Pathways of Performativity in Contemporary Southeast Asian Art

Exhibition:
Archives in Residence: Southeast Asia Performance Collection
Curated by Eva Bentcheva, Annie Jael Kwan and Damian Lentini,
in collaboration with Sabine Brantl
June 28–September 29, 2019

Opening: June 27, 2019 at 6-8pm

Talk and Performance:
Noel Ed De Leon, Feast of the Predator, live performance, July 4, 2019 at 6-7pm
Patrick Flores, “To Demystify, Play, Manifest, and Take a Step Together: Annotations on the Performative Encounter in Southeast Asia,” 4 July, 2019 at 7-8pm

This June, Haus der Kunst hosts an international symposium, archive exhibition and performance programme that casts a spotlight on transnational performativity via the diverse and fascinating histories of performance practices in Southeast Asia.

The symposium Pathways of Performativity in Contemporary Southeast Asian Art brings together renowned scholars and curators from across the disciplines of art history, film and music for two days of discussion on the postcolonial, Cold War and politico-economic forces that have shaped Southeast Asia after the Second World War. Featuring keynote lectures by Nora Taylor (School of Art Institute of Chicago) and May Adadol-Ingawanij (University of Westminster), alongside contributions by Anida Yoeu Ali, Thomas Berghuis, Pamela Corey, Wulan Dirgantoro, Nathalie Johnston, Roger Nelson, Sally Oey, Eileen Legaspi Ramirez, Amanda Rath, Chương-Đài Võ, and meLê Yamomo, the symposium highlights the central role of performance in bridging the visual arts, theatre, dance, music and political activism across the region from the 1960s to the present.

Concomitant with these discussions will be the live performances that take place on both evenings: Anida Yoeu Ali’s internationally-acclaimed Buddhist Bug, followed by Ho Rui An’s performance lecture Conspiracy of Files.

The symposium will also act as the launch of the exhibition Southeast Asia Performance Collection, part of the series “Archives in Residence” at Haus der Kunst. The “Southeast Asia Performance Collection” is an expansive research project and digital archive conceived by the London-based curatorial collective Something Human, and compiled by an international team of researchers and curators in the UK and Asia between 2015 and 2017. Containing documentation of performance-based works such as live art, urban and social interventions by over 50 artists from across Southeast Asia and its diasporas, the archive is currently based at the Live Art Development Agency in London. Delving into the archive’s key themes and the processes through which its current collection came about, Archives in Residence: Southeast Asia Performance Collection will present a selection of its video-documentation for the first time in Germany; focusing on the archive’s exposition of performance networks and practices, particularly as they relate to the histories of Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines. 

Concluding the programme, Patrick Flores (University of the Philippines) will deliver a lecture on July 4 on performative “encounters” in the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, accompanied by the live performance Feast of the Predator by Noel Ed De Leon.

The symposium is generously supported by the Goethe-Institut, and is organised by Eva Bentcheva (Goethe-Institut Postdoctoral Fellow at Haus der Kunst), in consultation with Annie Jael Kwan (independent curator and founding director of Something Human). The live performance programme is additionally made possible through the support of “Gastspiele in Deutschland” of the Theatre and Dance Department of the Goethe-Institut.

The Southeast Asia Performance Collection at the Live Art Development Agency was initiated by Something Human in collaboration with Batubalani Art Projects, Java Arts, Independent Archive Singapore with the support of Arts Council England, ACE - Artists International Development Fund, and National Arts Council Singapore, with thanks to Dia Projects, New Space Arts Foundation, Nha San Collective, Phare Selpak Ponleu, Sa Sa Art Projects, Sangker Battambang, Six Space and Studio Revolt.

Please visit www.hausderkunst.de for more details and free registration.