ASEMUS Travelling Exhibition opened
In September 2008 the exhbition Self and Other: Portraits from Asia and Europe opened at the Museum of Ethnology in Osaka, Japan. The exhibition that will travel to several venues in Asia and Europe is the result of several years of work of a very dedicated team.
Portraits to promote understanding
From the start, the travelling exhibition project has benefited from ASEF’s financial and logistical support. Following the ASEF Board of Governors meeting in Dublin (May 2004) direct financial support has been received to assist the project. The travelling exhibition is about how people in Asian and European countries have visualised themselves and each other from earliest times up to the present. Its purpose is to promote better mutual understanding among peoples by exposing stereotypes which Asians and Europeans have had and still have about each other and about themselves. The challenge has been to achieve this with a light touch – to delight and entertain exhibition visitors rather than administer stern instructions.
The composition of the project team has varied over the three years, but with a consistent representation at meetings being from London (British Museum), Leiden (Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde) and Osaka (National Museum of Ethnology).
In all there are museums from 18 countries in Asia and Europe that participate by either being members of the project team, intend to be hosting venues or supplying content for the exhibition.
