Beyond the Future: Papers from the Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

ceremonies account for another large part. The museum is both a place of knowledge and a place for exercising one's sensibility, mainly by the sense of sight. The structures of western thinking generate th is solution with a d ichotomy that reveals its weakness in view of the global phenomenon of visual thought. To these two functions we must add that of the sanctuary. Of course, for the laic republican society the museum has often played the role of a profane church, but this substitute role operates in the context of agnostic humanism . If some museums agree to recover this value of a rel igious sanctuary, they would defin itely gain a new d imension of perception and comprehension for the objects. So-called primitive art has now become a reference for modern and contemporary art so that one never ceases to admire the correlations between the two domains. Many artists have well integrated the process of creation and relations of meaning engendered by the ritual practices of societies without writing to such an extent that it is hardly surprising that these relations are increasing. Moreover, the theme of van ity epitomised by a skull is one of the more lasting archetypes of our culture. And with contemporary artists it merges with the attraction of the savage. Jean-Pierre Raynaud observes the rite of the ready-made when he places a skull on the pedestal of a clin ical slab. The dark and patinated skull is tied up with a string from which it is also suspended . An intimate detail that reifies death l ike a package conditioned to end in the neutral and cl inical coldness of a morgue table. By turning skulls into bone china teacups, Christine Borland generates a construction that gives these fam ily gatherings the affability of a conversation piece. This kind of meeting cannot do without the ritual of five o'clock tea. The skull of Xavier Veilhan looks kindly on the meeting, not without provocation, as his buttocks are posed on top of it. This is a way to defy death by sitting right on top of it. Tony Oursler not only takes us back to the trad itional vanity theme but also reactivates inherent fears that can be instantly evoked . H is outsize skull can talk thanks to a projection that moves h is jaw. The words of this ghostly apparition are always disturbing . In l ine with the macabre traditions of Mexico, Gabriel Orozco presented a skull decorated with a chessboard motif at Documenta 1 997, the squares of which were bent out of shape in underlining curves . Apart from the black and white funerary colour scheme, this adaptation of the geometric structure to the body indicates the d istance between abstract and living theory. Multiculturalism is an inherent reality of Mexican culture. The exhibition could have easily set these contemporary art skulls side by side with those from Oceania. This would have demonstrated the recurrent utilisation of human remains and the remnants of sacred form in contemporary art. It proposes to go even further than this by comparing two separate but contemporaneous rel igious entities. If we accept that the presented Oceanian skulls date from the eighteenth to twentieth c entury and that they were decorated according to older archetypes, we can see them as part of a group comparable to the Christian skulls of the seventeenth to eighteenth century. This parallel turns out to be even more pertinent, especially as it is still impertinent for some people to place Christianity (or monotheistic beliefs) on the same level as other rel igions. The many questions succinctly touched on in this short text call for extensive d iscussion . In any case, they have nothing to do with dry erud ition or autonomous scientism . They relate to the life and death of entire peoples. The survival of many communities, at least partially, must undergo cultural recogn ition by the north , because there is no neutral ground for economic concerns. The development of the museum, which runs counter to its founding values, can implement this with the great questions of survival of indigenous peoples. The works displayed in this exh ibition are relics of another level for most visitors to the extent that few of them are believers. This distance does not imply that they will approach them without due respect. Silence is the general rule at exhibitions. Apart from guides, nobody speaks in a loud voice. The signs of deference are internalised , as this is the preferred attitude in the West. By d int of observing signs of apparent politeness and of mechanical repetition, our cultural rites have suppressed the signs that convey and accompany the expression of emotions. To avoid misunderstanding, the curator Yves Le Fur has decided not to include any western contemporary art works. The increasing presence of this theme and its use by artists proves 93