Dr. Feng Schöneweiß (currently Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin): From chinoiserie to ‘national wertvolles Kulturgut’: Porcelain and Provenance in Dresden since 1700.
How could Chinese porcelain made in ca. 1690 be regarded ‘cultural property of national significance’ in the GDR? This talk traces the transcultural biography of a rare group of Chinese monumental vases over three centuries. Various communities perceived the vases as material evidence of social identity and as a referential device of cultural memory, transforming the objects, once devised as chinoiserie facade decoration for Augustus the Strong’s ‘Porzellanschloss’, into local cultural heritage. Public Lecture in English.
This lecture is invited by a seminar on ‘exoticism’ at the art history department of Kunsthochschule Kassel (Prof. Dr. Alexis Joachimides).
Kunsthochschule, Main lecture hall, Tue., December 15, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Lecture by Dr Feng Schöneweiß
/ public
