"Territories Disrupted: Asian Art after 1989"
April 4–5, 2017
Co-organizers: National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea / Tate Research Centre: Asia, UK
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea (MMCA) and Tate Research Centre: Asia (TRC: Asia) are presenting a two-day international symposium in Seoul on April 4–5. Held at the MMCA in Seoul, this symposium explores Asian art after 1989, with a focus on how political and economic changes corresponded with the changes in artistic practice and its reception. Among the issues the symposium wishes to address are: democratic movements and their challenges, the questioning of the binary of cold war ideologies, and the impact of globalisation arising from the increased economic prosperity of the period. It will also explore the proliferation of the representation of non-Western art in exhibition making on global platforms and the emergence of a new generation of artists as well as feminist practice in Asia.
Titled “Territories Disrupted: Asian Art after 1989,” the symposium will consist of three panels: Exhibition Histories and Other Stories, The Emergence of the New Generation, and De-Colonial Conditions. The first panel will examine how different institutions across the globe began to represent non-Western contemporary art as alternative stories of art in the late 1980s and 1990s, and what kind of new perspectives on contemporary art started to emerge in Asia itself. Taking specific exhibitions held in diverse places from Beijing to Paris as starting points, this panel will seek to address the context within which these new models of exhibitions were organised. The second panel focuses on the development of the new generation of artists in Korea, Japan, India and Pakistan. The papers in this panel will explore artistic sensibilities unique to young artists in the 1990s, focusing on shifts in conceptual frameworks and artistic delivery. The third panel will address colonial and post-colonial issues in the art of the Philippines, Indonesia and India. This panel will highlight colonial legacies and their revisions in artistic practice, opening up debates around the effects and challenges originated from and negotiated through colonial histories.
Along with art historians and curators, several artists feature in the symposium. The artists Lee Bul and Trinh T. Minh-ha will deliver keynote addresses, positioning artistic practice at the heart of the symposium’s discursive narratives.
Tuesday, April 4
12:30–1:30pm
Keynote by Lee Bul followed by a conversation with Sook-Kyung Lee and Q&A
1:30–5:30pm
Exhibitions and Other Stories
Lectures by Li Xianting, Mark Francis, Russell Storer followed by panel discussion led by Ute Meta Bauer
Wednesday, April 5
9–12:20pm
The Emergence of the New Generation
Lectures by Jung-Ah Woo, Michio Hayashi, Karin Zitzewitz, Iftikhar Dadi followed by panel discussion led by Nada Raza
2–3pm
Keynote by Trinh T. Minh-ha followed by Q&A
2–5:30pm
De-colonial Conditions
Lectures by Patrick D. Flores, FX Harsono, Jitish Kallat followed by panel discussion led by Whui-yeon Jin
The symposium will be conducted in Korean, English or Chinese, and simultaneous interpretation will be provided.
Admission is free but tickets should be reserved in advance through MMCA website.
Tickets will be offered on a first come first served basis.
