On Saturday [September 21], Tibetan activists convened outside the Musée Guimet in Paris to protest the museum’s decision to replace exhibition materials that identify certain artifacts as Tibetan by replacing it with the Chinese name for the region. Activists claim the change to the language is problematic for deferring to a Chinese political narrative that’s historically aimed to erase Tibetan cultural identity from public spaces.
The mass protest, which some sources estimate attracted 800 demonstrators, followed a report in the French newspaper Le Monde alleging that Musée Guimet and the Musée du quai Branly, two prominent Parisian museums that house collections of Asian art, altered their exhibition materials cataloging Tibetan artifacts as deriving instead from then Chinese term “Xizang Autonomous Region.” According to the same report, the Musée Guimet renamed its Tibetan art galleries as deriving from the “Himalayan world.”
A handful of Tibetan cultural advocacy groups based in France penned letters to both museums, requesting formal meetings to discuss the reasons behind and implications of the terminology changes, a request that activists say was accepted by Musée du quai Branly, but not it’s peer Musée Guimet.
Horrible. I thought the art scene had a backbone.
They’re more compromised when they can’t support themselves financially.
Museums have more stolen loot than it’s possible to count.
They don’t give a shit where things come from until someone bitch slaps them and forces recognition and possible return of items.
wtf france is this real? of course i have no place to criticize, coming from united embarrassment of america
Having a bias should not deny you having a voice. Human beings should be understanding and empathetic of each other within reason.
Xitler or Putler must be condemned and prevented from having any voice. Tibetans denied their homeland should be supported and voiced.
They did remove all tex Mex hard shell tacos from stores after they learned they weren’t really Mexican.
I mean it doesn’t weigh up to this, but it holds some equivalence
Tex-mex isn’t supposed to be Mexican. It’s a unique culinary cuisine that resulted from the large number of Mexicans in Texas. It’s a fusion of American and Mexican foods.
people love to ignore the first half of texmex, it’s like how most of the “Indian” dishes people are used to were invented in london just some decades ago.
I’m not surprised after seeing what they were doing whenever there was a mention of Taiwan in the crowd at the Olympics
I appreciate that museums have to chase money wherever they can, but fuck this place.
Pretty weak tbh. Historic Tibetan art has a pretty specific style in general.
