The Current Convening #3 Tabu/Tapu

Coinciding with the exhibition The Oceanic (until March 4, 2018)—featuring contributions by TBA21–Academy The Current Fellows from the first cycle of expeditions (2015–17) to Papua New Guinea, French Polynesia, and Fiji, and curated by Ute Meta Bauer—NTU CCA Singapore will present The Current Convening #3, in collaboration with TBA21–Academy, during Singapore Art Week 2018.

Convening #3 marks the culmination of TBA21–Academy The Current’s first cycle of expeditions, bringing together The Current Fellows; Fijian and other collaborators; thought leaders from diverse disciplines; local agencies and activist NGOs. Through roundtable discussions, talks, lectures, workshops, and performances, Convening #3 shares with a wider public the research and challenges inherent to a collective body of knowledge generated through the format of such expeditions. Convening #3, therefore, focuses on the modalities of exchange, addresses environmental urgencies, raises questions regarding responsibilities and ownership, and discusses whether rights of nature can equal human rights. Convening #3 provides a platform that invites discussion and reflection on how to engage in the future development of international law, policies, culture, and environmental education.

TBA21–Academy The Current Fellows at Convening #3: Atif Akin (Turkey/United States), artist and designer; Laura Anderson Barbata (Mexico/United States), artist; Dr Guigone Camus (France), anthropologist; Newell Harry (Australia), artist; Dr Kristy H. A. Kang (United States/Singapore), media artist, and Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; Dr PerMagnus Lindborg (Sweden/Singapore), composer, sound artist, and researcher; Armin Linke (Italy/Germany), photographer and filmmaker; Filipa Ramos (Portugal/United Kingdom), art writer, curator, and Editor-in-Chief, art-agenda; Lisa Rave (United Kingdom/Germany), artist; and Jegan Vincent de Paul (Sri Lanka/Canada), architect, artist, and NTU ADM/CCA Singapore PhD candidate.

The TBA21–Academy team will be joined by: Tarek Atoui (Lebanon/France), musician, composer, and sound artist; Barney Broomfield (United States), filmmaker; Dr Cynthia Chou (Singapore/United States), Professor, Department of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, University of Iowa, United States; Andrew Foran (Australia/Fiji), Head, Pacific Centre for Environmental Governance, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Suva, Fiji; Taholo Kami (Tonga/Fiji), Special Advisor, Pacific Partnerships and International Civil Society, COP23 Presidency Secretariat of the Fijian government; Dr Cresantia (Frances) Koya Vaka’uta (Fiji), Director, Oceania Centre for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies & Pacific Heritage Hub, UNESCO Faculty of Arts, Law and Education, The University of the South Pacific, Fiji; Dr Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe (French Polynesia), Law Department, University of French Polynesia, Tahiti; Dr Sandor Mulsow (Chile/Jamaica), Director, Office of Environmental Management and Mineral Resources, United Nations International Seabed Authority, Kingston, Jamaica; Rasmus Nielsen (Denmark), artist, SUPERFLEX; Lucy Orta (United Kingdom/France), artist, and Professor and Chair of Art and Environment, University of the Arts London, United Kingdom; Maureen Penjueli (Fiji), Coordinator, Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG); Chief Roko Sau (Fiji), Paramount Chief of Totoya Islands; Joey Tau (Fiji), media and campaign officer, Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG); and others.

Convening #3 has been conceived by Markus Reymann, Director of TBA21–Academy, Stefanie Hessler, Curator of TBA21–Academy, and Professor Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director of NTU CCA Singapore, and expedition leader of The Current’s first cycle. 

For the full programme and schedule please click here.
Free admission. For workshops and roundtables, registration is required. 

About NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
Located in Gillman Barracks, the NTU CCA Singapore is a national research centre of Nanyang Technological University and is supported by a grant from the Economic Development Board. The Centre is unique in its threefold constellation of research and academic programmes, international exhibitions, and residencies, positioning itself as a space for critical discourse and diverse forms of knowledge production, focusing on Spaces of the Curatorial in Singapore, Southeast Asia, and beyond. With the exhibition, The Oceanic, NTU CCA Singapore marks the start of its new overarching research topic CLIMATES. HABITATS. ENVIRONMENTS., which will inform and connect the Centre’s various activities—from research to residencies and exhibitions—until 2019.

About TBA21–Academy
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21)–Academy is an itinerant site of cultural production and interdisciplinary research, bringing together thinkers from various fields concerned with today’s most urgent ecological, social, and economic issues. The Current is an exploratory fellowship programme based in the Pacific that aims to literally take creative practice out of the studio, science out of the lab, and all participants out of their comfort zones. Imagining new ways of thinking about and engaging with the oceans and their broader historical, economic, geopolitical, social, and cultural processes, The Current aims to inspire unconventional solutions for an ecologically and economically sustainable planet.