Emma Hanzlikova

Mgr. Emma Hanzlikova

(born 1990)

Art historian, curator and sinologist. Originally, she studied Art History and Sinology at Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. Her MA in Art and Theory was achieved at Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague. Twice, in 2011 and 2013 she got a scholarship to study abroad in China, in Beijing and Hangzhou Art Academy. In 2016 she graduated from postgraduate programme in Asian Art at School of Oriental and African Studies in London. In 2016 she helped establish the private art gallery 8smicka in Humpolec and between 2017–2020 she worked here as a chief curator. She edited several catalogues which won the prize for The Most Beautiful Book. She closely cooperates with Josef Sudek Studio where she has curated various photographic exhibitions. She is interested in the evolution of Czech art books for children thanks to a family publishing house, Meander. However, her main interest is in Asian Art and its connections to Europe. Currently, she is a Ph.D. candidate at her alma mater UMPRUM  in Prague with a research project focused on exhibiting East Asian art collections outside Asia. She lives in Prague with her husband, two sons and daughter.

Ph.D. Project Title and Description:

Exotic Exposition: Display Strategies of Presenting East Asian Art in Permanent Museum Collections in Europe and North America

In my Ph.D. project entitled Exotic Exposition: Display Strategies of Presenting East Asian Art in Permanent Museum Collections in Europe and North America the main focus is drawn on museum displays of traditional East Asian art exhibited outside Asia especially in Europe in permanent collections. These cultural objects originally considered as a curiosity, something alien and unfamiliar were on the other hand recognised as appealing and important to be presented to the Western spectator throughout the centuries. Until now, the stereotypical museum expositions used the ethnographical eye of superior culture which looked upon the objects as something extraordinary and magical, from outer worlds. The general aim of the world's leading museums is to change this old fashioned way of thinking and decolonize the East Asian art display. The permanent collections are trying to be more critical and employ methods such as contemporary interventions, postcolonial theory or referencing to particular political context by strong statements which I analyse in my thesis.