Objects Talk Back Canadian writer Madeleine Thien reflects on a fragment of a mural depicting Three Uyghur Princes from one of the Bezeklik Caves along the Northern Silk Road, in what is now the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. This most renowned donor portrait of Uyghur-Buddhist art was brought to the Berlin museums following the Second German Turfan Expedition (1904–5). Thien responds to its vibrant colours and expressive lines with a literary text, transporting us into the daily lives of the painters who adorned the caves with strikingly lifelike murals in the tenth century. She asks: Is there an autonomous republic of art that transcends time and place? Series Objects Talk Back published by Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss. Madeleine Thien was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her diverse body of work includes novels, short stories, a children’s book, as well as numerous essays. Central to her writing is the question of how, against the backdrop of migration, trauma, and the search for identity and belonging, personal and collective history can be retold. Her work has been translated into more than 25 languages and has won Canada’s most prestigious literary awards as well as numerous other prizes. Madeleine Thien lives in Montreal, Canada.
