By Louise Roug | Los Angeles Times | February 21, 2010
The expansive exhibition of artifacts from the land's historical cultures is on view at the Asia Society in New York.
In room after room, magnificent objects on display tell a story about people -- how we encounter one another and change in the process.
That such meetings are sometimes bloody was an inescapable issue for the organizers of the show, on view at the Asia Society in New York.
For decades, Vietnam existed in the American mind not so much as a geographical place with its own history but rather, singularly, as a synonym for conflict.
And it was this association -- as Asia Society Director Vishakha Desai put it: "that Vietnam means war" -- that organizers wanted to challenge. "We wanted to create a new story," Desai said. Given the interwoven history of America and Vietnam, it is a point delicately made.
For one thing, Nancy Tingley, the show's heroically stubborn curator who worked more than 20 years to realize "Arts of Ancient Viet Nam," has mounted an exhibition that looks at a time well before the Battle of Hue, the massacre at My Lai and the fall of Saigon. This is a historical show that examines another kind of meeting between people: one built on trade and commerce.
One reason it took so long for the exhibition to be realized was that before 2003 Vietnam didn't have a law that would allow for the lending of museum objects. But the Vietnamese government eventually threw its support behind the exhibition and 10 museums in Vietnam have contributed objects, including the Museum of Vietnamese History in Ho Chi Minh City.
Another obstacle was the lack of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States until 1995. "Politics got in the way (...)
Read the full article here.
Photo : Garuda with Naga. Champa period, late 12th-13th century. Thap Mam site, Binh Dinh Province Stone (National Museum of Vietnamese History).
