On the 26th of September, the British Museum, with the support of Art Foundations of Central and Eastern Asia, once again opened the doors of The Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery with a new exhibition dedicated to The Silk Roads, which covers the time period from 500 to 1000 AD.
The Silk Road was a route network used by merchants from Asia and Europe to transport all sorts of goods, starting with spices and ending with luxury relics, including even the silk itself. The Silk Road dominated over a continent for more than a millennia, and without modesty, it can be said it shaped the trade we know today. Its existence is linked to 6 countries and spread over 3 continents.
Most exhibits come from British Museum collections. However, some were brought from all over the world and had never left their home countries before, marking a revolution in historical and art societies.
The exhibition's opening was celebrated by Major Magazines, including The Times and The Guardian. The daughter of the President of Uzbekistan, Saida Mirziyoyeva, inaugurated the exhibition, translating the message of its importance to the Uzbek culture and nation.
The exhibition lifts a veil of mystery, whispering to the visitors the tales of the past, confusing at times but mesmerising nonetheless. Expect to be overwhelmed and bewildered by how the trade route that was believed to play a part only in Asian history, in reality, filled a chapter in European books as well.
Let me take you on a tour through this route, where art and history interconnect into a maze of memories.
The exhibition is heavily informative, with a great deal of reading material, and the procession of visitors moves rather slowly. So keep it in mind, when planning your visit, to give yourself at least two hours to dive into the overlap of stories.
No matter how hard we try to disassociate and distance ourselves from our roots, our history will always shape us and shine through the art. It was sometimes overwhelming to catch a glimpse of lost realms and the traces of our heritage from around the world, united once again under one roof by the British Museum in this one-of-a-kind exhibition.
The exhibits we might have seen in the past were spread around the globe like grains of rice, so distant and cold it was impossible to shape a story. However, gathered together, they give us an insight into one of the most wonderful and long-lasting enterprises, and we can see how nations have been changing over time and how they kneeled before the rising religions.
So what can you expect from the Silk Roads exhibitions, and what relics are presented there?
The exhibition is held in the format of a maze, imitating the length of the actual Silk Route, where each stop represents the major city that merchants visited along the way. It mostly tells us the story of the realms and dynasties of that time, with its priceless art pieces demonstrating the craftsmanship of the early centuries.
The exhibition is mainly centred around the relationships between trading countries and countries’ evolution, rises and falls.
The first unit tells us the story of the trade and political relationships between former East Asian Kingdoms, which occupied territories of modern Japan, Korea and China. It also visually depicts how the introduction of religion was reflected in art pieces of the early 6th century.
By the middle of the tour, it is becoming evident that the exhibition is less concentrated on the Silk Road's existence but instead uses it as a reference point to demonstrate the complex interlacing of cultures in the 6-11 centuries.
The sounds follow us for the whole length of the exhibition, imitating the clatter of hooves, the creaking of wheels and the merry squabbles of traders
A huge part of the exhibition is dedicated to religions, where the first, earlier path of the maze shows us how Buddhism shaped the art of that time and then depicts the slow process when art pieces started to reflect the Islamic influence.
What an incredible feeling to discover that the communities we have never considered to have something in common were actually overlapping in the form of patterns that we never really noticed before. The vital purpose of the Silk Road was not the transmission of fabric and spices, as we might think, but the transmission of knowledge.
At the end of the exhibition, there is a gift shop where a huge number of products will enlighten you even more, from the rarest books telling the history of the Silk Road to handmade accessories from Uzbekistan and China.
*All photographs copywrites belong to the Editor Zarina Isakhodjaeva
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