Declinazioni Contemporanee
Asian Art Museum, Turin, Italy
2 November 2024 ~ 31 October 2025
Photo by Giorgio Perottino, Courtesy of Asian Art Museum, Turin
Ancient Desires – An Aspiration – is an installation by Charwei Tsai that is composed of over a hundred offering vessels and produced by the artist in Taipei, Paris and Turin. The vessels are presented on a base measuring more than ten metres that crosses through the museum’s entrance. These offering vessels were made using a sophisticated hand-crafted pottery technique and then decorated with prayer inscriptions by the artist. Mixing ritual and artistic tradition, the work encourages the active and performative participation of the visitors, who are asked to make offerings for the collective wellbeing in the vessels.
In connection with her residency project, Charwei Tsai is also presenting two works in dialogue with MAO’s permanent collection, specifically, objects in the Himalayas gallery. The first work, Songs of Chuchepati Camp, 2017, documents the deplorable conditions in the camp for earthquake survivors in Chuchepati, Nepal. The second, a drawing from the Sky Dancers series, pays homage to the five dancers and represents female energy in the tantric tradition.
A set of 24 vessels as unique work is now a part of the permanent collection of the museum.
This project is a part of the Declinazioni Contemporanee exhibition, which features four site-specific commissions using contemporary art as means for reinterpreting and rereading of the museum’s collection, descending on the present to discover new meanings and connections between different periods and cultures.
