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Thursday 30 June 2022

I International Scientific Conference "The Art of the East and the East in Art"

 
On the 28th-30th of June 2022 the First International Scientific Conference "The Art of the East and the East in Art" was held.

The conference, organized by the Institute of Oriental Studies (the Russian Academy of Sciences), the State Museum of the East, the Oriental Faculty of the State Academic University for the Humanities and the Oriental Cultural Center of the Institute of Oriental Studies with the assistance of United Religions (President - A.T. Gilalov), brought together experts in the fields of cultural history, art, archeology, and museology of the Asian and African countries.

The conducted international conference was assessed by the participants as the first scientific and practical forum of its kind, covering the widest range of issues related to theoretical, methodological, art history, and cultural issues that are being part of humanities cycle sciences. 

The event opening coincided with a new structural subdivision formation in the Institute of Oriental Studies (the Russian Academy of Sciences) - the Art and Material Culture Department.

The forum work was opened by V. Naumkin, the Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and A.Alikberov, the Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, M.Piotrovsky, the President of the State Hermitage, and A.Sedov, the General Director of the State Museum of Oriental Art.

The conference was held in ten sections, formed according to the thematic principle: from antiquity (“Pushing the Eucumene Boundaries: from the Seven Valleys Art to the Great Silk Road”) and issues related to individual masters (“An Artist in the East: Roads and crossroads”) to such topical issues as Orientalism and the Occidentalism phenomenon and contemporary art of the East and spatio-temporal genres.

Particular emphasis in the forum subjects was placed on the Indian and Buddhist world art, which was dedicated to a round table that brought together speakers from Russia, India, and Mongolia. In addition to venerable scientists, the conference was attended by artists, politicians, diplomats, and young specialists - graduate students in oriental studies.

Such conferences - with a thematically wide coverage of topics - are planned to be held once every two years, and scientific forums dedicated to the history of art in a particular region of the East - annually. In addition, the Department of Art and Material Culture is launching a monthly workshop on art of the East, starting in autumn 2022.

As a result of the conference, it is planned to publish the texts of selected reports in a special issue of the Institute of Oriental Studies Proceedings and in the journal Oriental Courier (https://oriental-courier.ru).

The film by Benoy K. Behl, Produced for Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.
Benoy K. Behl “Indian Roots of Tibetan Buddhism”:

Video from the opening of the exhibition "Faces of the Buddha":