The Jim Thompson Art Center cordially invites you to attend the lecture
The Aesthetic Value of Social Materials and Social Value of the Artifacts
by Dr.Yukti Mukdawijit
The Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University
Saturday 3rd May, 2010
2:00-4:00 at William Warren Library
Dr. Yukti Mukdawijit will consider and discuss about the new way of presenting the narratives from the tropics based on the selected artifacts and art works from that area, which addressed aestheftics and social dimension. He will investigate the establishment of dialogue between humanities and social science and the deconstruction of the old metaphor from tropical zone. This deconstruction critiques, demolishes and reinstalls the selected artifacts and art works. The exhibition presented not only the juxtaposition of crossing boarders objects and artifacts but also the makers of such artifacts. This kind of presentation had not been addressed and discoursed in any social or humanity theory. Obviously, they are demonstrated here, in this exhibition.
However, the deconstruction of the tropics in this exhibition is quite skeptical in terms of the show itself which kept emphasizing and reproducing the representation of the tropics with the constraint of time, space, state, memories and culture. It is an interesting to see the difference between the narrators of the tropics, who are the insiders and outsiders. What and how is the differences between the two, and what was the factors that affect the differences? The lecturer’s critique and presentation will focus on the artifacts from Thailand and his filed studies and research in Vietnam.
“The Tropics – Views from the Middle of the Globe” attempts anew to detect currents of energy and subtle disturbances between the hemispheres in times of tension, and to search for cooperative as well as counteractive cultural forces. The exhibition has already been presented in Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town and Berlin.
Ranking among the most important in the world, exhibits from the collections of the Ethnological Museum in Berlin from Africa, Asia, Oceania and tropical America enter into dialogue with works by contemporary artists from South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. Old and new art converge in one place. As the show is conceived as an art exhibition, the selection of the older works was primarily made according to aesthetic criteria. In general, the exhibition attempts a re-aesthetisation of the tropics, in order to place more emphasis on cultural aspects of tropical regions, as opposed to the otherwise prevailing negative political and economic discourses.
Dr.Yukti Mukdawijit is a professor of Faculty of Humanities; Sociology and Anthropology ,Thammasat University. He doctorates in Anthropology from the University Wisconsin-Madison specifically in phonology and ethnic education by studying the history of Tai-dum ideography in Vietnam. He is interested in art motto of the theory , method of Social Sciences, Humanities and Southeast Asian Studies.
For more information please contact The Jim Thompson Art Center Tel: 02 612 6741
Email: education@jimthompsonhouse.com