Dragon and Phoenix – Centuries of Exchange between Chinese and Islamic Worlds are organized in collaboration with the Musee national des arts asiatiques – Guimet, popularly known as the Musee Guimet, in Paris. The collaboration is part of the agreement between French museums and Louvre Abu Dhabi. It will bring together a series of exhibitions drawing from the 17 major museums in France to the UAE institution. The exhibition will run from October 6 till February 12, 2022. The exhibition will showcase the Islamic worlds of Central Asia and along the trade routes to China.
The show will showcase the layered histories that lie between the Arabian Gulf and East Asia, via the empires, economic trade, and religious exchange that took place between the 8th and 18th centuries.
The territories range from the Arab merchant communities in South-East Asia, to further down the coast of the South China Sea, to the Central Asian aesthetics that developed along the so-called Silk Road, both a maritime and land route. Luxury items like golden cups, silk cloths, pottery and chinaware and art forms like drawings, calligraphy, and ink paintings are ongoing proof of the cultural exchange in and among the regions.
Noujaim supported Sophie Makariou, the president of the Musee Guimet, who is curating the exhibition, alongside Guilhem Andre, also from Louvre Abu Dhabi. “For nearly a thousand years – from the 8th century to the threshold of the 18th century – these two cultures were entwined through trade, scientific curiosity, and artistic production.
One clear example of East-West exchange is in ceramics. Cobalt was imported to China from Central Asia in the 13th and 14th century. The exhibition shows how this exchange of resources was embellished by aesthetic influence, as ceramic-makers in China incorporated Islamic motifs – no doubt inspired artistically, but also in order to meet the demand of Iranian and Islamic buyers further West.
Cultural exchange was also borne on the back of invasion and empire, such as in the Mongol raids and the ensuing Pax Mongolica of the same 13th and 14th century period. Gold-threaded silk fabric known as Tatar clothes shows how the Mongols incorporated techniques and styles from Iran and Central Asia.
Traditional art forms, too, crisscrossed now-national boundaries, and in a quintessential Louvre Abu Dhabi exploration of cultural synergies, the exhibition will showcase the connections between Chinese calligraphy, in paintings from the 15th to 17th centuries from the Musee Guimet, by artists such as Wen Zhengming, Dong Qichang and Zha Shibiao, and Arabic crafting of the Quran.
The museum will develop a cultural program, to be announced, alongside the exhibition. It will take place both in person at the Saadiyat Island site and online.