A Passage to Asia: 25 Centuries of Exchange between Asia & Europe

In 2010, the Centre for Fine Arts – Brussels (BOZAR) with the support of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) organised an exhibition called A Passage to Asia: 25 centuries of exchange between Asia and Europe, alongside the 8th Summit of the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM8) in Brussels. This brilliant exhibition presented over 300 precious artefacts, which illustrated beautiful examples of cultural heritage as well as vibrant exchanges between the two regions. Helmed by Dr. Jan van Alphen and Dr Kenson Kwok, this exhibition resulted in an enormous multilateral cooperation project which brought together over 70 museums from 16 Asian ASEM countries.

In 2021, this exhibition has been adapted to the virtual medium to mark the 25th anniversary of ASEM. It was developed by BOZAR with the support of the European Union and the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF).

Bringing together 18 artefacts for this digital adaptation, the curators faced an uphill task to adapt the multitude of themes from the 2010 exhibition to only seven for the virtual edition. With the below themes, they aimed to retain the message of meaningful cultural exchange between Asia & Europe in this digital exhibition:

• Caring for the deceased
• Gandhara, where two great cultures met
• Southeast Asia, world philosophies as artistic inspiration
• Refinements from the monasteries
• Important streams of thoughts visualized
• Arms to protect, arms to empower
• Global activity, the intercontinental overseas trade

Based on available data and photographic material from the previous assemblage of objects, this purely digital exhibition was developed by high-tech designers. With the two-dimensional photographs, 3-D renderings of the objects were created. Each artefact is accompanied by labels and audio-visual materials and offers an immersive experience for visitors.

Enjoy exploring this fascinating exhibition of objects in 3D in the rich context of our common past. And if you have a VR set, you can view the exhibition in a completely immersive environment. You can watch this video to know more about the navigation and the 3D immersive experience: https://youtu.be/k14srh5NUEI