Announcement of EXHIBITION PATONG 2007

Source: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-31976193_ITM
Publication: Borneo Research Bulletin
Publication Date: 01-JAN-06

COPYRIGHT 2006 Borneo Research Council, Inc

From 22 May until 25 August 2007 the Museo delle Culture of Lugano (Switzerland) will present a temporary exhibition entitled: "Patong. Great figures carved by the people of Borneo."

In the exhibition rooms of the Galleria Gottardo in Lugano, a group of forty works will be shown, mainly of Ngaju and Ot Danum origin from Central Kalimantan, but also including some of Kenyah and Kayan origin from East Kalimantan. The larger works represent ancestors, shamanic priests, or spirits, or are anthropomorphic poles used for sacrifices or as architectural elements with carved zoomorphic figures. Together with these larger sculptures, there are also smaller items of Dayak material culture, for example, a ba' baby-carrier, a kelebit shield, and four tun-tun hunting sticks.

The objects in the exhibition all belong to the Museum and are part of a collection that Serge Brignoni (a Swiss artist from Ticino) brought together, beginning in the 1920s, and donated to the Museum in 1985. Altogether, the collection includes approximately 650 artworks, mostly from Oceania and Indonesia.

The mounting of this exhibition and the preparation of an exhibition catalogue are the results of a continuing research project that is meant to analyze and scientifically document these objects and record their local cultural significance by means of field research in Kalimantan. This research also aims to critically re-evaluate the obsolete term hampatong by which the larger sculptures in the exhibition are still mostly known to ethnic art collectors throughout the world. Among the main interests of this research is clarification of the expressive and semiotic significance of design motifs and sculptural decorations in local classificatory systems, the relationship of these objects to funeral practices and cosmology, and the study of interrelationships between sculpture and architecture, both at functional and symbolical levels. The temporary exhibition and catalogue are being prepared by a team of Swiss and Italian anthropologists consisting of Paolo Maiullari, Junita Arneld, Alessia Borellini and Marta Cometti, coordinated by the Director of the Museo delle Culture, Prof. Francesco Paolo Campione, with the assistance of additional external specialists, including Dr. Bernard Sellato, Dr. Antonio Guerreiro and Dra. Nila Riwut.

The exhibition catalogue will be published at the beginning of September and will appear as part of the Altrarti series.