Serge Gruzinski: From Japanese Screens to Wong Kar Wai's 'Happy Together' - Mestizo objects on the move (XVIth-XXIst centuries)

Serge Gruzinski is considered one of the most imaginative historians writing on Latin America today. His work demonstrates that globalization is neither a new phenomenon, nor one that has ever been uncontested.

In this talk, Prof Gruzinski first studies the production and circulation of 'mestizo' objects - hybrid objects produced when cultures met or clashed as colonizers mated with colonized and Amerindians joined the Catholic Church or colonial government, and local artists produced visualizations of Jesus or Perseus. XVIth century Iberian globalization propelled the circulation of these objects between Europe, Asia, Africa and the New world, a worldwide circulation partly dominated by European merchants, predators and art collectors. Second, as the curator of "A mestizo planet", an exhibition held in the musee du Quai Branly, Paris in 2009, he explores the meaning, for an European and a Westerner, of new intercultural art objects - Chinese movies - depicting the Asian vision and construction of the Americas and Europe.

Professor Serge Gruzinski, historian, lectures at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris and is research director of EHESS's Empire/Society/Nations research center. He is an historian who has published extensively on Latin America, studying the processes of colonialism, globalization and cultural hybridity. His books that have been translated into English include "Images at War: Mexico from Columbus to Blade Runner (1492-2019)" (Duke, 2001) and "The Mestizo Mind: The Intellectual Dynamics of Colonization and Globalization" (Routledge, 2002).

His lecture is the inaugural event of a new Max Planck Partner Group between the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, and the Max Planck Institute-Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz.

Inauguration of the Max Planck Partner Group on 'The Temple and the Museum. Considering the Places of Art and Religion in a Comparative Perspective: The Mediterranean, Europe and India 1200 - 2012'

Program

Professor B.B. Bhaatacharya, Vice Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru University: Welcome

Felix Kahle, Representative of the Max Planck Society in India: The Max Planck Society at a glance

Professor Gerhard Wolf, Director & Dr. Hannah Baader, Head of Research Group, Art History Institute Florence - Max Planck Institute: The Max Planck Partner Group "The Temple and the Museum. Considering the Places of Art and Religion in a Comparative Perspective: The Mediterranean, Europe and India 1200 - 2012"

Professor Kavita Singh, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Head of Max Planck Partner Group: Introduction of Professor Serge Gruzinski

Serge Gruzinski, L'École des Hautes Ètudes en Science Sociale, Paris: "From Japanese Screens to Wong Kar Wai's 'Happy Together' - Mestizo objects on the move (XVIth-XXIst centuries)"

Professor H.S. Shivaprakash, Dean, School of Arts & Aesthetics: Words of Thanks