Author Description

"On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the 1873 Vienna World's Fair, the MAK - Museum of Applied Arts (Vienna) sets out to explore a critical aspect of this prestigious international show: the "Orient" as a construct of 19th-century Orientalism. The exhibition catalog explores a range of questions: Who were the actors that conceptualized and designed the country pavilions for the 1873 fair? What was the political, cultural, and discursive setting that informed aesthetic decisions? Through which aesthetic and symbolic practices and cultural policy approaches did participating countries negotiate their Orientalist worldviews, and how did these worldviews shift after 1873?"--