2024 is the 110th anniversary of the opening of the Summer Palace to the public, and a series of special exhibitions of fine cultural relics hosted by the Beijing Municipal Park Management Center and undertaken by the Summer Palace Management Office will meet the audience at the Summer Palace Museum and the Dehe Garden Costume Theater on May 17.
As a re-exhibition of cultural relics for the 110th anniversary of the Summer Palace's opening to the public, this year's exhibition focuses on the furniture relics of the Ming and Qing dynasties in the classical gardens, including most of the categories and varieties of traditional furniture, bringing together different styles and styles from the north and south, China and the West, and showcasing the beauty of traditional furniture with 83 pieces/sets of exhibits.
The exhibition is divided into four units: good wood, good works, Chinese and Western encounters, and each has its own suitability, with the development process of classical furniture, the ritual culture carried by the furniture, the humanistic culture, the local culture, the collision of Chinese and Western cultures displayed by the Ming and Qing Dynasty furniture, and the furniture furnishings in different garden spaces as the exhibition context, showing the heavy cultural connotation of classical furniture for the audience. The exhibition will be held from May 17 to August 25.
In the past, when the audience saw the cultural relics, they needed to be separated by a layer of glass. In order to make the audience more immersed in the furniture exhibition, most of the cultural relics in this exhibition remove the "protective cover" and present them directly in front of the audience. According to reports, during the exhibition, the exhibition hall will closely monitor the temperature, humidity, etc., maintain the cultural relics in a timely manner, and set up infrared induction prompts around the cultural relics to minimize the impact of the external environment on the cultural relics.
It is worth mentioning that "Perception through Interactive Experience" is a major feature of this exhibition. The first exhibition hall has a display of the mortise and tenon structure of the Daguo red sandalwood Ming-style circle chair and the physical map of traditional furniture making tools that can be visited at close range, and the second exhibition hall also opens up an interactive mortise and tenon structure and an experience area for smelling the fragrance and recognizing the wood. In addition, the exhibits on display have their own "identity tags", and visitors can read the entries or scan the QR code to learn the details of the exhibits. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Summer Palace will also carry out academic lectures on furniture research and furniture restoration, online special live broadcasts, and set up special science lectures for summer social education activities for primary and secondary school students. At the opening site, the cultural bazaar was opened at the same time, and supporting cultural and commercial services such as the Yanjing Eight Masterpieces Exhibition Area, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition Area, and the Cultural and Creative Sales Point were set up outside the museum, and the bazaar lasted until June 18.
Rong Hua, deputy director of the Summer Palace, introduced that "Garden Says VI.", as one of the key activities of the 110th anniversary of the Summer Palace being opened to the public, and the key activities of the Summer Palace Museum on International Museum Day in 2024, while continuing the cultural context of the "Garden Talk" series of exhibitions held by the Beijing Park Management Center, more attention is paid to integrating the construction of Beijing's "City of Museums" with the theme of "Museums Committed to Education and Research" on International Museum Day. On the other hand, it also pays attention to the needs of ordinary audiences, and implements the popularization of traditional culture through the extensibility of the Summer Palace's characteristic popular science activities, not only through exhibitions to show more cultural relics in front of the public, but also through the combination of cultural activities and popular science activities, so that the support of all walks of life and their own efforts form a joint force to jointly make the cultural relics "live".
Links: Four unit highlights of the exhibits
The Huanghuali inlaid jade Nanguan hat chair in the first unit "Jiamu Liangzuo" is a representative of Ming Dynasty furniture, made of Huanghuali wood.
The original furnishings of the bright room in the main hall in the second unit "Instrument to Carry the Road" completely restore the furniture display regulations in the hall, among which the red sandalwood inlaid enamel phoenix pattern with clay throne, the red sandalwood inlaid enamel flower and bird pattern seat screen, and the red sandalwood inlaid enamel dragon pattern foot pedal set are the first appearance.
In the third unit, "Encounters between China and the West", the red sandalwood copper-clad corner inlay table was originally displayed in Yiyun Hall, showing the characteristics of Chinese and Western cultures blending and learning from each other in furniture technology.
The mahogany tangram table in the fourth unit, "To Each Person", was originally stored in the Summer Palace, and the cultural relics are displayed in their original state.
Source: Beijing Daily client
Reporter: Dai Lili, Wu Di
Process edit: u031