hour: 09:30 - 18:30
Venue: Institut national d'histoire de l'art (INHA) - Galerie Colbert, Salle Giorgio Vasari. 2, rue Vivienne or 6 rue des Petits Champs - 75002 Paris
When Jacques Doucet created the Bibliothèque d’art et d’archéologie [Library of Art and Archeology], he laid the foundation for an extensive collection of photographs that illustrate all areas of world art. The portion related to the Far East, as a complement to the collection of books and prints, is exceptional in its scope – several thousand photographs representing monuments, archaeological sites, public and private collections. This collection is also exceptional in its quality, as it was brought together thanks to a network of scholars, travellers and amateurs, including great names in Orientalism such as Victor Segalen, Paul Pelliot or Victor Goloubew. This group has never been studied in depth. This study day will compare it to contemporary collections of the same nature, kept in France or abroad, to accurately assess its content, and understand how it was gathered by reconstituting the network of "extreme orientalists" linked to the Bibliothèque d’art et d’archéologie. The goal of this study day is to evaluate the contribution of this library to the birth of a "Far-Orientalism" which constitutes one of the grey areas of Edward Saïd's famous essay on Orientalism.
On that occasion, Photography of China's founder Marine Cabos-Brullé has been invited to talk about the Mission Paul Pelliot as the INHA currently holds several archival materials and photographs from this expedition to China. She will present the paper "La vie des images : de l’usage et des trajectoires du fonds photographique de la Mission Paul Pelliot (1906-08)". By exploring the vast photographic corpus created during the Paul Pelliot Mission – notably those representing the oasis of Dunhuang – this communication highlights the emergence of heritage and archaeological concerns in China, and the growing place of photography in scientific disciplines such as archaeology, while highlighting the interaction of these images with local and international cultures. The goal is to delimit the visual grammar of the photographs and gauging their effect in the (re)construction of the Chinese national heritage.
Scientific Committee
Christelle Chefneux (INHA)
Jean-Sébastien Cluzel (Sorbonne-Université – École française d’Extrême-Orient)
Anne-Julie Etter (CY Cergy Paris Université)
Christophe Pottier (École française d’Extrême-Orient)
Speakers
Christine Barthe (musée du Quai Branly - Jacques Chirac)
Marta Binazzi (Villa i Tatti, Florence)
Marine Cabos-Brullé (CECMC / EHESS - website Photography of China)
Christelle Chefneux (INHA)
Anne-Julie Etter (CY Cergy Paris Université)
John Falconer (British Library, Londres)
Julien Faure-Conorton (musée et jardins Albert-Khan)
Olivier Loiseaux (BnF-Société de géographie)
Laurence Madeline (Musée national des Arts asiatiques - Guimet)
Isabelle Poujol (École française d’Extrême-Orient)
Sébastien Quéquet (Musée des Arts décoratifs)
Édouard de Saint-Ours (université du Havre et université de St Andrews)
Flora Triebel (BnF)
Program below:
![From left to right: Collection Victor Goloubew, sculpture, circa 1912-14 (cote : 4 Phot 53/1/7); Collection Paul Pelliot, [Chine. Province du Gansu], Touen-houang [Dunhuang], grotte 163, niche aux manuscrits [Paul Pelliot dans la grotte des livres] (AP8186), Courtesy of Musée national des arts asiatiques - Guimet - - Conference - La vie des images : de l’usage et des trajectoires du fonds photographique de la Mission Paul Pelliot (1906-08)](/img/2060b10f90d811edae1e52540000cfbe/INHA-mission_paul_pelliot-1.jpg)
![[Chine. Province du Gansu], Touen-houang [Dunhuang], vue extérieure des grottes 1 à 40 Mission : Mission Paul PELLIOT 1906-1908, circa 1908 (AP8206), Courtesy of Musée national des arts asiatiques - Guimet - - Conference - La vie des images : de l’usage et des trajectoires du fonds photographique de la Mission Paul Pelliot (1906-08)](/img/1d5f422290da11edae1e52540000cfbe/AP8206.jpg)
