Hiraeth
RISD Museum 2023
Rhode Island School of Design
Performative Intervention at RISD Museum : A Fictional Farewell
In this lecture-performance, artist Mithu Sen offers a poignant, fictionalized account exploring the themes of looting, belonging, and repatriation within the context of museum collections.
The central figure—Buddha Shakyamuni—is imagined as wandering through the museum’s galleries after being formally "released" by the Museum Board of Governors and staff. As he bids farewell to the white walls, fellow artworks, and passing visitors, he enters a liminal space of reflection: a relic in exile, seeking the lost contours of Gandhara.
Through this speculative intervention, Sen evokes the emotional and philosophical dissonance of objects displaced from their original cultural matrices—raising questions about the ethics of collecting, historical violence, and the complex impossibility of return.
