The exhibition “Enfers et Fantômes d’Asie,” presented in 2018 at the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, proposes just that. It delves into ghost stories from East and Southeast Asia from the 16th century to the present day. This journey blurs the boundaries of reality, where cinema, religious art, theater, contemporary creation, manga, and video games predominantly intersect.
From Hokusai’s prints to Pac-Man, from Buddhist paintings to J-Horror — Japanese horror cinema from the 1990s-2000s — with the film “Ring,” from spirit worship in Thailand to horror manga, the figure of the ghost has haunted the Asian imagination for centuries.
In China, Thailand, or Japan — the exhibition’s focal points — popular enthusiasm for horror is very real, permeating a wide variety of cultural productions. Wandering forest spirits, vengeful cat-women, hungry ghosts from the underworld (“walking dead”), hopping vampires, or yokais (fantastic creatures from Japanese folklore), their appearances are manifold and transcend eras and artistic mediums.
Charles Ange Ginésy, President of the Alpes-Maritimes Department, who welcomed Julien Rousseau, head of the Asia heritage unit at the musée du quai Branly, on this occasion, commented during the opening: “This exploration of Asian horror codes offers us an original experience thanks to significant scenographic and digital work, allowing us to try out an augmented reality game. An innovation I was able to assess on the museum’s second floor, representing a virtual world.”
