Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art National Museum of Asian Art
Toggle Menu Search

Site Search

The Collections and Archives

National Museum of Asian Art Announces Premiere of Centennial-Commissioned Film “Abiding Nowhere” by Taiwan-Based Director Tsai Ming-liang

The Film—Which Will Have Its World Premiere at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival—Is Inspired by Xuanzang, the Seventh-Century Monk Who Walked From China to India

View this press release in:  繁中 | 简中 (pdf)

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art has announced the world premiere of Abiding Nowhere, a film it commissioned from Taiwan-based director Tsai Ming-liang in honor of the museum’s centennial last year. The film will be screened during the Berlinale Special portion of the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival (known as the Berlinale), and it will premiere in the U.S. at the museum’s Meyer Auditorium March 1; tickets are available online.

Abiding Nowhere is the 10th in an ongoing series of works known as the Walker series, which Ming-liang has produced independently from the museum since 2012. Abiding Nowhere is the first in the series to be made in the United States and was shot in the museum’s Freer Gallery of Art and at other locations in the Washington, D.C., area.

Inspired by Xuanzang, the seventh-century monk who walked from China to India and became the inspiration for the famed literary work A Journey to the West, the Walker films all feature Tsai’s creative partner Lee Kang-sheng in the robe of a Buddhist monk, who has the uncanny ability to move very slowly, interacting with landscapes and people in cities all over the world.

“I want to thank Tsai Ming-liang for devising such an innovative platform to showcase the National Museum of Asian Art during our centennial and congratulate him and the team on the inclusion in the 2024 Berlinale,” said Chase F. Robinson, the museum’s director. “Our museum’s film program has long underscored our continued commitment to engaging with partners around the world, and it aligns with our strategic goals to reach a variety of audiences and to foster a museum culture that is creative and collaborative. This project is a wonderful celebration of those values.”

“As a longtime fan of Tsai’s work, it was an honor to be able to commission a film from him,” said Tom Vick, the museum’s curator of film, and the executive producer of Abiding Nowhere. “His way of depicting locations in the museum and the D.C. metropolitan area made me see them in a whole new way. I will be excited to celebrate his recognition with him and the production team in Berlin and to host the U.S. premiere at our museum in March.”

Vick has been the curator of film at the National Museum of Asian Art since October 2001. He has worked as a consultant for the International Film Festival Rotterdam and served on the juries of the Korean Film Festival in Los Angeles, the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, Filmfest DC and the Smithsonian African American Film Festival. He has contributed essays to Directory of World Cinema: Japan, Film Festival Yearbook, Asian Geographic and other publications. He is the author of Asian Cinema: A Field Guide (2007) and Time and Place Are Nonsense: The Films of Seijun Suzuki (2015).

Editor’s note: Abiding Nowhere’s Vick will be in Berlin for the festival from Feb. 16–22 and is available for interviews.

About the National Museum of Asian Art’s Film Program

Begun in 1996, the National Museum of Asian Art’s film program presents year-round free screenings of films from across Asia in the 300-seat Meyer Auditorium, which features both state-of-the-art digital capabilities and the capacity to project archival formats such as 35 mm and 16 mm film. In addition to Tsai, notable directors and performers who have made personal appearances for Q&As at film programs include Park Chan-wook, Jia Zhangke, Tatsuya Nakadai and many others.

The film program has a loyal following and has garnered praise from media: The Iranian Film Festival won Best International Film Festival in Washington City Paper’s 2020 “Best of DC” awards, and the film screenings are frequently featured in outlets like the Washington Post, City Paper, DCist and Voice of America.

About the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art is committed to preserving, exhibiting, researching and interpreting art in ways that deepen our collective understanding of Asia, the United States and the world. Home to more than 46,000 objects, the museum stewards one of North America’s largest and most comprehensive collections of Asian art, with works dating from antiquity to the present from China, Japan, Korea, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Islamic world. Its rich holdings bring the arts of Asia into direct dialogue with an important collection of 19th- and early 20th-century art from the United States, providing an essential platform for creative collaboration and cultural exchange between the U.S., Asia and the Middle East.

Beginning with a 1906 gift that paved the way for the museum’s opening in 1923, the National Museum of Asian Art is a leading resource for visitors, students and scholars in the United States and internationally. Its galleries, laboratories, archives and library are located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and are part of the world’s largest museum complex, which typically reports more than 27 million visits each year. The museum is free and open to the public 364 days a year (closed Dec. 25), making its exhibitions, programs, learning opportunities and digital initiatives accessible to global audiences.

Red: Ming Dynasty/Mark Rothko

Filming Policy

Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art Announces Programming for Centennial Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Festival

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art announces that Bank of America is the Presenting Sponsor for its 2023 centennial celebrations and, from 2023 through 2027, for annual celebrations during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

From May 1 to May 14, America’s first national museum of art will mark its centennial by hosting the inaugural festival in this five-year initiative. Programming includes headline performers—internationally acclaimed singer-songwriters Eric Nam and Raveena—plus panel discussions, interactive experiences, culinary adventures, art-making projects and programming from the Middle East, Asia and America’s Asian American communities. The museum’s partnership with Bank of America will greatly expand the museum’s public programming, both within its galleries and on the National Mall, ensuring that Asian arts and culture reach the broadest possible audiences.

“I want to thank Bank of America for their generous support of our centennial and especially this festival,” said Chase F. Robinson, Dame Jillian Sackler Director of the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and Freer Gallery of Art, the National Museum of Asian Art. “Each day, our museum welcomes visitors to learn about the arts and cultures of Asia free of charge. This sponsorship allows us to create ambitious and memorable experiences during this major celebration, and to engage new audiences with the creativity and diversity of Asian cultures.”

“At Bank of America, we believe that investments in the arts help build communities and in turn have a positive impact on the lives of our clients and employees,” said Brian Siegel, Global Arts, Culture & Heritage Executive at Bank of America. “By sponsoring exhibitions and programs, we help drive engagement and visitors for our museum partners. These celebrations will bring people from all walks of life together in our nation’s capital to celebrate the Middle East, Asian and Asian American artists whose stories and unique perspectives enrich our lives.”

Confirmed programming for the May 2023 festival includes (see detailed schedule here):

Music

  • Headline performance by K-pop sensation Eric Nam and breakout star Raveena
  • The Washington premiere of acclaimed composer Huang Ruo’s oratorio Angel Island, inspired by poetry written by Chinese immigrants on the walls of the Angel Island detention center in San Francisco, in partnership with Washington Performing Arts
  • Performance by Grammy Award-winning Korean American contemporary classical violinist Jennifer Koh in the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building
  • An immersive performance with the genre-bending classical ensemble Chromic Duo
  • Journey-inspired performance by Syrian American rapper and poet Omar Offendum and Palestinian American multi-instrumentalist Ronnie Malley
  • Collaborative performance by Indian classical violinist Nistha Raj and Grammy-nominated progressive hip-hop artist Christylez Bacon

Dance

  • Gallery-wide dance performance by Vijay Palaparty and Nalini Prakash from Spilling Ink entitled Divine Vessels: Exploring Space through Indian Classical Dance & Music
  • Dance party on the Freer Plaza featuring DJ 2-Tone, co-founder of Shaolin Jazz
  • Dance classes featuring traditional and modern Asian dance traditions

Films

  • 1920s Japanese silent film A Page of Madness, with live musical accompaniment by the immersive techno band Coupler
  • Two classic Chinese silent films with live accompaniment featuring reimagined scores by Min Xiao-Fen and River Guerguerian
  • Screening of hit documentary 38 at the Garden with post-film panel discussion with director Frank Chi and producers Travon Free and Samir Hernandez

Food

  • Kimchi-making class with Washington, D.C.-based chef Patrice Cunningham, founder of Tae-Gu Kimchi
  • Indonesian cooking demo and book signing with award-winning author and chef Petty Pandean-Elliott
  • Weekday lunch pop-ups on the Freer Plaza featuring local, Asian Pacific American-owned food businesses

Markets

  • A one-day market, curated by THE REDEYE, featuring food vendors, artists, makers and other small businesses to pay homage to the foods and cultures of the Asian diaspora
  • Art market on the Freer Plaza featuring local Asian Pacific American makers and artists, curated by Washington, D.C., art collective SAMASAMA

Dialogue

  • Installation of a Shared Studios Portal using immersive audio and video technology to bring together communities around the world for transformative conversations as if in the same room
  • Angela Killoren, CEO of the entertainment and mass media company CJ ENM America, in conversation with Jerry Won, host of the Dear Asian Americans podcast, on the meteoric rise of Korean pop culture, including music, film, TV shows and food, in the U.S., in partnership with the Council of Korean Americans
  • Asian Pacific American fashion panel featuring innovative designers, including Bach Mai as well as Siying Qu of PRIVATE POLICY, with more to be announced
  • Discussion with local Asian Pacific American digital creators including Linh Truong and Amjaad Al-Hussain
  • Korean artisan residency in partnership with the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
  • Curator talks (daily)
  • Docent-led tours of the galleries (daily)

Over a two-week residency at the National Museum of Asian Art, interdisciplinary artist and Maryland Institute College of Art Master of Fine Arts graduate Sagar Kamath plans to create bamboo and banana leaf sculptures in both the museum and the Moongate garden that will react to the environment as they transform, wilt and dry. He will lead workshops for visitors to draw or write on additional leaves to represent the intersections of identity and the passage of time as they add their stories to the artwork.

Artist-in-residence and community member programs received federal support from the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. Support for Korean artists and programming during the festival has been provided by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea.

More details on the National Museum of Asian Art’s centennial programming throughout 2023 will be announced in the coming months. Follow asia.si.edu/centennial, #TheNext100 and @NatAsianArt for updates.

Additional 2023 Programming

A series of 2023 “Journeys” public programs throughout the year experiment with new forms of storytelling and create opportunities for visitors and staff to share their own experiences. Throughout the year, a dedicated film series allows audiences to travel through the eyes of filmmakers. Other 2023 partners include Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, contemporary artists such as Ravi Agarwal, Musicians from Marlboro and the Shanghai Quartet and numerous Asian embassies and cultural centers. Annual celebrations like Nowruz, Diwali, the National Cherry Blossom Festival and Lunar New Year create journeys through cultural practices. There will also be a new annual celebration of Korean art and culture that will coincide with the mid-autumn festival of Chuseok.

As part of the centennial celebrations, the museum is also presenting a landmark number of scholarly programs, with major symposia on every discipline in the museum. Finally, a transformative web redesign creates opportunities for digital storytelling, interactive features and lecture series available to anyone, anywhere to join the centennial “Journeys.”

Lead Exhibitions

The centennial is anchored by three lead exhibitions—each of which furthers the museum’s vision for its next century—employing cutting-edge digital and immersive features and forging global partnerships:

“A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur” (Nov. 19–May 14)—Winner of a Smithsonian Excellence in Exhibitions Award: The 100th anniversary lineup began in November with the opening of “A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur,” presented in collaboration with The City Palace Museum in Rajasthan, India. With dazzling paintings on paper and cloth—many on public view for the first time—the exhibition reveals the environmental, political and emotional contexts in which a new genre of painting emerged in Udaipur. An ambient soundscape by the renowned experimental filmmaker Amit Dutta underscores the sensorial elements in the paintings, which center on local landscapes, lake systems and palaces.

“Anyang: China’s Ancient City of Kings” (Feb. 25–April 28, 2024): “Anyang: China’s Ancient City of Kings” is the first major exhibition in the United States dedicated to Anyang, the capital of ancient China’s Shang dynasty. “Anyang” brings together more than 200 objects from the museum’s collection to examine the Shang state and the artistic achievements of those who lived in its capital over 3,000 years ago. The presentation includes digital activations developed in partnership with the award-winning production studio UNIT9 that helps visitors understand the city and the importance of its rediscovery.

“Ay-Ō’s Happy Rainbow Hell” (March 25–Sept. 10): Known as the “Rainbow Artist,” Ay-Ō is internationally regarded for his experiential works and prismatic silkscreen prints that make prominent use of a bright rainbow aesthetic. “Ay-Ō’s Happy Rainbow Hell” is the first museum exhibition dedicated to the artist’s work in the United States. It is accompanied by the first English-language publication on the artist. The exhibition of artworks is augmented by an interactive gesture wall and digital haptic boxes, allowing audiences to experience Ay-Ō’s world.

Sponsor

Bank of America is the Presenting Sponsor of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art’s Centennial.

About the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art is committed to preserving, exhibiting, researching and interpreting art in ways that deepen our collective understanding of Asia and the world. Home to more than 45,000 objects, the museum stewards one of North America’s largest and most comprehensive collections of Asian art, with works dating from antiquity to the present from China, Japan, Korea, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Islamic world. Its rich holdings bring the arts of Asia into direct dialogue with an important collection of 19th- and early 20th-century American works, providing an essential platform for creative collaboration and cultural exchange between the United States, Asia and the Middle East.

Beginning with a 1906 gift that paved the way for the museum’s opening in 1923, the National Museum of Asian Art is a leading resource for visitors, students and scholars in the United States and internationally. Its galleries, laboratories, archives and library are located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and are part of the world’s largest museum complex, which typically reports more than 27 million visits each year. The museum is free and open to the public 364 days a year (closed Dec. 25), making its exhibitions, programs, learning opportunities and digital initiatives accessible to global audiences.

Upcoming Events

Unseen Art History: Ancestor Portraits—Prince Hongming and Lady Wanyan

Performing Indonesia: Sumarsam

Blooming Art

Photograph of pink extravagant flowers in a floor vase.
Flowers in the Sackler lobby

When I’m at the information desk, I’m often asked about the flower arrangements that greet visitors entering the museum. Since 1997, Smithsonian Horticulturalist Cheyenne Kim has arranged the flowers in the Sackler’s lobby. The vivid blooms are a continuing gift from Else Sackler, Arthur M. Sackler’s first wife.

Inspired by visitors’ frequent questions about the arrangements, I created this family activity for our in-person and online visitors. It’s designed to be a conversation between adults and children ages 4–8. Try it in the museum or at home with one of our many flower-filled artworks.

Pick one word to describe how the flowers make you feel.

What colors do you see?

Are the lines straight? Squiggly? Slanted? Curved?

Think about the smells. Are they sweet? Fresh? Spicy?

Draw your own arrangement. Choose flowers that have the colors, lines, and shapes that you want to see together!

Think about where you would want to display your flower creation.

Just Published: Ars Orientalis, Volume 53

Ars Orientalis 53 marks an important juncture in the history of the journal, one of the oldest of its kind devoted to scholarship on Asian art. Published in collaboration with the University of Michigan since 1954, the current volume celebrates the museum’s centennial. Since its inception, Ars Orientalis has reinforced the vision and aspirations of the museum’s founder, Charles Lang Freer (1854–1919), in highlighting the burgeoning field of Asian art, from East Asia to the Mediterranean and North Africa. Seminal articles on Chinese scrolls, Indian bronzes, Japanese screens, Persian manuscripts, and more have inspired generations of scholars around the world. Over the past seventy years, the articles have expanded in geographic, thematic, and art historical scope, attracting a more diverse range of readers, in parallel with the growth and expansion of the field of Asian art.

The last few decades saw several critical changes for the journal. Beginning in 2011, Ars Orientalis has featured themed volumes, ranging from early imperial photography (2013) to miraculous images in Asia (2020). Volume 53 is the last in this tradition. To mark NMAA’s centennial, an open call solicited papers specifically focused on works from the collections, following a model similar to that of the previous fiftieth and seventy-fifth anniversary volumes.

In 2017, Ars Orientalis also became open access—available worldwide, free of charge, and without restrictions. The journal’s audience increased by over 300 percent and now includes readers from more than 150 countries, including India, the Philippines, China, Pakistan, and Oman, among many others. All past volumes of Ars Orientalis are also available for free online. Our digital-first approach allows for both greater reach and the incorporation of videos, 3D models, and other media. Underscoring the importance of the digital tools, research resources, and publications that are transforming the field of art history, Ars Orientalis launched the Digital Initiatives review column ten years ago, making it one of the first journals of its kind to recognize the scholarship inherent in digital projects.

In celebrating the museum’s anniversary, this issue honors the past by presenting new art historical perspectives on NMAA’s holdings of Asian art while also forging a new future for the journal. By fostering greater scholarly visibility, global outreach, and innovative digital tools, Ars Orientalis aspires to expand and disseminate knowledge and, in turn, encourage more extensive studies, greater understanding, and deeper appreciation of the arts and cultures of Asia.

Individual Media Tours for the Display “Journey of Color”

What: Individually scheduled press tours for “Journey of Color”

When: Now open to the public, with new additions throughout 2023

Where: Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, Freer Gallery of Art 1050 Independence Ave. S.W.

Media are invited to join the National Museum of Asian Art on a “Journey of Color,” a display of wayfinding labels in the gallery that highlights 34 objects that will periodically be on view throughout the Freer Gallery of Art that reveal how different cultures obtained, produced and used color to individualize their creations and tell layered, universal stories.

Color draws attention, conveys important visual clues and elicits emotions. At the same time, the perception of color is subjective, and understandings of its meanings and functions are not universal. A color may represent happiness and hope in one culture but anger and destruction in another. One culture may refer to a certain color as observable in nature, while another may not even have a name for it. Color perception can vary not only across cultures but also from person to person.

Whether pulverizing gold, crushing lapis lazuli or grinding cochineal insects, artists across Asia have experimented for millennia with a wealth of minerals, bugs and plants to create eye-catching pigments. Knowledge of substances and techniques traveled across regions and was developed by different communities in innovative ways.

“Journey of Color” is part of the 2023 programming marking the 100th anniversary of the National Museum of Asian Art’s founding. Learn more about the centennial celebrations. #TheNext100

Note to editors: Members of the media can contact Jennifer Mitchell at mitchellja@si.edu for more information.

  • 1050 Independence Ave. SW
    Washington, DC 20013
    202.633.1000

© 2024 Smithsonian Institution