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This fragment is part of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" carpet.
Through the fragment we trace the journey of the fragment owners and their collabs as they explore, experiment and creatively advance socially relevant themes. Here is the fragment as we are sending it on this three and a half-year journey.
Follow this story to observe the transformations the fragment undergoes over the course of these years...
The journey begins...
...with Shunhua Jin
During my research stay in the Museum for Islamic Art, I took fragment #5 with me from Berlin back to China during the Chinese New Year. 2024, it was a dragon year. The fragment has an abstract pattern of dragon which is hard to recognise, but the jagged edges help me to imagine the curve of the dragon's body. So with the carpet, finding dragon motifs in China became a part of my new year journey and joy.
I first visited the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Forbidden City in old China, which was the residence of the emperors who used the dragon as a symbol of imperial power. The main color of the carpet is crimson red and amber yellow, similar to the color code of the palace. I put the rug on the railing to take a picture. One of the security guards came over and asked me if it was for commercial use, which is forbidden. I said no, it is a journey of culture.
An exhibition about Persia, Arabia and the exchange with China in the Palace Museum
These days, there was an exhibition about Persia, Arabia and the exchange with China in the Palace Museum, then I saw a very fine tile from Takht-e-Soleyman nowadays collected in Tehran National Museum with a dragon Motif. At the moment I hold Fragment #5 in front of the display, a Persian dragon carpet and a Persian dragon tile encountered in China in the Dragon New Year.
Dazu Rock Carvings
Then I continued to travel to Mid-west China, Chongqing, where I had studied before. I brought the carpet with me to Dazu Rock Carvings, a UNESCO heritage site famous for its religious sculptures produced as early as the ninth century. It was interesting to see a Persian carpet in front of a smiling Buddha, like a surrealist verse arranging combinations between different things.
I also found another dragon motif on a slab in the underground tombs, which were collected in the museum of the heritage site.
Year of the Dragon
Then I went back to my hometown near the region of Shanghai. It was a very sunny day of the New Year. I saw a kid playing dragon dance with the ribbons decorated with a dragon head. Another dragon motif, in moving!
Front and Back
About the Project
The Museum for Islamic Art's project, #CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the future, celebrates the transformative power of cultural exchange and the shared threads that unite us all. All the things we love, have loved and will ever love come from cultural exchange, migration and diversity, or as we like to call it #CulturalxCollabs.
100 carpet fragments, cut from a replica of the iconic dragon carpet, will travel the world (delivered by DHL). The fragments will ignite #CulturalxCollabs with co-creators, inspiring human ingenuity, fostering community and ultimately demonstrating how cultural exchange enriches all our lives.
Follow #CulturalxCollabs on Instagram as the project unfolds...
...or learn more here
Weaving the Future
Join us on a journey with 100 carpet fragments as they travel around the world for three and a half years, finding temporary homes while bridging cultural boundaries, fostering worldwide community united by the power of human stories.
Fragment Journeys
100 carpet fragments part of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" project. Follow their journeys through the ever changing owners' over three and a half years.
Where is the Dragon?
The star of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" project is a so-called Caucasian dragon carpet from the 17th century. A dragon carpet - all well and good - but: where is the dragon?
