The Making of the Silk Roads
August 27-30, 2009
With:
Adeline Ooi / Agung Hujatnikajennong / Agung Kurniawan / Alexander Ugay/ Arahmaiani / David Cotterrell / Els Silvrants/ Gary Pastrana/ Ho Tzu Nyen / Hakan Topal / Howard Chan/ Jiang Jun/ Kyong Park/ Le Huy Hoang /Lina Saneh / Mu Qian / Nikusha Chkhaidze (Nika) / Onno Dirker /Pratchaya Phinthong / Rahraw Omarzad / Samah Hijawi / Seph Rodney / Shaarbek Amankul / Stefan Rusu / Veronica Sekules / Supersudaca / Zoe Butt, and more.
Over thirty renowned scholars, artists, and practitioners in visual arts, performance, and other cultural fields from around the world will gather in Bangkok to examine the dynamic, ongoing echoes of the ancient trading route Silk Road in a four-day symposium titled “The Making Of the New Silk Roads” from August 27-30. Organized by ArtHub, the symposium reassesses the complex interconnections within Asia’s cultural and artistic spectrum since the beginning of this century. Taking place at the Bangkok University Gallery (BUG), in collaboration with the Prince Claus Fund, the National Research Center of the Kingdom of Thailand, with additional support from the Mondriaan Foundation and ANA (Singapore), the summit features Arthub’s “collaborative intelligence” participants from across Asia, including China, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, Turkey, Georgia, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, and beyond, along with presenters from the Prince Claus Fund Network Partnership Program.
This four-day program will feature discussion of shared experiences, examining the recent rapid developments in Asia, and among its cast of characters, issues, and mediums, and provide an exciting forum about the dynamic, ongoing echoes of the ancient trading route of the Silk Road in its multiple dimensions. Proposing the Silk Road as a variable metaphor for instable connections, and taking it as a departure point for reflections upon Asia’s cultural landscape, Arthub aims to carry this out by inviting artists, curators, and thinkers from diverse viewpoints to bring presenters, participants, and audiences together as they explore, challenge, articulate, or nourish the possibilities of performative responses to Silk Road’s highly constructed symbolisms. Each participant will present a specific artwork/presentation/installation that both implies a possible story-telling about a specific condition from his/her respective, particular context such as issues of cultural circulation, social/political activism, and the marketplace and tests the idea of Silk Road’s potency for cultural hybridity across Asia in general.
Coalescing in a series of newly commissioned works including installations, lecture-performances, TV shows, radio interviews and publications, this collaborative symposium will put a special emphasis on process-oriented, research-, dialogue-based artistic positions across Asia. Through commissioning new responses, establishing dialogue months prior to the symposium, and enabling an alternative live context for investigation of dynamic cultural issues by its very own very actors, Arthub is committed to inspiring new forms of artistic and aesthetic experiments in China and rest of Asia. Arthub also aims to re-examine the contested idea of cultural encounter with the “other,” and turn these peer-to-peer encounters into a generator of new impulses for the analysis of complex historical processes within the cultural systems in Asia. The symposium will be video recorded, and a film + catalogue will be produced. The outcome will tour as an exhibition in 2010, with the resulting exhibition will be open for negotiation and reformulation.
The symposium is organized by Arthub’s Davide Quadrio, Defne Ayas, and Ark Fongsmut, with coordination support from Monvilai Rojanatanti.
Supporting contemporary art creation in China and rest of Asia, Arthub is a creative think tank, a collaborative production lab and a research platform for new art and ideas, cutting-edge projects and dialogue within the visual arts and new media. Inspired by the opportunities generated by the collective intelligence of the thinkers across media, Arthub is committed to furthering experimentation, knowledge-production and diversity among dedicated artists, art professionals and arts organizations in Asia.