Neutrality as Method? Exhibitions and the Cultural Politics of Sino-Austrian Relations in the Cold War period

Freda presents “Neutrality as Method? Exhibitions and the Cultural Politics of Sino-Austrian Relations during the Cold War” at the European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS) Annual Conference.

The paper examines how exhibitions contributed to the cultural representation of the People’s Republic of China in Austria during the Cold War, tracing how “China” was narrated, visualised, spatialised and sensorially ordered in Austrian museum spaces. With attention to exhibitionary atmospheres, embodied spectatorship and the material conditions of display, it explores how Cold War museum practice in Austria opened a distinctive diplomatic sensorium, where cultural curiosity, political caution and sensory forms of knowledge could come into contact.