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Territory of Dreams
LENS/CRANS-MONTANA—From December 1, 2017,
through May 20, 2018, an exhibition at the Pierre Arnaud
Foundation will showcase contemporary Aboriginal art.
Over one hundred works will be featured, most from the
Bérengère Primat Collection. Together they illustrate the
diversity, richness, and vitality of this art, which has its
roots in a 65,000-year-old culture that was all but unrecognized
in Western art circles until the 1970s. Aboriginal
art raises a number of cultural, artistic, political, and
ecological questions, as exemplified by the work of the
Ghost Net weavers. These Torres Strait Islander artists
create works from the lost or abandoned plastic fishing
nets in the sea that threaten to destroy the fragile marine
ecosystem on which their survival depends.
Since time immemorial, Aboriginal artists have created
representations of the Dream and the voyages of the
Dreaming Ancestors, which are seen as the basis of
human existence. These subjects, as well as that of the
reciprocal connection between man and the earth (and
the sea) are the exhibition’s common thread. Territoire
du Rêve. Art aborigène contemporain & OEuvres en fi lets
de pêche fantômes des Îles du Détroit de Torres (Territory
of Dreams: Contemporary Aboriginal Art and Works
Made of Abandoned Fish Nets in the Torres Strait Islands)
has fi ve parts: the territory of the Dream; Arnhem Land
and its bark works; the art of the Australians of the desert
regions and the Papunya Tula school; the art of the Kimberley
area; and the Ghost Net weaving described above.
Although it has existed for millennia, Aboriginal art has
renewed itself through the integration of new techniques
while retaining its unique spiritual power.
LEFT: Dance mask.
Tibet. Early 20th
century.
Wood, pigment.
© Religionskundliche
Sammlung der Universität
Marburg, Germany.
RIGHT: Lion man.
Stadel Cave, Baden-
Württemberg,
Germany.
40,000 BP.
© Ulmer Museum.
Living with Gods: Peoples,
Places, and Worlds Beyond
LONDON—A show currently at the British Museum
explores religious practice and expression in the lives of
individuals and communities through time and space.
The installation examines the risks and benefits of these
behaviors in terms of coexistence and conflicts within
and between societies, placing special emphasis on the
cases of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Japan,
China and the Soviet Union, and modern Europe. It analyzes
the mystical and sociological aspects of religious
beliefs as well as the neurological and psychological implications
they may have. Objects that illustrate a panoply
of spiritual practices are displayed, ranging from a
Pende mask from the Congo used to keep women and
the curious away from young men’s initiation ceremonies
to a memento mori pendant from the end of the late
Middle Ages intended to remind men of character of the
ephemeral nature of material riches. Living with Gods:
Peoples, Places, and Worlds Beyond can be seen until
April 8, 2018.
LEFT: Tiger Palpatja
(c. 1920–2012), Tiger’s
Creation Story, 2005.
Western Desert.
Acrylic on linen canvas.
122 x 198 cm.
BELOW LEFT: Freddie
Timms Janama (c. 1946–
2017), Claypan (Lissadell),
1995.
Kimberley.
Natural ocher on canvas.
120 x 120 cm.
RIGHT: Nabardayal “Lofty”
Nadjamerrek (c. 1926–
2009),
Kangaroo, 1972.
Arnhem Land.
Natural ocher on bark.
49 x 43 cm.