The world seen from Asia through the maps

From 16 May to 10 September 2018

For the first time, the National Museum of Asian Arts - Guimet is offering a cartographic exhibition that tells a different story of the world, fully embracing the Asian point of view. The masterpieces, famous or unpublished, testify to the richness of the different traditions (China, Japan, Korea, India, Vietnam, etc.) and the fruitful exchanges between the various Asian regions, as well as between Asia and the rest of the world.

These maps and iconographic representations (paintings, engravings, manuscripts or objects), often relegated to the status of exotic documents, appear here as true works of art and precious historical sources, which illuminate the decisive role of Asia in the process. of globalization from the fifteenth to the twentieth century. They reveal cosmographic constructions, pilgrimage routes, discovery itineraries, imperial gestures, urban projects, and colonial expansions, all cultural phenomena and social practices that contribute to the invention of Asia. yesterday as today, is at the center of the world.