Visualizing Ancient Histories
14-15 November 2024
By Sanne Dokter-Mersch and Ayelet Kotler
The Visualizing Ancient Histories symposium examines how visual media shapes the understanding of the past and its relationship to the present. It explores the ways in which different forms of media like painting, sculpture, inscription, theater, music, or comic books, have been used to craft authoritative visions of the ancient past in both premodern and contemporary South and Southeast Asia. The symposium brings together scholars from a range of disciplines, artists, and curators, to generate new understandings of history-making and the role of visual media in it.
Program
Thursday 14 November
Location: Leiden University, Herta Mohr 1.30 (Witte Singel 27a, Leiden)
8:30-9:00 Coffee and Welcome
9:00-9:15 Opening Remarks
9:15-10:45 Morning Session 1: Inscribing Hindu Myth and History on the Land
- Elizabeth Cecil—Visual Ecologies of the Puranic Past
- Vera Lazzaretti—Of Goddesses and Mosques: Heritage, Repatriation and Violence in Hindu Nationalist India
10:45-11:15 Coffee Break
11:15-12:45 Morning session 2: Text and Image in Early Modern South Asia
- Lennart Bes—Pictures and Politics: South Indian Visual Materials as Reflections of Political Changes, 16th-18th Centuries
- Ayelet Kotler—Mythical and Historical Time in the Author Portraits of the Persian Puranic Translator Anandghan ‘Khwush’ (fl. 1790-5)
12:45-13:45 Lunch Break
13:45-15:15 Afternoon Session 1: Illustrating the Past in Manuscript and Print Cultures
- Joel Bordeaux—The Kāśī-Khaṇḍa in Early Indian Woodblock Prints
- Forough Sajadi—The Illuminated Manuscript of Jāmāsp the Sage: The Crossroads of Art, Politics, and Ancient History
15:15-15:45 Coffee Break
15:45-17:15 Afternoon Session 2: Foundational Myths and Memory in Southeast Asia
- Marijke Klokke—Appropriation and Subversion: ‘The Churning of the Ocean’ at the Bayon Temple (Cambodia) and Suvarnabhumi International Airport (Thailand)
- Artist Samboleap Tol’s Presentation of her Exhibition—The Cosmic Tortoise: I feel like my ancestors have left me a 1000 voicenotes to decipher
18:30 Dinner for speakers at Sumatra House (Nieuwe Beestenmarkt 3a, Leiden)
Friday 15 November
Location morning sessions: Leiden University, Huizinga 0.06 (Doelensteeg 16, Leiden)
Location afternoon sessions: Leiden University, Lipsius 1.48 (Cleveringaplaats 1, Leiden)
8:30-9:00 Coffee
9:00-10:30 Morning Session 1: Re-enacting and Rewriting the Past
- Verena Meyer—Memories of Defiance: Narrative, Heritage, and Resistance to Java’s Islamization
- Saran Suebsantiwongse—The Swing Ceremony: Puranic Symbolism, Political Ideology and Royal Legitimacy in Thai Culture
10:30-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-12:30 Morning Session 2: Restitution and Heritage-Making
- Roshan Mishra—From Mandirs and Monasteries to Museums
- Alicia Schrikker—Reading Weapons: The Layered History of Lewke’s Cannon
12:30-13:30 Lunch Break
13:30-15:00 Afternoon Session 1: History-Making and Performance Traditions (I)
- Naresh Keerti—Aesthetic and Synaesthetic: Early Modern Experiments in South Indian Music
- Arya Adityan—Hybrid Bodies and Ritual Practices: A Study of the Visual and Ritual Worlds of Hybrid Deities in South Asian Art
15:00-15:30 Coffee Break
15:30-16:15 Afternoon Session 2: History-Making and Performance Traditions (II)
- Elena Mucciarelli—Blood, Puffed Rice, and Tender Coconut: A Premodern Malayali Recipe for a Holy Shade
16:15-16:45 Closing Discussion
17:00 Drinks for all participants at Barrera (Rapenburg 56, Leiden)
For more information, please send an email to:
Ayelet Kotler (a.kotler@hum.leidenuniv.nl)
Sanne Dokter-Mersch (s.mersch@hum.leidenuniv.nl)
