REPORTS FROM THE FIELD Perspectives from curators from around the world, who are alumni of the Curatorial Intensive, ICI’s professional development program for emerging curators. The commissioned texts are reflections on the impact of the global pandemic on their lives, ways of working, their communities, and how they are adapting as a response. A Field Note From Bangkok Under Lockdown

The Pregnant Pause: A Countdown on Living with the Invisible

Epicenter of the Epicenter

Curatorship to Cure Inequality Table of Contents A Yawn and Three Clicks

Cultural Practice in the Time of Fear and Half-truths

The World, the Flesh, and the Devil: A Lenten Meditation on COVID-19 in New Orleans Collective Memories

The Wall is a Virus

International We Stand

E iho ana o luna

The Inconvenient Feelings

Authors Biographies pojai akratanakul 3 vanini belarmino 7 pj gubatina policarpio & catherine ceniza choy 11 luis carlos manjarrés martínez 15 tess maunder 21 fadzai muchemwa 29 lydia y. nichols 33 balimunsi philip 37 lorenzo sandoval 41 eszter szakács 47 josh tengan & drew kahu’āina broderick 51 su wei 57 61 designed byherself. Image Credit: Pongsakorn Bottled Cold Brewbydesigner-artist LitaChala-adisai infrontofBlessing poster A Field Note From Bangkok Under Lockdown pojai akratanakul veryone here has been The Thai New Year holiday Songkran, very concerned about the usually taken very seriously by locals, coronavirus outbreak since was for the first time in history late January when the first canceled to avoid social gatherings and Ecases were detected in Thailand. But it stop people from returning to their really hit us at the beginning of March hometowns. By then, we had been after the super-spread Muaythai boxing told repeatedly to “stay home, stop the virus, for the nation,” the slogan event at the Lumpini Stadium set off a issued by the government’s COVID-19 chain of local cases. A few weeks later, Response Centre. The situation allowed the government declared a state of nationalism to pride, or disguise itself emergency, and by April the lockdown as a solution. And in the mind of many, was implemented. Malls, cinemas, it has since been a fight of and for museums were closed, and all public the “Nation.” May 4, the infographic gatherings restricted. released from the Centre announced

From the Tiger & Tomato kitchen: Hong Kong Beef with Tofu (beef belly braised in soy sauce & orange zest, with sesame oil & vinegar sauce), Atit Sornsongkram’s recipe; and Bitter Melon and Pork Rib Soup, Prae Pupityastaporn’s recipe; served with rice. Empty Siam square, a usually very 3 crowded shopping area Homemade Thai beef sausages by Yingyod Yenarkarn

Homemade Thai beef sausages by Yingyod Yenarkarn “Finally Thais have 0 new infections!” And the second line in the smaller typeface reads “But 18 immigrants are infected.” Despite their hard-to-believe attitude, the lockdown did help. Fourteen days later the number of daily new infections went down to a single digit. But it also puts many out of their jobs. Thailand’s biggest site for job search has reported that there is a big reduction of job posts especially the ones with lower wages. It was estimated that seven million jobs have been lost since the outbreak, and it would reach eleven million in the worst- case scenario. And nobody is certain when or if the “normalcy” will return. 4 Seeing these signs no doubt puts people from a limited group of patrons, in the local art industry on edge. Not only collectors, very little corporate that, galleries, art centers, museums, are sponsorship — and very little from the still closed. In the Bangkok art scene, government. This is poised to change already small and tight-knitted as it as many of these donors themselves is, the artist’s career and questions of were heavily affected by the crisis. survival have been raised long before the The stagnation is expected to deprive coronavirus crisis. Jobs for art workers art initiatives of its major funding, have always been scarce; let alone secure, which could make this very tight-knit well-paid ones. The majority of us have community even tighter. had unpaid art jobs while working paying One of the first groups of curators jobs outside the arts field. and artists that came together to During the lockdown, many respond to the crisis was the Surviving Bangkokians staying inside, including & Fighting COVID-19 Art Alliance myself, are relying so much on takeouts (SFAA). They are taking their concerns and food delivery. Sending food and to the government directly, and after masks to friends has also become a conducting a survey with artists via new trend representing a gesture of Facebook, SFAA handed the Ministry of care. Last week I delivered mangoes to Culture a request for financial aid and six artists. Surprisingly, several young strategic measures in supporting people artists are now picking up pots and pans in the arts, with a list of artists who and setting up new businesses either were critically affected. The Ministry for serious or for fun making sausages, assured that the enlisted artists will bread, meal plans; and they are acing be considered for a rescue package of it. It reminded me of collectivistic 5,000 Baht (about 160 USD) per month contemporary art communities and how but has stopped short on confirming many of them formed around sharing if all or how many individuals will food and eating together. receive help. SFAA continues to push Some examples: The N22 community, a more proposals and strategic projects lofty compound that housed seven art to further aid the community and is galleries and artist studios, including hoping to be able to eventually form Gallery VER founded by Rirkrit Tiravanija, an art council, one which the scene has is known for its barbecue parties at art never had yet. openings; Bangkok CityCity Gallery The longer physical distancing hosted many great events featuring continues the more social interaction wonderful menus such as Dusadee takes place online. One of the Huntrakul’s Oxtail Rice Noodle Soup noticeable trends on Facebook here was with Grilled Chilli; or the after-show ritual the emergence of these “alma-mater that artists and curators run for a late marketplaces.” For example, an alumnus round-table dinner at a Chinese place in of Chulalongkorn University created a Silom followed by karaoke. All of this is “Chula Marketplace” for other alumni to now clearly impossible. exchange and advertise their businesses On the structural level, the local so that they can help one another. In community of contemporary art has these groups, you can purchase all kinds long been dependent on the money of things ranging from fermented fish 5 to a plot of land on some private island. These online groups don’t exist merely for commercial purposes; they offer a sense of affiliation, at the moment when people want to feel that they ‘belong’ to a community, and this has been at the source of their popularity. This applies to the art community, too. A group called “Thailand Art Ecosystem” was created by contemporary art and cultural workers with the intention to create a database of art professionals. It gained over 1,300 members overnight. But not long after, a few artists noticed that one of the group’s rules barred “political topics,” leading to some drama. A large number of contemporary artists who disagreed with the rule left the group which nevertheless continued to grow in number. Artists and art workers may be underpaid and isolated, but they just won’t cave in! It’s the spirit that reminds me very much of the old normal, pre- COVID-19. A respected curator told me they think art for art’s sake won’t work anymore post-COVID-19. But where will art fit in society after the pandemic? Seeing those who suffered far worse than not being able to attend an art exhibition, I can not help but be reminded that art is a luxury, especially for this moment. What is more important now is survival The infographic released by the government’s COVID-19 Information Facebook page on May 4 says (physical, mental, as well as economic). “Finally, Thais have 0 new infections,” then So, the least we can do is check in on “But 18 immigrants are infected.” The image was shortly taken out of the page after it enrages our friends and colleagues to make the public. sure they still feel they belong in the world at the time when “the art world” is temporarily suspended. For if they survive, we know they’ll find away.

A Field Note From Bangkok Under Lockdown was originally published on ICI’s website on June 22, 2020. 6 7 The Pregnant Pause: A Countdown on Living with the Invisible vanini belarmino I in theair, hopsonto someone’s menace crown virus meanders freely As thisspiked ridden feisty disrupting felt inthecity where I live in, Singapore. concealed itselfandmade its presence well, thenews about coronavirus slowly Everything was working until outfine . . . the way. accommodating littlesurprisesalong my life goes into thisplannedcycle Like my work calendar at theGallery, say forward-looking until2021 to 2022. had it allplannedfor 2020. Icaneven well-being classeslike pilates or yoga. I culinary course while findingsuitable there, maybe even enrolling ina special on somecuratorial research here and writing anessay for a book, investing studies inperformance curation, and 80th birthdays, takingadvanced celebrate milestones suchas50th, 60th with my partner, family reunions to the weekly menu, planningtheholidays involve furnishingtheflat, sorting out of side ofmy life. Personal activities that leaves andovertime to fulfillthe other I had saved andcalculated allmy annual head how thiscould unfold. calendar with a script runninginmy team members hasbeennoted inmy surprise birthday cake for each ofmy the first quarter of 2021. Even the schedules finalized allthe way until and hotels have beenbooked with For thosecoming from abroad, flights Most artistshave beencontracted. the fiscal year from April 1onwards. programs to mark thebeginningof which isreasserted by a new cycle of most weekends from January to March, remind our team, we ought to work perfectly color-coded boxes to was laidout: my work comes in my year to pan out. Every calendar had 20/20 vision ofhow I wanted nostalgia andprideentered me. This Vincent Yong, a combined feeling of led by Singaporean dancer/life coach, MovementSomatic workshop-tour and attended our special offering on people thanusualentered thedoor entrance oftheGallery. As fewer travel declaration exercise at the began thetemperature-taking and Orange, our team for artisticprograms On thefirst weekend ofDORSON “we have to beresilient.” amusement, oneday Ibeganreciting be inSingapore. To my colleague’s safe. We are safe at home. Lucky to that allisfine, andit willbefine. I am gave meandstillgives meanassurance accounts. Hiscalmface andmanner Hsien Loong’s Facebook andInstagram from following PrimeMinister Lee to work, Ifound refuge andcomfort dinner, grocery shoppingor enroute public event, from meetingfriendsat by unknowingly acquiring it from a across theglobeor my colleagues, my body, my loved ones, my friends eventually ruleover our lives, take over by thelurking idea that this virus could as usual. Although partially disturbed point, most thingsremained business from thecolor yellow to orange. At this Outbreak Response System Condition) shifted itsDORSON level (Disease government announcements gradually work routine inFebruary, news and As Icontinued to go about my intensity ofitsinvasiveness. the uninvited guest, Ibeganto feel the me who had closeencounters with Through thelens ofthoseclosest to or even your immediate surroundings. mind through thenews, socialmedia, it’s not in your body, it pervades your and homes whether we like it or not. If emotionally, it enters our workplace system, physically, psychologically, and “Study for a Pregnant Nude” Kiri Dalena, Terracotta, 2020, Image courtesy of the artist one-and-a-half-hour session—which collection, attracted an impressively calls our participants (visitors) to be in sizable crowd. They seemed to already contact with oneself and their bodies be hungry for art, only in the second and to reflect on the connection week of curling up under the darker between their body and the artwork, shade of sunset. What privilege it is while encouraging ways of contact with to serve our audience, our public, our others—maintained its form, though fellow human beings through the gift with a slightly different approach to the of art. Note that the two programs notion of touch and connection. mentioned above were realized before The week that followed proved to be enhanced safe distancing measures more promising. As layers of guidelines were implemented. were progressively introduced and The presence of our audiences gave me implemented, I noticed that people some confidence to assure artist Maria were turning up as per usual to one of Hassabi on the third week of February our special in-Gallery performances. that the plans for the Southeast Asian Aptly titled in this new world, a devised premiere of her work for TOGETHER theatre piece by Cake Theatre, directed for Performing Spaces 2020 can still be by Natalie Hennedige, drawn from realized. The virus, which was initially selected poems written by Madeleine known to be present in this part of the Lee inspired by works from our national world, took a speedy route to the US 8 and Europe. In less than a week, both have continued to run our programs of us had to acknowledge that we had as planned. Somehow, the ethos of to adjust to the unpleasant realities our work felt more potent than ever: presented by COVID-19. Alas, after “humanizing” the artworks and our more than a year of discussion and exhibitions. There is a reason we are preparation, our team momentarily here. There is a reason we do our jobs. accepted to move the marquee that There is a reason we are needed in the bears a delicate image of Maria’s show museum. There is a reason the museum to our basement. and art exist, so we stand tall and brave This gesture felt akin to bringing the to remain open. curtain down to close the theatre While continuously doing the work and without even having the chance to raise repeatedly washing my hands at any it and share the experience with our given chance, stringent measures were audience. Through performance, which being implemented day by day, week has been key to the Gallery’s artistic by week, I began actively reaching out and exhibition-related programs, we to friends in Manila, Berlin, New York, have continuously introduced original Amsterdam, London, Paris, Vienna, artistic content to our audiences, Athens, Bergamo, Sydney, Bucharest, offering multiple ways of seeing, Edinburgh, Bangkok and so on. It is like experiencing, and perceiving our I’ve missed each one of them so much exhibitions. The range of presentations in this lifetime. Yet, maintaining a sense varies from historical re-stagings, of gratitude for having taken the time performance-based responses, and for a quick ‘catch-up’ last time we met in participatory works, which our team person. My friends and I began calling painstakingly co-develops with artists each other as opposed to just texting. in the fields of dance, theatre, music, In the third or fourth week of February, literature, fashion, and new media. only a handful of my friends understood the fear I had of COVID-19 and its These interventions—which are aimed impact on our lives, our relationships, at establishing human connections especially that we are physical worlds from the simplest form of encouraging apart. Like many people nowadays, eye contact to enable people to be I have browsed through many together in one space—have become photographs pre-social media era, integral to the fabric of our storytelling. iCloud library, past, and unrealized art They take place in the intimacy of our projects. I began an exercise of remotely galleries to unexpected encounters organizing the archive of curatorial within the public circulation spaces. projects and articles together with one Even though these small initiatives, of my best friends in New York, just so intimate performances, I think we are we could intentionally say hi to one able to offer a glimmer of hope and another before I go to bed in Singapore fulfill our role of humanizing even now and as he wakes up in the East Village. during the less humane presence of this Having a sense of gratitude for life’s uninvited guest, COVID-19. kindness and giving me the privilege of Amidst all these, I could not be prouder togetherness even with loved ones and of my younger colleagues who appear friends from a close distance, working to be unfazed by the situation and from home, having a job, having shelter 9 above my head, enough food to eat, home chores. Hey, this could go on for I attempt to fulfill some good deeds. a while but I’ll continue to do what I ‘m They could be as minute as finishing the called to do in my little way. food on my plate, watering my plants, As a propagator and champion of and being kind to myself so I could be the unknown, untested, and live kinder to others, being fully present at interventions with the hope of work (virtually) appear on top of my connecting people, this COVID-19 has accomplishment list. I feel like a child unkindly stretched and unpacked what again. I could hear the voices of my late the power of the invisible means. Just grandparents who used to remind me to the same, I remain a firm believer that be thankful for the food and everything such power resides in each one of us. else that I have. In their moments of Since life has led me to this world of art, resignation dealing with a mischievous working with artists, a group of young child, they would utter; she’d never people in my team, and reaching out to know what it’s like to live through war. people, I will continue to do so. Gratitude is holding me up. During this pregnant pause that we As the guidelines matured between all share, where the weight seems March and April, from checking heavier than carrying a baby inside travelers from specific countries or the ballooning womb deters us from regions to banning entry to Singapore; running on our usual phase with that from the enforcement of social to feeling of the stubborn yet to be born safe distancing measures; from the child kicking inside the belly, I hope deferment of gatherings of more than each one of us would find the balance in a thousand people to those of more reflecting how rich our lives are because than a hundred and eventually just 10; we live not only for ourselves but most from the implementation of split team importantly for many others. schedules at the office to full work from home arrangements; from wear mask The Pregnant Pause: A Countdown on Living only when sick, to wear a mask when with the Invisible was originally published outside; to the observance of the circuit on ICI’s website on May 18, 2020. breaker measures and the closure of non-essential services from April 7. I think I might have been working from home for over a month now. I am beginning to miss my colleagues and going to work. I look forward to Tuesdays where I get camera time with my team. Every day, I wake up like I am physically going to work. I turn on my company computer shortly before 9 a.m. attend meetings online, review the online plans, adjust the plans, attend meetings online again, improve the plans, write emails, think, pause, repeat. End the day by 7 or 8 p.m. by shutting the computer down to focus on my 10 Dear Prof. Choy, pandemic. In the New York-New Jersey region alone, ProPublica learned of at I’ve been thinking a lot about Queens. least 30 deaths of Filipino health care Primarily the neighborhoods of workers since the end of March and Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, and Corona, many more deaths in those peoples’ which has emerged tragically as the extended families. The virus has struck epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak in hardest where a huge concentration of New York. Corona (and later Woodside) the community lives and works. They was my home from 2013-17. While are at “the epicenter of the epicenter,” my time there was brief, the largely said Bernadette Ellorin, a community migrant, working-class, multilingual, organizer.” ProPublica intergenerational community/ies along Roosevelt Ave and its ethos I am reminded of your critical work on had a profound impact on my work Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration as an educator and curator. In central in Filipino American History, making Queens, I strengthened my foundation visible the complex account of Filipino as a cultural worker and community nurses in America and the forever organizer. At Diversity Plaza, I invited linking of two countries: the Philippines authors Gina Apostol, Mia Alvar, and the United States. Hossannah Asuncion, and Queens My own family’s American crossing is writers Bino Realuyo, Paolo Javier, and intrinsically connected to this history. Ninotchka Rosca to read their work. In 1975, my aunt Consejo, my mother’s As Gina reminds me, it was the first sister, flew on a one-way flight to New time she’s shared her work in front of Jersey, where she was to work as a nurse. a busy beauty salon. This gathering led At 25, she traveled alongside many to the Pilipinx American Library, an other young highly trained Filipina itinerant collection of printed matter nurses, whose sought-after labor was and programming platform dedicated

pj gubatina policarpio & catherine ceniza choy & catherine policarpio pj gubatina necessary to fulfill critical shortages in exclusively to Filipinx perspectives. U.S. hospitals. (Countering commonly

Epicenter of the Epicenter I am thinking about care and the brown peddled narratives of immigrants taking body. In particular, I am thinking about away American jobs.) In large part the Filipinx body, those of Filipinx owing to my aunt’s labor, my mother’s American nurses (and their families) sprawling family would slowly emigrate in Elmhurst and in hospital wards and to the United States, including my own care centers the world over. When I uprooting to San Francisco in 1998 first moved to Queens, I used to laugh at 13. I could see that she was happy remembering that common refrain when we finally arrived. My ma and pa among us Filipinxs in America: where and I decided to stay with her in Los there are hospitals there are surely Angeles for some time before life in Filipinxs around. During this global the United States would officially take pandemic this refrain stings; knowing full hold of us. She took us on the requisite well that Filipnx bodies carry the brunt “newcomers” tour: Disneyland, of care and labor at the risk of their own Universal Studios, plus a quick detour lives. The stories are heartbreaking. to Las Vegas. One day she took us to “Filipino American medical workers Hollywood Presbytarian, the hospital have suffered some of the most where she worked at the time. She was staggering losses in the coronavirus proud to be a nurse. She took pride in 11 Diversity Plaza, July 2018. PJ Gubatina Policarpio how her profession could make life better Francisco, I can’t help but ask how I can for her family. In 2005, my aunt would die be of service to this place that has given of colon cancer in the Philippines. so much to me. How can I support the nurses, health care providers, and Just as we can’t tell the history of essential workers in the front lines? agriculture and the labor movement Who cares for the caregivers? of the west coast without the story of Filipino farmworkers, we cannot -- tell the history of healthcare in the Dear PJ, United States without the story of Filipina women. More fully, as the It’s lovely to hear from you. I late historian, Dr. Dawn Buholano- enjoyed reading about your personal Mabalon reminds us all: “You can’t connections to Filipino nurse migration. tell the story of labor, migration, and I love that photograph of your aunt! empire [in America] without the story I’ve been teaching Filipino American of Filipino Americans.” As I write this History at UC Berkeley for over 15 years, letter sheltered-in-place here in San and the vast majority, if not all, of my 12 students with Filipino heritage, has an intimate connection to nursing. At least one of their relative’s works or has worked as a nurse in the United States. When I read about the Filipino nurses in the U.S. who have died as a result of their work on the COVID-19 frontlines, I am also filled with grief and heartbreak. It is so important to take time to grieve, to confront the enormity of this loss. The other day I sat by the front windows of my home with my journal and pen in hand. And I started to write the names of some of the Filipino nurses in the U.S. who have died. Araceli Buendia Ilagan. Noel Sinkiat. Rosary Celaya Castro-Olega. Divina “Debbie” Accad. The list continues to grow. I wrote their names in cursive and, again,

in block letters. I want to commit these Phayul’s, Jackson Heights. January 2020. names to memory. PJ Gubatina Policarpio I think about their stories. How some of them were so close to retirement. How others emerged from their retirement in order to serve as nurses during this pandemic. How one nurse, Celia Marcos, raced to treat a “code blue” patient wearing only a thin surgical mask, and then died fourteen days later. I’m moved to read that you have found my book Empire of Care important for the challenging time that we are living in. Learning the history of Filipino nurse migration to the U.S. is relevant now more than ever. This history illuminates that their presence in the U.S. is not new. Their mass migrations to the U.S., especially during times of crises, is six decades old. Furthermore, to understand why so many Filipino nurses specifically are here, we must go back in time further to when the Philippines was an official Jenifer K Wofford, Point of Departure U.S. colony. That is when Americanized (Nurse Falling), 2007 education, including nursing education 13 and ethnic scapegoating. How they confronted these struggles with bravery and the will to organize so that things would be better for future generations of Filipino nurses has made a profound impression on me. Even in the depths of my grief, their history inspires me. Being the dynamic and kind educator, curator, and organizer that you are, you are well-positioned to support and care for Filipino American nurses and other health workers on the frontlines. I hope that you participate in documenting their lives as well as their livelihoods through art; that you showcase their stories through curation Consejo Gubatina and collaboration; that you share their contributions with the local and global communities in which we live and serve. modeled after U.S. professional nursing, I look forward to learning about your created the prerequisite training for future projects. Filipino nurses and other laborers to work in the U.S. It also fueled Filipino Wishing you health and safety, dreams and desires to travel overseas Cathy and especially to the United States. Epicenter of the Epicenter was originally The sizable presence of Filipino published on ICI’s website on July 21, 2020. nurses in the U.S. and their significant contributions to American health care delivery are the consequences of this long and unequal history. I also wish to emphasize that this is a history created by the Filipino nurse migrants themselves as well as broader historical forces. I think about all that they have accomplished, beginning with their rigorous training. One of the reasons why I am ambivalent when I hear people say that Filipinos make great nurses because they are so caring is because it erases the hard work of their nursing training and on- the-job experience. I recall in my oral interviews with Filipino nurses how they had also Jenifer K Wofford, Point of Departure experienced intense homesickness, (Nurse Falling), 2007 unequal work assignments, formidable licensure requirements, and racial 14 n Spanish, curar ‘to cure’ means and instill trust towards each others’ both to heal and to curate. With bodies, even those we share similarities the current conditions in the midst with, as well as to persist in the of the pandemic, the polysemic inclusion and accessibility of otherness Icharacteristic of this word seems more in cultural institutions.

relevant than ever. While we readapt to While we are in this mandatory break, the new realities of an emerging society, we should evaluate the social role of I want to share some of my thoughts cultural institutions, identify what has about exhibitions as a measure of been done by them (or us) until now, psychosocial care; a methodology that and from there prioritize our efforts to might help us guide our work in the carry out pertinent, useful, reparative, current context and to envision a future and healing curatorial statements. perspective of curatorial practices. Curatorship at the service of vulnerable We are living through atypical times people and communities is necessary where uncertainty opens up the now more than ever before to change possibility of envisioning a shift of the cycle of historical subordinations paradigm in art, culture, and museums. which have become more evident However, such a short time has passed during the pandemic. luis carlos manjarrés martínez martínez manjarrés carlos luis since it all began, that we have not been Currently, a good number of texts and able to identify the new order and the papers about museums in times of demands that will fall upon curators, educators, and other cultural workers. Nevertheless, it is important to prepare ourselves by proposing alternative ways, paths, or places to convene with others, Curatorship to Cure Inequality COVID-19 are circulating. They address the co-responsibility of the negative issues related to sustainability, how impacts of the pandemic and, based on to slow down, rethink presentiality a critical point of view, should commit and prosociality, the end of the to becoming agents for change. object’s fetishism, the urgency to We should not allow “health and turn to virtuality, and even about the sanitation” to be established as a precautions that will have to be taken category for exclusion in our daily to reopen the museums. But few have lives and, in extension, in museums, questioned the responsibility museums we must certainly avoid for them to and curators have in perpetuating (or become more aseptic (literally and not) discriminatory discourses and the metaphorically) than they already were status quo of a selfish, individualistic, before the lockdown. We should make and deeply unequal model. Cultural institutions are not exempt from participating in discussions about Desolate street in the center of Bogotá a few blocks from Luis’s home. Photo: Luis Carlos Manjarrés Martínez

the best out of this situation, use it have when they carry out processes to innovate and create museological based on a social sense and an ethical processes that might help to heal commitment. We should take the time the psychological effects caused to think over the implications of each by COVID-19. But let’s not limit this curatorial decision since displaying the possibility to the subject matter of past without asking what memories are the pandemic, and broaden it out to being denied or suppressed is negligence, remedy and repair collective suffering an unacceptable waste in a time of and traumas, caused by discrimination economic austerity and ethical failure. and segregation due to sex, gender, It is therefore vital to recognize the age, race, social class, country of cultural sector as a professional field origin, religion, physical or emotional under the care of the collective and disability, to name a few. If we can the social weave. We must understand demonstrate the effectiveness of that the exercise of curatorship consists the museum and exhibitions in the of recomposing, mending, healing, treatment of collective trauma, we will taking care of emotions and affections; be relevant and necessary for society in understanding responsibility in the post-pandemic times. management of memory, and oral To do so, first, we have to be aware of history is our most valuable heritage. the healing potential that museums Seeing that the museum is what 17 makes meetings possible, in a society commemorate together, and to reflect of uncertainty and over-information, on the past. everything that unites us must be Some of us are already undertaking empowered and communicated. museological processes focused on We must also be aware of the multiple topics related to the current pandemic. and diverse challenges that the current It is up to us that these exhibitions situation demands of the cultural do not replicate what is often hastily sector, moving away from the logic constructed, with official statements, of the market and approaching the conclusive or heroic narratives. The socio-psychological needs of people. As ethical duty is to remember that we are healers, we must accept that our true working with the pain of those who responsibility focuses on the ability could not say goodbye to their loved to put symbolism at the service of the ones, with the trauma of those who lost common and the collaborative. everything and to become aware of our It is important that we consider own emotions. In my opinion, activists museums and cultural institutions as should be leading the conversation receptive spaces that link curatorial on this topic, giving voice to people work to the concept of communication and communities that have been most as a social activity. This helps to build dramatically affected by COVID-19, relationships of trust and collaboration, denouncing and making visible what is to foster conversations that allow us to 18 currently buried in the emergency and prevail over the interests and needs in the urgency of saving both lives and of the people who are part of the the economic system. exhibition process. I would like to conclude with some Be aware that: ideas to keep in mind when we embark * The exhibition is a process. in curatorial activism projects in the * The exhibition is a means, not an end. future: * The exhibition is not the most * Delimit a territorial and populational important thing. approach to address the issue. * The complaints that the exhibition * Research a list of actors and invite does not make, the silences, include and them to participate. integrate participation devices for the *Create public and accessible spaces for memories that arise. participation. * Curatorship is a political action. * Once the community has gathered, * Curatorship must be a social practice. collectively define the purpose of the exhibition or museology process. * The exhibition is made by someone, made for someone, and worked among * Be clear about the intention of the communities. exhibition or the museology process. * Nothing about us without us. * Be informed as to why these people These are lessons to be learned about are interested in contributing to the the museological processes in parallel exhibition. Many of them require a to other social emergencies living in place to process their mourning and to Latin America, such as war, xenophobia, participate is, for them, cathartic and and LGBTIphobia, threats that worsen liberating. with COVID-19, and I hope these are * Invite and involve colleagues from all taken as an invitation to continue areas of the cultural institution in the fighting for rights as they are not process: participation starts at home. granted and must be taken. Now, it is time to embrace our diversity and * Be honest, build trust, and create support each other in our work. networks of affection among the communities and hereafter, co-curators. Curatorship to Cure Inequality was * Be aware that in the course of the originally published on ICI’s website on July collaborative process and exhibition, 7, 2020 new needs and demands may arise for the communities and co-curator. * Give up power and control, lose the fear of criticism, leave your ego, and the urge for authorship behind. * Do not let any institutional interest

19 With the MuseoQ, we commemorate the International LGBTIQ+ Pride day from home. My rights are not quarantined.

20 he day that it hit me was like any other, whilst on the train home from work. I had been willfully compartmentalising Tprior to this, blocking out the news, being a resilient rock to those around me whilst also trying to prioritise my own mental well-being. Through this tess maunder striving to maintain some kind of productive momentum fueled by a cautiously optimistic energy, which I knew was insensitive to the moment but ultimately necessary in order to reach urgent deadlines that were still due despite the pandemic. During the ride home though, I gave myself permission to slip out of my usual, hard-ass, disciplined self. Allowing myself a small moment to break away,

I slowed the hyper-productivity stream Image: Michael Pham of consciousness as I leaned back into my blue carriage seat. I closed my eyes, world, despite their inebriated state. yawned deeply, and then clicked my This moment of personal reflection fingers in front of my mouth (a habit I was formed in context of proximity learnt from my ex as a method to awake to, and an awareness of a sense of

A Yawn and Three Clicks positive energy) as I casually gazed collective empathy with other travellers, around at those in the carriage near a moment manifested through the me. Despite the sparse carriage - with temporal community of the train. A people working from home - there was feeling that us curators would always still ample conversation to overhear. hope to conjure up with our audiences In front of me, I witnessed a young when diligently conceptualising woman speaking to her mother over the exhibitions, projects, or texts. What phone; she was hunched over, holding I’ve outlined above is a transition from her head, expressing her disbelief at one psychological state to another. The the mass lay-offs that had occurred at enabling moment for this being the her corporate job, and venting about yawn; and the willingness to step away mis-management and internal company from a standard flow of consciousness politics. Nearby was a group of three into a temporary community. food-delivery-app delivery drivers; they After yawning the real depth of the were taking their yellow bikes across situation hit me, because I could see it town, moving closer to a restaurant on other people’s faces, hear it in their strip for the hope of finding a higher voices, see it in their changed stature. I volume of work. Behind me was a rowdy had always known it was there, but as group of teenagers who seemed to be a sensitive person, I wanted to protect making some surprisingly compelling myself from the reality. However, rather arguments for the current state of the than leading me to despair, surprisingly 21 we generally think. It’s less likely a signal that you’re tired than a signal that it’s time for everyone around you to act.” Can we imagine our current COVID state as a yawn, preparing us for renewed energy needed to face our collective future with optimism, grace, and integrity? How do we frame modes of production during collective grief? I understand that this has been an internationally reaching phenomenon

there was something unusually generative about working through this in a public space surrounded by company. A moment of transience bringing us together. I would like to imagine or propose an analogy for these moments of psychological transitions - from one state to another - a yawn as a vessel. What is the purpose of yawning? A yawn is a transition, a preparatory state, preparing us, alerting us, waking us up to look at our present situation with renewed rigor. “Yawning as a primal form of sociality, yawning may be, at its root, a mechanism of social signalling. When we yawn, we are communicating with one another. We are sending an external sign of something internal, be it our boredom or our anxiety, our fatigue, or our hunger—all moments when Image: Tess Maunder, Melbourne, Australia we may need a helping hand. In fact, yawning may be the opposite of what 22 Image: Tess Maunder, Melbourne, Australia 23 but I can only speak to what I know. What that means for me is to speak from my geo-political position in Melbourne, Australia. In line with this, I will speak to the collective anxiety, grief, and trauma that this pandemic has brought upon us here. Initially, the indicators of the shift were in the government warnings, the unveiling of government policy, daily press conferences, public health announcements in public space. Then came the loss of consumer confidence; with this the cancelling or postponing of large scale events, the firing of precarious workers, displacement of international students. All of this was of course undertaken in context of an industry dependent on such structures that have proven their precarity in the wake of the pandemic. Initially, there was a false sense of security in Melbourne, that although these temporary measures were being taken, that although life was challenging with social distancing and the fear of contagion, all of this was only temporary and a sense of normality would return soon. However, now writing from the ‘second lockdown’ in the state of Victoria - it’s harder to imagine that. Our second wave has been harder for the public to process. Following the false sense of security, in thinking that we had made it through, there has certainly been a greater sense of community fear, despair, and anxiety. How has this impacted the arts and creative production? I can only again speak to what I am seeing right now; which is being written during the second week of a six-week stage three-state-wide lock- down. How did we get here? We imagine our reality in context of our contemporary paradigm 24 1989 is the year that ultimately re- defined the contemporary art industry with a definitive shift towards the warm embrace of globalisation. Think about it - biennales, art fairs , blue-chip global gallery conglomerates, international art residencies, ambitiously scaled collections, travelling consultants, Internet Art (or IDK Post-Internet Art?), Zoom meetings, discourse- led mobility, international curatorial training courses. Each of these signifiers can be inherently linked to the rise of globalization and its subsequent impact on the industry that we all work within and commit our lives to (let’s be real!). The well traversed trio – 1. the rise in internationally driven markets, 2. the expansion of the middle class, and 3. increased international mobility. Each of these three points has dramatically shifted the way we discuss, consume and formulate our connection to contemporary art. Contemporary art is the love-child of capitalist acceleration, but the art-world’s critical mistake is expecting this paradigm to stay consistent and fixed, in a volatile world. With every rise, there is a fall, and perhaps that is what we are collectively facing right now is the dipping of global capitalism. Shifting our gaze to the present, we live right now in the wake of a global industry that has faced a virus providing the impetus for morphing and shifting, which has completely shattered our international way of life. How is the art world responding, what does the world today offer the contemporary art world or vice versa? We need a critical dialogue that is informed, intuitive, and reflective. We need to re-frame our collective reality with growth, renewal and hope in mind. Image: Tess Maunder, Melbourne, Australia 25 26 Imagining this global moment as a The most beautiful moments of my yawn, and opportunity to take a step career are serendipitous moments back from our reality momentarily exchanged between friends, moments and to see it renewed. I can only speak of utter unexpected joy, of actual to my own personal experience; and growth and development, a sharing of a yawn was really needed. The art something intimate and vulnerable. world has been riding a hamster wheel My proposal is that we consider this of production for production’s sake period of disruption as a shift in – can we all acknowledge the sheer consciousness, and we lean into this exhaustion of the cyclical nature of challenging and uncomfortable feeling the contemporary art industry – and and use it to our collective benefit for the problematic vectors of labor growth. associated with this. I have realized that I can soften my approach to art The personal and professional have and life. Not every intellectual moment so much crossover in the art world, happens during a conference. There let us embrace this reality in a post- are moments of encounter in everyday COVID context, and enable as life that inform all of us, to be better many opportunities as possible for people, to continue to inquire, continue radical interpersonal tenderness and to challenge ourselves, continue to vulnerability. Let’s use this yawn to take responsibility and to imagine regenerate, wake us up, and encourage and re-imagine a way of life that is interpersonal growth, support, and transgressive. development. Our culture, intelligence, and mental health urgency depends on it. So, this weird time that we are faced with – why not use it to our advantage? A Yawn and Three Clicks was originally Do we really have to produce so much? published on ICI’s website on August 3, 2020. Can we not use this crazy situation as an opportunity to actually radically re-define what is important to us and why? Let’s take a radical step back and ask ourselves, why are we here? What do we want to do? What do we have to offer now? Who do we want to work with now and why? This is an urgent consideration for all of us. What we have actually seen in this industry during this time has been incredible insecurity in acknowledging our value in broader society. It’s an existential gripe. In the rush and silent pressure to make everything digital, have we forgotten the point of why we are all actually here? I mean what motivates you to work in this industry? I would expect that most of us are not here due to a purely financial impetus. 27 Image: Tess Maunder, Melbourne, Australia Image: Tess Maunder, Melbourne, Australia 28 fadzai muchemwa fadzai

Queuing for cash in Harare. Photograph courtesy of Panashe Makufa Fear and Half-truths

have been curating public programs gatherings and the government had (talks, lectures, etc.) running the given us the directive to close. Quite art school as well as the school’s naturally the closing meant initially learning program at the National an absence of gallery programming. IGallery of Zimbabwe for the past two School group tours booked months and a half years. I started off the year in advance with painstaking work feeling especially motivated. I finished an put in and all programming including inspiring curatorial residency at the Bag exhibitions that were set to open Factory Artists’ Studios in Johannesburg had to be canceled. Suddenly instead at the end of 2019 and was getting ready of spending the day welcoming to move to Makhanda for my Master’s in groups for tours, and workshops; and Art History at Rhodes University. News of planning events we were left with a lot Cultural Practice in the Time of COVID-19 and the impact it might have of unimplemented programs. That on my personal life and work were the tanked the morale of the department. last things on my mind. Especially when I had experienced a To wind up my time at the National different kind of self-isolation during Gallery of Zimbabwe, I had lined up my stay in Johannesburg last year and I quite a number of interesting, in my was not ready for another one so soon. opinion, talks, readings, performances, We have always relied on delivering our and screenings. When the National programs to physical audiences and had Gallery closed its doors to the public on only recently started uploading some the 13th of March it had been because talks online but not really keeping track there had been a warning aimed at large of the impact of these uploads. 29 We were eventually asked to stop The month-long emails, calls, and coming into work when we had the WhatsApp messages on practice and first COVI-19 death in the country. ideology became a form of self-care in Zimbabwe went into total lockdown the face of real valid fears. Zoe Samudzi, on the 30th of March. I struggled quite on one of her Instagram stories, pointed a lot to adjust to our new reality and to an app for yoga, Down Dog, which to stay inside all the time coping with could help with yoga practice from (mis)information overload. I found it home as I could not have my normal increasingly difficult to get any work class. This meant my children could also done as I soon had to start working participate and would be out of my and on my Master’s attending seminars my sister’s hair for part of the day. on Zoom. The constant messaging of I have had to think of finding new social distancing increased my anxiety ways of engaging and adjusting to and fear. Twitter and WhatsApp became this new normal. Because museums the sites of all my fears with a deluge of are not considered essential services information that was hard to process in emergency situations we could not and make sense of and two weeks into come into work. Mental health, well- the lockdown I had to take a mental being, and social change through work health week to regroup and prioritize during these very stressful times have my psychological wellbeing. I started been at the forefront of the engagement a conversation with an artist Gladys with the public. Curating in fragile Kalichini which became an interview. democracies where information is

Yoga in the evening. Photograph Courtesy of Fadzai Muchemwa

30 mostly disseminated by rumors, global pandemic that requires social and half-truths, without much ICT distancing. This has kept me busy and infrastructure for the greater part of the made me think of new ways of being population is difficult enough without together even though we are now a having to deal with a global pandemic little bit further away. as well. I have found communities of cultural Working for a big institution that is practitioners and educators who are not ready for remote engagement has quite set on encouraging each other also been hard; not everyone in the to keep working and find comfort in team has home internet access and art. They have been sharing images of phone data has become prohibitively artworks that they are working on, as expensive. Other smaller outfits who well as calls for participation and calls have room to maneuver have been for support during the lockdown. I have using Facebook Live to stay engaged found temporary spaces and temporary for example Enthuse Afrika has been communities where even though nature having ‘Live from Home’ sessions from is unpredictable and variable, and concerts to discussions on making the world has been uncertain, art has businesses stay afloat during uncertain brought us together even while we have times. Newspapers have created digital to be apart. editions that are small enough to be The Zimbabwean government has not shared on WhatsApp for a weekly fee been forthcoming in the support of that is even more affordable than the artists during this period that they are print edition. not making money. The Zimbabwean WhatsApp the inexpensive alternative Government and the National Arts was, to begin with, and especially Council have asked artists to submit distressing platform for me because of names for welfare support. Both of them the constant reminders that no one is are yet to do anything in this regard. taking the virus seriously. But it also Granted Zimbabwe has been in economic became a digital site for the museum freefall for a number of years and the that I missed. I have found a supportive health care system is in a dire state, the community in the Arts of Africa and private sector is focusing on ensuring the Global South’s research group at the nation stays healthy and cultural Rhodes University. Fellows from the practitioners are the least of their worries. British Museum International Training The information blackout, as well as program have been sharing resources movement restrictions, make it impossible on how to cope and how to effectively to correctly identify how this has affected work cutting out all the noise. A friend the general populace. It is important to Luciara Ribeiro, the Assistant curator at the Tomie Ohtake Institute in Brazil, think of how to navigate this space where who is working to reorganize the artists and cultural practitioners continue activities of the institute has asked me to work and have an infrastructure that to participate in their #togetheraway supports their welfare. initiative which is quite informal It’s not possible to define what the but also quite serious considering world of cultural work will look like the subject of coping with lack of post-pandemic but the world of work physical community in the midst of a and engagement will change. It might 31 Physical distancing in an unending be difficult to envision the world we queue. Photograph courtesy of know is possible on the other side of Panashe Makufa the pandemic but if artworks from centuries past that we still admire are any indication, art is a testament to our resilience and cultural organizations should explore how to turn real estate into ‘unreal’ estate – remote access. I am still exploring how this pandemic impacts my work, sanity, and family life. This has been a meaningful time for me to affect the alterations that I need to make to how I work and deal with end- of-the-world-as-we-know-it situations.

Cultural Practice in the Time of Fear and Half-truths was originally published on ICI’s website on June 22, 2020.

32 The World, the Flesh, and the Devil: A Lenten Meditation on COVID-19 in New Orleans lydia y. nichols wenty-seconds isn’t enough to wash Tour hands of some things. On Friday, March 13th, after Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards announced state-wide school closures (then just a month long, now two) in response to the first diagnosis of a local COVID-19 case, I combed the aisles of a store owned by Jeff Bezos, the wealthiest person in the world, wondering why the hell is anybody here right now? The glove-handed store workers were there, restocking shelves, butchering meat, serving food, ringing up baskets, dependent on an hourly wage to care for themselves and their families. If the workers don’t clock in, they don’t European monarchies and now of the have food if or when stock runs dry post-colonial nation-state. from the pandemic’s impact on trade or From the state’s economic dependence if the government issues a mandate to on the theft of land and slavery to the close stores, as the chainmail I received petrochemical and tourism industries, that claims to have originated with a the desire for permanent power has neighbor of a cousin of a friend of an upper level military person says will undermined ecological sustainability happen “in the next 48 to 72 hours.” and, therein, our ability to survive. And I was there, creating the demand When COVID-19 reached national that justifies the “supply” of labor. concern, public health experts encouraged us to sing “Happy Birthday” The vast majority of us, dependent on while washing our hands, to make sure grocery stores for access to food and we were washing them long enough. potable water, expect stores to remain open and even hope that they will, But no matter how many happy despite the fact that in just three weeks birthdays we sing, some things we can’t New Orleans has become a hotbed for wash our hands of. the virus, with twice the death rate as Every time my toddler son sings happy New York City. birthday while washing his hands, I We don’t yet know if, when, or for how think about the apocalypse. long stores might close or go barren, I grew up in a doomsday religion but in the event that they do, we’ve in which celebrating birthdays stocked up on out-of-season food items is considered devil worship that transported here from around the world exponentially increases the likelihood of and tap water branded by Coca-Cola one being destroyed in the Apocalypse. and Nestle, donning masks to replenish Though I left my parents’ religion nine as necessary. years ago, I did take from it faith that Meanwhile, the wealthiest person in there is a way of thinking and being the world is being made more wealthy that will make the world a better and more secure through the insecurity place to live for all its inhabitants, that of his employees and customers in the the apocalypse doesn’t have to be a face of a global public health crisis. frightful end. What is the outcome for people, The apocalypse is simply a revelation, a institutions, industries, and systems confirmation of things we already knew that hoard power by hegemonizing - that this system is insufficient for all of dependence on them - to the point that, us; it offers us the choice to assess the only two or three generations from way we live and accept that changes must their inception, our lives without them? be made and that we do indeed have the Louisiana history has seemingly been an resources necessary to make them. experiment in answering that question. Louisianians are currently focused on As with the rest of the world shaped by “flattening the curve” of COVID-19 - European imperialism, Louisiana was ‘using our head to stop the spread’ as established on the foundational value New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell for permanent power - originally that of admonished. In charging everyone with 35 that responsibility, we’ve acknowledged Jesus confirms his commitment to his the importance of our individual purpose: to sacrifice his perfect life choices to the health of the world - a to absolve the sin humanity inherited reality often undermined by the free from Adam. market values. In the 28 days since the first diagnosis Our individual choices will be just as of the novel coronavirus in New important to the health of the world Orleans, 16,284 people in Louisiana whenever we get to the here-on-out. have been given positive diagnoses of COVID-19, 562 of whom have died. Will the choices we make then be based on the hope that a pandemic doesn’t This Lent, we were asked to make happen again or the reality that it collective sacrifices for the health of the can and that no one should be in the world, now and beyond the moment of desperate positions that some of us crisis. Unlike Jesus, we’re not martyrs already are and many more of us very who have left the comforts of heaven, likely will be as the days wear on? but necessary parts of a bio-social In the world in which we live, it is ecology that is increasingly debilitated considered normal for us to demand by the maldistribution of resources and that others put themselves at risk in life chances. service to our chosen dependencies, for What have we relinquished out of people to be so financially insecure that commitment to humanity, and who they have to gamble their life chances will we put behind us once COVID’s for the possibility of survival. Another curve has been made flat, once we path is being cleared. return to work (for those of us with As I ration water, oatmeal, honey, and such job security) and send the kids cranberries for my toddler’s breakfast, back to school? it’s hard to believe that Mardi Gras, the So much of our economic finale to a season of excess, was just a infrastructure and practice was few Tuesdays ago. designed to assuage the fears of those The discovery of COVID-19’s presence in power, to assure them that their in Louisiana coincided with the Lenten power would never be dissolved. season, the 40-day fast that follows It can feel overwhelming, impossible Carnival, a meditation on purpose and even, to imagine a society in which no our commitment to a path that will make one has to submit to the will of another life better for all who come after us. to survive, in which we don’t feel the After his baptism - so Christian need to demand the submission of mythology goes, Jesus is led by spirit to others for our own survival. the wilderness where, over the course of But just because you can’t wash your 40 days, he faces the Devil who tempts hands of everything, doesn’t mean you him three times. Jesus turns down stop trying. opportunities to demonstrate his power by turning a stone into bread, to prove The World, the Flesh, and the Devil: A his importance by jumping off the cliff Lenten Meditation on COVID-19 in New with the expectation that the angels will Orleans was originally published on The catch him, to rule the world in exchange Lens Nola. Published on ICI’s website on for worshipping the Devil. April 8, 2020. 36 he nobility of relations between beneath archives, and in between African art and universal values gallery walls is a place I call home. traditionally sought comfort Our inability to effectively reach out in indefinable spaces. Art is to artists and other cultural players Tthe greatest social fact to interrogate through physical studio visits and social realities that COVID-19 has broadcasts finds no refuge in the virtual reimagined into a long-distance world of unstable and slow internet treasure. Life in Uganda is a reimagined connections: I am digitally confined and performative installation vested on intellectually constrained in the middle balimunsi philip balimunsi a bundle of relations facilitated by of nowhere. “The lockdown is not a human physical conversations. It’s matter of convenience, we’re talking such an amazing musical composition about life and death. This is ‘war’! this is a time for survival”, the president of with tremendous discordant sounds Uganda asserted as he extended the in jarring juxtaposition. Ugandan total lockdown on May 2, 2020. narratives seem shaky in a conventional context but traditionally profound and My ability to pack a century of pains original, though threatened by social in isolation and meditation was distancing in the recent context of constrained by the mandatory self- “open migration” and “free movement”. quarantine I was recommended to The traditional and rich African chain of exercise. Not even the prestigious interview with Elimo Njau in Nairobi,

Collective Memories oral transmission and physical dialogue seems problematic and impossible Kenya would shape my confidence in the midst of COVID-19. This has into a weapon to assail the stigma from COVID-19 in the first weeks of proved strong advocacy for high-speed self-quarantine, before doctors draped internet to facilitate virtual spheres of in protective equipment turned up for conviviality. Hasn’t the scaffold upon blood samples. For the first time in the which people strategically stand as history of Uganda, traveling was greeted culture documentation infrastructure with disdain! Hasn’t life just crawled been shaken by social distancing? What deep into burnt orange-scented Dingy a country of great orators Uganda has Taverns? Such traumatic realities only been from generation to generation! fueled Nosophobic mistreatment to send With people as libraries, memory disks, ceaseless reels of intellectual uncertainty and digital databases for ages, oral brooded over in search of sanity. freedom seems to have traditionally undermined the “New” arena for Imagine an African city without people, it’s like a body without a soul. Utopia conversations. Despite a high youthful seems a costly political satire for population, such a belief puts into Uganda where creativity for survival perspective the discussion of the highly defines the infrastructural outlook of problematic social media taxes, Over cities. This explains the heavy traffic The Top (OTT) payable by everyone build-ups and the logical existence nursing desires to use social media of “Boda Bodas” and “Matatus” in platforms within Uganda. Kampala. Dangerous as they may As a curator with tremendous interest seem, they define the true spirit of in Ugandan history in relation to the city during normal business days contemporary practice, my life lies and thus prove a reliable platform 37 Workers treking to workplace at Ntinda, Kampala - Uganda. No public transport was allowed to carry passengers and everyone had to walk or but a bicycle but many were manual workers or casual labourers with small wages, that had to walk. Only essential workers; food market vendors, health workers and construction site workers were allowed to move and work

for unemployed youths. Therefore, down by COVID-19; the concept of grounding public transportation social distancing left no option but during the national lockdown confined cancellation or postponement of live commuters to their own homes and events until further notice. With online rendered Uganda an online economy engagement still limited to a few with perched on an imaginary uptown access to smartphones, internet, and population whose supplies are social media; television and broadcast procured from local downtown traders have emerged new social entertainment by online distributors. heroes. However, starvation, high Imagine, an online delivery chain prepaid costs of electricity, and without suppliers! Order cancellation television subscription, without seemed inevitable. Tourism, arts, income and coupled with regular load and culture have totally been mired shedding, still confine entertainment to 38 Bobi Wine and Nubian Li during the Ensasage Mu Nyumba concert that was held in Magere over Mother’s Day Weekend

39 the privileged. When television seized the lockdown with live discotheques, performances, and celebrity interviews, it focused on music and neglected film, poetry, literary and visual arts otherwise experienced by audiences at biennials, festivals, pilgrimages, galleries, and museums. Cultural tourism was shellacked, as transportation was limited to cargo. The soaring number of patients in Kenya, Tanzania, and Rwanda have overwhelmed Uganda with sick truck drivers hence frantic with worry upon handling a subject that has mired the country into an unending lockdown. Strict and regular patrolling to restrict truck drivers from community contact seems insidious due to the polygamous nature of drivers in question. Being physically confined, we’ve truly been intellectually hurt but digitally liberated. Our cultural contribution is perched on the incredible powers to heal the world; this requires therapy and mettle to scaffold creativity necessary for an institutional restructuring of public engagement. Uganda ought to rethink the internet as a basic human need for its urban population. COVID-19 has rendered gatekeepers to African national memory (elderly) immediate victims; therefore, cultural centers ought to intensify documentation, digitization of collections, and online access to project fragments of forgotten experiences that inform creative realities.

Collective Memories was originally published on ICI’s website on July 7, 2020.

40 41 The Wall is a Virus I around andalongside the virus show needed contingency plansspreading being-human any person is. The much a device that defines which degree of past andpresent conflicts; the wall is wall asa negative symbol connecting the intuitionofputting forward the Objects Before and After the Wall started a collaborative project titled Tlaxcala3 inMexico and TIER inBerlin go (back) in. Last year, theart spaces are not from thecountry, you cannot to peopleconsidered migrants: if you the virus. Most oftheborders are closed days ago, France declared war against of society hasalready taken place. A few other places, thealmost total lockdown lorenzo sandoval Denmark, Spain, Italy andmany hard inGermany. InPeru, Morocco, when theCOVID-19 crisisishitting am writing thisinthemoment sanitizer todistribute (Conscious, Communal, Artist ChaveliSifre Cooperative), 2020. CO.CARE/CO.CUIDADO produced ahand in Berlin. 1 with

In Marchalena, eighty people are producing masks at home to support the community.

us a lesson we will need to remind fundamental, especially in giving ourselves of in the future—that the very psychological support. Many examples same countries that have been closing are already on view elsewhere: in Italy, their frontiers to refugees are now neighbours give concerts on balconies; talking about saving lives. in Spain, general ovations for public Luckily, most countries are not health officials and workers take place following the example of the current UK everyday; distribution networks for Prime Minister, who years ago praised those in need are being created in many the town mayor in the 1975 movie cities; truck drivers reinforce their Jaws. In the film, the mayor insisted on mutual support. Collaboration is the keeping the beaches open for profit- only way of overcoming this situation. making, regardless of people losing As of March 18th, media reports 2 their lives . The Prime Minister, very indicated that there are two successful much aligned with this fictional mayor, models to address the pandemic—both said that people needed to simply keep aided by technology. The first one, swimming. Against the opinion of most implemented by China, puts forward citizens, the Prime Minister proposed strict control measures over population. that very same strategy against the The second, in South Korea, is based Coronavirus in an attempt at obtaining herd immunity: if we allow as many on close collaboration between citizens people as possible to get the disease, and government. In either case, border they would eventually develop the restrictions strongly apply. antibodies and firewalls against the The current situation is also a virus. Needless to say, epidemiologists massive social experiment of global strongly advised against the strategy, control, with great consequences on and this brainless plan was dropped. biopolitics. There are radical changes Addressing this pandemic requires that are taking place due to the crisis. close collaboration between citizens As with any war or conflict—such as and governments. Mutual aid is the September 11 attacks or different 43 terrorist attacks (although not so much populations3. If after the September with far right-wing terrorism)—the 11 attacks many people agreed to paradigms in terms of social organization a reduction of privacy in exchange are going to change dramatically. for security, the technological protocols of both successful models Among others, there are four of containment—as implemented interwoven elements that will need to in China and South Korea—will be be closely looked at once the virus is applied globally and at different contained. The credibility of left-wing levels. Let’s not forget that precisely parties already in government—or at the same time the September 11 the progressive ones in their struggle attacks took place, much of the global for recognition—is going to be highly digital infrastructure was developing affected by how they deal with these intensively and the internet began to four topics. Therefore, social and model into its current formation. It cultural organizations must work may have been that corporations had towards rethinking these issues and already sought, prior to the attacks, continue to come up with new ways of the kind of access to our data that was producing communities. later justified by the fear of terrorism. Secondly, the fear of new pandemics Decades earlier, it would not have been will justify new control strategies over possible to imagine that we would all

Bbk Berlin currently organizes 2,370 visual artists from all disciplines and artistic genres. It offers its members a wide range of services such as: professional legal protection, free legal advice, tax advice, social advice, tenancy advice, insurance advice, comprehensive information on the profession as an artist. Image: bbk Berlin’s poll campaign.

44 allow tech companies to collect our control of individuals by either the personal information, geo-location, and state or technological corporations even our desires as seen through data. will be reinforced. The combination Very much connected to the of technologies with authoritative entanglement of state control and governments will be a disaster for algorithmic technology, exploitation of democratic and autonomous thinking. resources continues to devastate lands The struggle to keep a right to privacy, and communities in the Global South, along with free speech and freedom of worsening the long trail of colonial movement, will be a great one. enterprise. The activities of tech A third issue to consider is the concept corporations have left a severe footprint of social distancing. Under this notion, in different territories across the globe, how can anyone imagine any public but mainly in countries of the Global demonstration? Consider the recent South: the need for resources in terms case of the feminist strike 8M in March. of energy, water and rare minerals to Many friends were concerned with fulfill their production has brought the virus after participating in the entire communities under conditions of gathering. As we know with Glissant, mass impoverishment and violence, as Lorde, Preciado or Bifo, politics are one can see in Congo or in Chile. These not possible without a certain (or conditions have been brought on by even great) degree of eroticism: the very aggressive control measurements, capacity of being together, feeling in order to pursue the development the bodies of others and producing a of the fabrication of digital devices. common consciousness. The challenge The “cloud” is actually quite terrestrial then is how to produce such political and material—it is brought about by consciousness without being together: radically worsening the lives of the a feeling of touch or closeness while Global South. Technologies of control being far away. For many, it will take and material exploitation of lands time and effort to lose their newfound and workers come hand in hand. fear of being close to others. We need They also feed climate change, the to imagine new ways of being together consequences of which were recently beyond the restrictions of the virtual. seen, for example, in sad devastations in Our political, social and cultural life Mozambique and Puerto Rico. depends on it. The impact that corporations have on Lastly, the pandemic will affect workers’ our lives is undoubtedly strong. We rights. In recent years, there has been have recently witnessed, for example, a political struggle to address the how elections were affected by social precariousness left by the last economic media campaigns based on fake news. crisis in Western societies, in addition However, the influence goes even to the long lasting Western exploitation further in neoliberal modulations of of the rest of the world economies. The micropolitics: beyond disciplinary general impoverishment of working systems of control, corporations have conditions of workers’ lives of the last understood that the battlefield is decade was made under the guise also molecular, that they go beyond of economic recovery. What we’re already-controlled state policies4. seeing instead is how wealth has been Once the current pandemic is over, flowing to the top (and from South to 45 North) tirelessly, leaving the working ******************* class everywhere under increasingly Thanks to Zöe Claire Miller, Eli Cortiñas, worsening circumstances. The financial John Holten, Joaquín Jesús Sánchez, class has been sucking the blood Sandra Nicoline Nielsen, Bonaventure of workers globally. For instance, a Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Chaveli Sifre and general model of working as freelancers Fermín Jiménez Landa. instead of working under contracts is widespread. This means that things like The Wall is a Virus that was translated from health insurance are the responsibility Spanish to English and originally published of the individual, instead of the on Concreta March 2020. Published on ICI’s employers. Out of necessity, everybody website on April 6, 2020. has become a brand of oneself, and therefore common struggles are more difficult to organize. Unions have to be reclaimed, rethought, and redrawn. 1We used the figure of the wall to link present and Is it the time of organizing a new past realities of Mexico and Germany. Through Internationale? this connection, we reflected, together with few practitioners and in different formats, not Paraphrasing William Burroughs, walls only on those two countries, but also on border policies in many places. See online at: http:// are a virus: always create as many theinstituteforendoticresearch.org/wp/projects- insoluble conflicts as possible and current/objects-before-and-after-the-wall/ always aggravate existing conflicts—this 2 SÁENZ DE URIARTE, IÑIGO: “Boris Johnson, is done by dumping on the same planet el alcalde de ’Tiburón’ y la arriesgada estrategia life forms with incompatible conditions contra el coronavirus en Reino Unido”. See: https:// www.eldiario.es/internacional/Coronavirus-Boris- of existence. There is of course nothing Johnson_0_1006149762.html “wrong” about any given life form 3 since “wrong” only has reference to KLEIN, NAOMI: The Shock Doctrine, Allen Lane/Penguin Books, New York, 2007. See: https:// conflicts with other life forms. The readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/61852- struggle against the wall is still and focus-naomi-klein-coronavirus-is-the-perfect-disaster- will be even more of a pressing one. for-disaster-capitalism?fbclid=IwAR0PU0gkMAHZ LpF0-z9DR1GpsffrRmHdvghT0EA2C603KAR14IL_ As cultural workers, we operate within xM_iz-8 the imaginary of a society: providing 4 images, platforms and strategies for SZTULWARK, DIEGO: La ofensiva sensible. Neoliberalismo, populismo y el reverso de lo político, tearing down any wall is a task also for Caja Negra, Buenos Aires, 2019. us. COVID-19 will be probably one of the epic moments of our generation. The shape of the myth around it is still to be made. https://vimeo.com/72089729 Las puertas (De mi casa a La Casa) / Doors (From home to La Casa),Fermín Jiménez Landa, video-action, 2013.

46 xperiencing the pandemic and its ramifications from my position in which I could afford to stay at home in Hungary—a Esmall, post-socialist country currently with an ultranationalist-populist government—has simultaneously been moderate (short-term) and petrifying

eszter szakács eszter szakács (long-term). A European society (from a global perspective) with a population of around 10 million people, Hungary has had a moderate number of cases, according to the government’s registered numbers, which are also fed into the John Hopkins University’s global map (Center for Systems Science and Engineering at John Hopkins University). And all of Hungary in the midst of reopening from the lockdown, just as I am writing these lines. From a socio-political and economic-ecological standpoint, however, an iteration of the “shock doctrine” is unfolding International We Stand in Hungary, which is more than worrisome. With these perspectives, I attempt to analyze both a current snapshot and a speculative trajectory of the contemporary art scene in Hungary, and more specifically in the independent, non-profit art scene of Budapest, with its initiatives with local and international profiles—the area in which I have been deeply involved and engaged in as a curator. Even within this particular part of the contemporary art scene, there are many aspects to discuss, but I will focus on issues of internationalism—a vantage point and practice I have been preoccupied with for a long time. As everywhere, the contemporary art scene in Hungary has seen postponements, cancellations, virtualization, and crises. Most of the arts in Hungary are still state-funded. 47 Tamás Kaszás, piece from the series “Lost Wisdom,” 2017. Courtesy of the artist

48 There is a long tradition of state biennial that is built on a grassroots patronage that has changed very little, basis and boycotts state funding and even since the neoliberal transition that infrastructure. It would have opened followed the end of the Cold War. Today by now—it was supposed to have this means that freelancing and running taken place between April 21 and an independent art organization—one May 31, 2020—but it was postponed that is both financially and ideologically to next Spring. The main mission of independent of the state— is rare and OFF-Biennale is to support the local difficult to establish and to sustain. art scene. At the same time, OFF is According to surveys conducted by also embedded in an international Hungarian art magazine artPortal, cultural framework. In addition to during the lockdown, the state exhibitions, events, the OFF-Biennale continued to fund state museums welcomes people from outside of and art institutions as well as their Hungary, which is of key importance. employees. Nonetheless, at the same The embodied, physical encounter time during the state of emergency, with Hungarian contemporary art is the government passed a law that will a significant channel through which strip state-funded cultural institutions’ art and artists from this region can employees of their current employment circulate internationally. It offers a way securities as public servants in the to spend time physically together to months ahead. There was also a build alliances, where participants could state aid package for independents, all together learn about and expand freelancers in the arts—which, however, their national/regional experiences only included the performing arts, and in a transnational way. This type of visual arts fell through the cracks. As a experience was also generated by the result, visual artists, who are freelancers, online magazine Mezosfera, which (and independent curators in Hungary, is funded by international sources even if few) received no state or through tranzit.hu, and had to be re- municipal support. Their “day jobs,” thought to continue to offer a program or paying jobs, often temporary ones of “building international alliances” (from documentation to graphic design, outside of Hungary. or installation), came to a halt and for a International travel in the coming majority of those artists with a market, years seems uncertain—if it changes the sale of their work stopped. The at all— but we need a way to counter engine of almost all independent art isolationism. While in the wake of organizations in Hungary is volunteer the current momentum we will work (or with symbolic fees), which perhaps witness a decrease in “jet-set organization members can only fulfill flâneurship,” less internationalism is a if they have stable jobs elsewhere. The double-edged sword, especially from difficulties faced by the independent the vantage point of Hungary, where art scene in the coming times may well international engagement is not a be existential. given but a privilege. This may be the Two examples of initiatives that I case in many other art scenes. It is easy am involved in that are currently to imagine a decrease in the number being reshaped. INHALE!, the third of people visiting Hungary, and that edition of OFF-Biennale Budapest—a members of the Hungarian art scene 49 will be less able to travel abroad to government’s recent rejection of the see exhibitions and meet colleagues. Istanbul Convention on preventing What will happen to the international and combating violence against mobility of artists and curators? What women and domestic violence: “Those will happen to international funding? whose model of social coexistence is The alternative to Hungarian state domination fear that equality does not funding for large-scale, independent, mean equal footing, but the tyranny of grassroots, non-profit art initiatives that the enemy. Suffragettes will rule! Queers are not aligned ideologically with the will rule! . . . The fear of those in power government is international funding. had to be always dispelled by cruelty There is only little Hungarian private and terror of the frightened sovereigns.” and Hungarian corporate sponsorship Regimes currently on power cannot in this area. In the likely scenario of be changed (now), but individuals a global economic recession, how must aspire to remain internationally different will international funding connected, not to uphold the jet-set be and how will it affect art scenes flâneurship, but to stay in touch with outside of the main international and about each other, beyond Zooming. centers? Sources of funding, of course, The art world, particularly in the last always need to be critically-ethically decades, has been super-globalized, but considered, but we also need to the international connections—a kind consider the impact of such a decrease of “internationalism after the end of of international funding opportunities globalization” or perhaps before that, on these independent initiatives. to refer to artist Tamás Kaszás’s Lost This is particularly important because Wisdom—will perhaps signify more than less international engagement and before, on a new footing. more isolation falls in line with the current nationalist Hungarian government’s agenda. The xenophobic, International We Stand was originally anti-immigrant government rhetoric published on ICI’s website on May 19, 2020. that condemns initiatives that receive international funding as foreign agents and foreign influence that violates Hungary’s sovereignty most probably will only be louder and even more fear-mongering in the coming times. The state of emergency also paved the way to the current government’s indefinite and infamous rule by decree. In several places around the world, one could witness governmental power grabs under the guise of fighting the pandemic. The ramifications of this are again yet to be seen fully, but tighter control and more disciplining are likely to be expected. Philosopher G.M. Tamás noted in an article on the Hungarian 50 E iho ana o luna E piʻi ana o lalo E hui ana nā moku E kū ana ka paia

The high will be brought low The low will be lifted up The islands will be united The walls shall stand upright1

Chant it with vigor, sing it out loud, three times then pau. Systems are “collapsing,” “spreading,” “rising.” E iho ana o luna

DKB: March 25th, 2020, a headline JT: Our long history of

- broder ‘āina kahu tengan & drew josh blasts, in ALL-CAPS, across the front disconnectedness from Western page of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Disease is what made us so Hawaiʻi’s daily newspaper and self susceptible… to death. Our people went proclaimed “Pulse of Paradise.” from just under a million to around “TOURISM MELTDOWN” 25,000, from pre-Contact 1778 to 1920. Presently, the State of Hawaiʻi has one After a century, we as a people of the highest unemployment rates represent around a quarter of the per capita in the United States of Islands’ population. Despite our America. Over one-third of the labor efforts toward recovery as a people, force has filed for unemployment. Native Hawaiians, as with other ethnic An unsurprising statistic given the minority groups, are still considered state’s overreliance on tourism, its top high-risk for severe illness and mortality industry. Tourism and Defense, the from COVID-19. This is mostly due to second largest industry, both vestiges the underlying health conditions we of World War II and U.S. Empire in continually face—tourism, militarism, Moananuiākea, the Pacific, must colonialism, and so on. But, as proven be reconsidered, especially now. In before, there is an inherent resiliency to Summer 2020, this year’s Rim of the who we are as a people. Pacific exercise, the largest international DKB: April 10th, 2020, I went down to maritime warfare training in the world Waikīkī, an epicenter for international held biennially in Hawaiʻi across land, militourism. As dusk approached, I sea, and sky, “will go on.” stood on the shoreline and flipped 51 Detail image of Félix González-Torres’ Untitled (I Think I Know Who You Are) (1989), on p. 88 of Out There: Marginalization and Contemporary Cultures (1990), with the sand of Waikīkī, Oʻahu. April 10, 2020. through a copy of Out There: HAE HŌʻAILONA IA, THE FLAG IS A Marginalization and Contemporary SIGN, which opened on January 17th, Cultures (1990), edited by Russell 2020, one hundred and twenty seven Ferguson, Martha Gever, Trinh T. Minh- years after the U.S. military-backed ha, and Cornel West. My attention was overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, fixed on a series of black-and-white was to travel to the East Hawaiʻi photographs by artist Félix González- Cultural Center in Hilo, Hawaiʻi Island, Torres. Each photograph documents in conjunction with Merrie Monarch, a single identifying word, inscribed in the most culturally significant festival recognition of Theodore Roosevelt, on in the Islands. The event celebrates the facade of the American Museum of King David Kalākaua and the cultural Natural History on the Upper West Side practice of Hula. The event attracts of Mannahatta, New York City. thousands of international visitors and AUTHOR, STATESMAN, SCHOLAR, generates millions of dollars for local HUMANITARIAN, HISTORIAN, PATRIOT, communities. Because of COVID-19, RANCHMAN, EXPLORER, NATURALIST, the event was cancelled along with SCIENTIST, SOLDIER the exhibition. Other articles, writing Haunted by this string of words, assignments, and exhibition plans, were I set the publication down and also postponed. scrawled in the sand with my hand— In terms of my career trajectory as a HUMANITARIAN—between outgoing contemporary art curator, I would still and incoming waves. Then I took a consider myself to be in an emerging photograph. Before I could finish limbo state. I, still, have not had an writing another—EXPLO—a Honolulu institutional position. My resume is Police officer was standing by my side. concise. I live and work on the margins Gesture interrupted. He informed me of the art world in a kind of self- that the beach was closed to the public isolation from the supposed art centers and that I would be given a citation if I of Los Angeles, Tokyo, Melbourne, did not leave the premises immediately. Sydney, and Auckland, which trace a JT: It’s hard to fully assess the impact Pacific-Rim. of COVID-19 on my life and practice Hawaiʻi, as you may or may not know, when things are still shifting daily. is quite literally the most physically After returning home, from visiting “isolated” place on the planet. We are the 2020 Sydney and Adelaide at least 2,400 or so miles from each of Biennales, I went immediately into a the locations previously mentioned. two-week government recommended Before June 29, 1927, when the U.S. Army self-quarantine at home in Mākiki, Honolulu. It wasn’t until weeks later landed its first successful flight from that the State finally got with the global Oakland, California to Wahiawā, Oʻahu, program to limit the spread of the virus everyone arrived in Hawaiʻi by the and “flatten the curve.” It was during Moananui. Moananuiākea. The great, this time that most of my personal wide, expansive, ocean of Wākea. projects as an independent curator and Na ka Moananuiākea e hoʻopili mai iā kākou. writer came to a halt. The Moananuiākea is what connects us all. The show I curated earlier this year DKB: April 24th, 2020, I am currently for Aupuni Space in Honolulu, HE employed by the State of Hawaiʻi to 53 teach studio art courses and direct Koa isolation, and quarantine, lived-life Gallery, a modest venue dedicated to across the archipelago is always art communities of Hawaiʻi, Oceania, precarious, right on the edge. and Asia-Pacific at large. Established April 15th, 2020, At noon I met New in 1987, Koa Gallery is nested within York-based artist Sung Hwan Kim just Kapiʻolani Community College, “a beyond the campus boundary line, near model indigenous serving institution posted signs—“CAMPUS CLOSED TO accredited by Western Association of PUBLIC, Services are being provided Schools and Colleges,” in the presence to Employees and Students only.” We of Lēʻahi, a volcanic tuff cone and hugged. Under the watchful eye of storied place, on the southern shore of campus security we transported gallery the island of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi. contents into idling cars, and drove with The rapid phase-shift from he alo a he Berlin-based Suin Kwon and New York- alo to remote learning, despite ample based David Michael DiGregorio (dogr), synchronous options, has been a over Puʻu o Kaimukī and up Wilhelmina difficult transition for students, faculty, Rise toward Mauʻumae ridge. After two staff, and administration alike—now weeks of drifting with uncertainty, factor in unemployment, proposed pay due to an ongoing stay-at-home order, cuts for state-employees (up to 20% by the inaugural artists in residence were Gov. David Ige), and widespread anxiety forced to relocate their project as over a recent global pandemic. the University of Hawaiʻi System was April 8th, 2020, “Was anyone else shutting its doors. laid off from their jobs?” A student JT: Since returning from Sydney, my enrolled in ART-189-0 [KAP.33249. M-F has been spent with helping a small SP20]: H-Introduction to Hawaiian Art, Hawaiian-owned and operated business, posed this question during an online Native Books / Nā Mea Hawaiʻi, expand class session. It is essential in Hawai’i, its presence online. as elsewhere, to hold multiple jobs The business is a pillar in the Native in order to meet basic needs and live Hawaiian community, and has been paycheck to paycheck. This student, as a source for knowledge exchange with several others, had lost their jobs for three decades. Nā Mea Hawaiʻi in the hospitality industry. is much more than a retail store, In response to these urgent situations, rather, a network of native (and non- we put our class discussion of the native) makers, writers, thinkers, international repatriation of iwi creatives, artists, and so forth, who carry a continuity of culture, through kūpuna, moepū, and mea kapu on traditional means, today. The impact of hold. Instead, we used the rest of our COVID-19 in our community has been time together that day to work on felt in critical ways, as we are used to individual applications for the local gathering and doing business face-to- Urgent Student Relief Fund and gather face. He alo a he alo. materials in advance of the first wave of the national Higher Education As the first of the month quickly Emergency Relief Fund. Neither are approached, a coalition of tenants was long term solutions, both provide a bit taking shape online. Nā Mea Hawaiʻi of respite. Beyond social distancing, is located in an urban neighborhood 54 Processing lauhala, trimming off the poʻo and wēlau, in Lāʻie, Oʻahu. April 24, 2020.

called Kakaʻako, just about halfway work with pōhaku, and walaʻau. At the between Honolulu’s central business end of the evening she usually asked district and its famed tourist center, those in attendance to pose a question Waikīkī. Here, two commercial real to themselves, a question they wanted estate developers compete over who answered. Then she would place a book can make the coolest, trendiest, in their hands, a weathered copy of most expensive, walkable boutique the Yijing (Book of Changes). “Open community. Rent is high. We are just up the book,” she would say, “hold one of more than fifty struggling small your question at the forefront of your local businesses in the area, most new consciousness and let your finger fall on to community organizing, practicing a page.” “Read it out loud,” she would collective bargaining power. Despite continue, “What was your question?” efforts by the landlord to divide and conquer its tenants, the hui has largely I woke up this morning with a question, remained together and the group “How do I embrace transformation continues to grow. more fully?” Opening the ʻŌlelo Noʻeau (Hawaiian Proverbs & Poetical Sayings), DKB: Growing up, in the summer, finger falling on a page: I would visit my Aunty Manu, an educator working in the field of Laʻi Hauola i ke kai māʻokiʻoki. indigenous epistemology, who at the Peaceful Hauola by the choppy sea. time lived in Pāpaʻikou, outside of Hilo Peace and tranquility in the face of on Hawaiʻi Island. Aunty would often disturbance. hold gatherings, to make lei pēkaʻa, 55 JT: April 24, 2020, as if it were any The traditional practice of ulana lau hala other Friday, a small intergenerational (weaving pandanus leaves) is itself a kind hui of weavers from Nā Mea Hawaiʻi of metaphor for transformation. Hala is went out to harvest leaves and care our name for the pandanus tree and it is for the trees we regularly gather from. also a word for death or passing. Climbing up aerial roots and over long If he alo a he alo is what our kūpuna spiked branches we pulled down dead know, how does knowledge get passed leaves, harvested heavy spined fruit, to future generations today? and cleared the ground below the tree of any debris. Hala trees were heavily cultivated and cared for by Hawaiians so that the trees would throw long healthy leaves. Leaves would be and continue to be cleaned, softened, and stripped into strands and woven into large moena or sleeping mats, sails for canoes, baskets, and so on.

“Make the most of every crisis.”

Across Ka Paeʻāina o Hawaiʻi, amidst a moment of heightened regulation and control, it is vital to temper mandates of the U.S. government (state and federal) with cultural practices rooted in collective care and being in relation. We take guidance from actions that flow laterally through self-organized community support networks. Hierarchy and heroics long forgotten. May we continue to gather in unanticipated ways— across public, social, personal, and intimate spaces—and work towards the repair of alternative futures already in the making.

E iho ana o luna was originally published on ICI’s website on May 6, 2020.

1E Iho Ana, a wānana attributed to kāula Kapihe, adapted from Hawaiian Antiquities (Mo’olelo Hawai’i) (1898) by David Malo.

56 The Inconvenient Feelings su wei My partner was massaging her grannie in her hometown Yantai, Shandong Province. We were there for a short time, just before the Coronavirus outbreak was ‘officially’ announced. It was pretty ‘lucky’ for us to take this trip, since we were not aware of the epidemic thus no protection at all on the way, and we had to stay home after the trip and the public traffic and transportation were about to shut down. PS: the modernist painting on the top left corner was made by my partner’s uncle in the 1980s when Chinese intellectuals and artists were eagerly opening themselves up to the world under a relatively relaxed cultural policy. The uncle is neither a successful artist nor a beneficiary of the economic growth since the 1980s. For him, it has always been a problem to find the right balance between his self-cognition and the radically changing social circumstances nation-wide.

n 21 December 2019, an exhibition that I curated was on, which was entitled “Community of Feeling: OEmotional Patterns in Art in Post- 1949 China”. The exhibition set out to investigate the role of emotion and its production played in artistic creation as well as the artistic discourse that circulated during the socialist and post-socialist periods. It never occurred to me that a virus named Covid-19 was spreading across Wuhan right then. All of us were then forced to become part of a temporary community of feeling and were consequently subject to the maneuver that state politics and lies imposed upon our everyday life. All took place in the midst of tension between the spontaneous emotions and those that were forced upon us, and that between these emotions 58 and the urge to act. As for me, I have because of the virus. I, along with been staying in my flat for 80 days tens of millions of Chinese people, straight given the semi-mandatory was enraged and expressed my anger quarantine regulations, and have cut on the internet. The event, which down on my social interactions to only can be understood as an online mass those that are absolutely necessary. movement, bears a certain resemblance I gathered information about the to the April Fifth Movement in 1976 pandemic from the Chinese SNS as well as to the commemoration of providers including Wechat and Weibo: Zhang Zhixin in 1975, a female dissident on these platforms, one finds a whole executed in prison for criticizing Mao’s spectrum of information ranging extreme leftist policies. By way of from officially endorsed information mourning Li online, people expressed issued by the state to voices of small their indignation at the initial cover- businesses (even random diners) and up of the pandemic, which led to the social institutions, and to personal doctor’s death. (I have to concede, blogs produced by innumerable self- though, that I also detected a grain of media and nameless individuals like performance in some of the mourning me. Apart from this, I have also been gestures I witnessed online.) I then reading western media and Facebook realized that by participating in the which I can access using a VPN service, mourning, I was truly living a historical though that the connection can get moment, though the history which we wobbly at times. Despite the existence were supposed to relive—the student of a handful of reporters upholding movement in 1989 which braided the spirit of independent journalism, radicalism with somewhat puerile the official media have been known for appeals—were not truly far away. Li and fabricating lies. There are, on the one all others who lost their lives to the hand, enthusiastic public mobilization cover-up, all those who died in despair and propaganda of governmental from the corruption and impotence actions combating the pandemic, the of the state, have forced me to look combination of which has been so squarely at the fact that my country adroitly used by the party throughout is still some distance from the ideal the last century, and, on the other of civilization that I have cherished. I hand, the cover-up of facts and of the also had to stay awake to the fact that truth. Indeed, even after the reform and the peaceful life to which I am entitled opening-up policy of the late 1970s, the today may simply be a figment or an party still possesses the power to parcel evanescent bubble. out every bit of truth, which forces That aside, when all the rage and every one of us discontented with sadness slowly died down, I then the reality to be a “dissident”, despite began to be plagued by a deep sense the rather intense political and less of uncertainty as if I were rambling intellectual implications of the word. In amidst a massive wasteland deep in the the eyes of a legion of nationalists, we mountains, not knowing where to go. also become the pathetic “worshippers All these emotions and feelings, though of the West”. real, seemed inconvenient to a degree, On 6 February, Dr. Li Wenliang, the as it would be difficult to fit them within whistle-blower of the pandemic, died the current system and the accepted 59 discursive field. If the demand for truth have long ceased to exist. As a result, is bound to have something to do with we have also scorned the historical the political institution, then in what continuity that can bridge all intellectual ways can I forge my own connection resources and possibilities generated to the state as an individual? I am within or outside of this framework, aware that such questions can mainstream or unorthodox. In China, sound hopelessly outdated and not the anxiety has always existed for art contemporary enough, yet I still feel the to justify and locate itself in a set of need to ask: if I have long got used to coordinates alternative to this historical an absolute individuality, and am aware framework. The elusiveness of—or the that such individuality relies much failure to capture—such an alternative more on than the contempt of on—and framework is also what makes our resistance against—the censorship that emotional reactions to the pandemic so has become increasingly stringent inconvenient, and so painfully visible in where exhibitions, writings, and all the face of the disaster. cultural activities are concerned, then, what other ground can I shore against The Inconvenient Feelings was originally my individuality? published on ICI’s website on April 20, 2020. Or, if we pursue it further, can these emotions be effectively turned into thoughts and into action? Or is it that we think too much to still remember how to act and to change? In the context of the pandemic, keen discussions on the relationship between art and reality have taken place within the art industry in China, where capital and the market predominate and suffer. Reality—along with the realist discursive framework which comes as a bundle— has always assumed a phantom-like existence in China: they epitomize a whole set of concepts, discourse and a particular way of artistic expression that has held sway since 1949 and keep haunting us art practitioners who profess to work in a globalized, de- historicized manner. We have attempted to superannuate realism with the American leftist theories, European critical thoughts as well as our own renewed self-imagination based on our piecemeal knowledge on Asia and the Global South. We are never ready to admit our reliance upon this realist framework that in our opinion should 60 and durational works for the inaugural year of pojai akratanakul ArtScience Late, 2014-2015. Vanini received Pojai Akratanakul, based in Bangkok, is an academic training in theatre arts, art history, independent curator, researcher in-practice European cultural policy and management. She and member of curatorial collective Charoen was a recipient of the Asian Cultural Council Contemporaries, with whom she curated public Fellowship in New York City in 2014. art exhibition PostScripts (2018). Until recently, Pojai managed and acquired works for The Petch Osathanugrah Collection and worked as the Project Director for the collector’s museum- drew kahuʻāina in-planning Sansab Museum of Contemporary broderick Art. Previously, she has worked on exhibitions, publications, and public programs for non- Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick is the current director profit institutions including Bangkok University of Koa Gallery at Kapiʻolani Community College Gallery, BACC, MAIIAM Contemporary Art on Oʻahu. From 2012 to 2016 he operated SPF Museum, where she assisted in producing shows Projects, an artist-run initiative dedicated to such as Mon Art du Style (2017); Operation building capacity for the production, display, Bangkok (2014) with Roslisham Ismail; Concept and review of contemporary art in Honolulu. He Context Contestation: art and the collectives was a contributing member of Hawaiʻi-based in SEA (2013). She was a guest lecturer at King collective PARADISE COVE (2015-2018) and co- Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang founded CONTACT, an annual thematic group and Chulalongkorn University. Pojai holds an MA exhibition, in 2013. Recent and forthcoming in Visual Arts Administration with Non- profit projects include the inaugural Honolulu Biennial Management and Curatorial concentration 2017: Middle of Now | Here, curated by Fumio from New York University, and a BFA in Visual Nanjo and Ngahiraka Mason; Transits and Returns Arts from Chulalongkorn University. Between (2019) co-developed by Sarah Biscarra Dilley, Freja 2014-2016, Pojai lived in New York and interned Carmichael, Léuli Lunaʻi Eshraghi, Tarah Hogue, at ICI, the SculptureCenter, and the Solomon R. Lana Lopesi for the Vancouver Art Gallery; and Guggenheim Museum. Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument (2020), a speculative group endeavor presenting unrealized interventionist proposals. Drew holds an MA from the Center for vanini belarmino Curatorial Studies at Bard College, New York and Vanini Belarmino joined the National Gallery a BA in Biology and Studio Art from Wesleyan Singapore as Assistant Director (Programmes) in University, Connecticut. November 2016. Her curatorial interest focuses on the productive potential of encounters by identifying and facilitating collaborations catherine ceniza between artists across genres. The resulting works create new experiences by situating choy the body as an object in a museum or public Catherine Ceniza Choy is a Professor of Ethnic space. Prior to the Gallery, she worked as an Studies and an Associate Dean of Undergraduate independent curator, producer and writer, and Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. developed art initiatives in Asia, Europe and the She is the author of the award-winning book, Middle East. From 2011 2013, she curated the Empire of Care: Nursing and Migration in Filipino artistic programmes for ArtScience Museum American History (2003), which explored how at Marina Bay Sands’ blockbuster exhibitions and why the Philippines became the leading and was commissioned to curate site-specific exporter of professional nurses to the United 61 States. Her second book, Global Families: unnameable spaces. PJ is co-founder of Pilipinx A History of Asian International Adoption in American Library (PAL), an itinerant collection America (2013), was published by NYU Press. She and programming platform dedicated exclusively is the co-editor of the Brill book series Gendering to diasporic Filipinx perspectives. He serves the Trans-Pacific World. She received her Ph.D. on Southern Exposure’s Curatorial Council in History from UCLA and her B.A. in History and SOMA Pilipinas Cultural District’s Arts and from Pomona College. The daughter of Filipino Culture Committee. immigrants, Catherine was born and raised in New York City and is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School. She lives in Berkeley with her husband and their two children. luis carlos manjarrés martínez Luis Carlos Manjarrés Martínez is currently pj gubatina the curator at the Queer Museum and Maloka Interactive Center in Bogotá, Colombia. In policarpio 2018 he was part of the curatorial team of the exhibition of Voices to Transform Colombia. PJ Gubatina Policarpio is an educator, curator, This exhibition aimed to address the enormous programmer, writer, and community organizer. challenge of recounting the Colombian armed He is the Manager of Youth Development at the conflict, starting from the perspective of its Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (de Young victims; Voices is for the long-run script of the Museum / Legion of Honor) where he designs Museum of Historical Memory of Colombia and implements dynamic and relevant youth on the armed conflict and peace. In the last programming, especially addressing a diverse, five years, he has curated four art exhibitions multilingual, and multicultural audience. PJ’s on sexuality, sex, sexual diversity and gender thought leadership in museum education, expression with the MuseoQ, a museological youth development, and arts administration has initiative to make visible that makes visualized advanced institutions such as The Contemporary stories and memories related to identity and Jewish Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Queens gender expression as well as the non-hegemonic Museum, and The Museum of Modern Art. sexualities and orientations, as an essential He has presented at conferences nationally part of the national story. In addition to this, including the American Alliance of Museums he participated in 2015 in the creation of the (New Orleans, Washington DC), College Art Thinking Center for the Arts and the Social Association (Los Angeles), and National Art Agreement of the Faculty of Arts of the National Education Association (New York City). He has University of Colombia and served as the public delivered keynotes, lectures, and participated coordinator of the Ephemeral Museum of in panel discussions at California College of Oblivion in the National Salon of Artists of 2015. the Arts, Maryland Institute College of Art, University of California at Berkeley, New York Art Martinez has a MA in Museology and Heritage Book Fair, Cooper Hewitt, Berkeley Art Museum Management from the National University of and Pacific Film Archive, Parsons School of Colombia and is also specialized in International Design, University of Illinois at Chicago, School Cultural Management and Cooperation from of the Art Institute of Chicago, Haystack the University of Barcelona. Martinez is also a Mountain School of Crafts and more. He has graduate in Management Museums from TyPA organized readings, exhibitions, publications, Laboratory and journalism from Pontificia and public programming at Southern Exposure, Javeriana University and has eight years of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Asian Art experience in the management of pedagogical, Museum, Dixon Place, NURTUREart, and other communicative, advertising, and museological. 62 Modern Art (2014), Brisbane. Recent curatorial tess maunder workshops, training, and conferences that she Tess Maunder is a curator, author, and publishing has participated in include Para Site’s workshop executive. Based in Melbourne, Australia; for young professionals (2016) in Hong Kong, Maunder has championed projects, relationships, The Australia India Youth Dialogue (2016) in and strategic plans between Australia and the New Delhi, Bangalore and Mohali, 4a Centre for US, China, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Contemporary Asian Art’s Curators Intensive Indonesia, and the Philippines. She is invested in (2014) Sydney, the 5th Gwangju Biennale bridging intellectual differences; highlighting the International Curator Course with Maria beauty of multiplicity and holding the industry Lind (2013) in Gwangju and the Independent accountable for producing quality work. She Curators International (ICI) Curatorial Intensive: currently works as Executive Manager for Art Ink What Does It Mean To Be International? held Publishing and Vault art and culture magazine; at Mori Art Museum (2013) in Tokyo. Prior to where she is spearheading a new imprint for joining the Shanghai Biennale Curatorial team, delivery in late 2020. Maunder believes that the Maunder worked in a programming capacity at curatorial cannot ignore the financial liquidity the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. In 2017, that supports it, and she argues for greater Maunder undertook curatorial research during a economic transparency in curatorial ventures. funded residency at the International Studio and She is also a believer that ‘the curatorial’ is Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York. an attitude, a political position, and personal rhetoric. The curatorial is not defined by form; i.e. exhibitions, but rather should be approached fadzai veronica as a greater philosophical scope on life; where artists are integrated into a wide spectrum of muchemwa activity. Prior to her current publishing role; Fadzai Veronica Muchemwa is a Harare she held a range of institutional and guest based researcher, writer and curator. She invitational positions. In 2016-2017 she worked is currently the Curator for Education and as a Curatorial Collegiate for the 11th Shanghai Public Programming at the National Gallery Biennale curatorial team, led by Chief Curators: of Zimbabwe. Fadzai is interested in gender Raqs Media Collective. The biennale is called and sexuality in visual art, conceptual art, Why Not Ask Again? ran from 11 November performativity and the history of African art. 2016 – 12 March 2017 at the Power Station Fadzai is also interested in how the diaspora of Art in Shanghai, China. In 2016, Maunder and the global North have influenced trends in was awarded the prestigious MPavilion / Art Africa. She has worked on Basket Case II, and Monthly Australasia Writing Award, where she the Zimbabwe Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia will be presenting and publishing writing about in 2015 and 2017. She has co curated Culture Australian Indigenous artist Archie Moore. She in Communities, and Jazzified: Expressions of is a founding Co-Director of the trans-national Protest with Lilian Chaonwa, and Dis(colour) editorial initiative: Approximating, between ed Margins with Tandazani Dhlakama. She is New Delhi, Yogyakarta, Manila and Brisbane. currently working on Moulding a Nation at the Her recent independent curatorial projects National Gallery of Zimbabwe and The Unseen: include the Curator of Anywhere Elsewhere Creatures of Myth and Legend on show at the at Jan Murphy Gallery, (2015) Brisbane, Co- Lusaka National Museum in July 2018. Fadzai Curator of the exhibition: Herding Islands attended the ICI curatorial intensive in Dakar session: Intervention, Reaction and Violence, in June 2016. She also attended the British conceived by Renan Laru-an at the University of Museum’s International Training Programme the Philippines, (2015) Manila, and the Curator in 2017 and was based in the Department of of the Subtropic Complex at the Institute of Africa, Oceania and the Americas and her partner 63 placement was spent at Glasgow Museums. In and artist pursuing an interest in Ugandan art December 2017 Fadzai returned to the British history in relation to contemporary practice. Museum to attend the ITP+ Course, Photography He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial & Documentation. She is part of the Arts and and Fine Arts from Makerere University. He Culture: Writers in Africa Network (ACWA). received curatorial training and scholarship from the New York Independent Curators International in Addis Ababa- Ethiopia and lydia y. nichols completed a curatorial training program at the Lydia Y. Nichols is a native New Orleanian cultural School for Curatorial Studies Venice by A Plus critic and arts administrator. Her work centers Gallery-Venice Italy during the 2019 58th Venice the lived experiences of Africans in the Diaspora biennial to pave way for processes of organizing and prioritizes community accessibility. Lydia’s a Ugandan pavilion at Venice biennial. essays have appeared in Pelican Bomb, Liberator He is a national award-winning artist and Magazine, Gathering of the Tribes Magazine, and art judge of Youth Alive Uganda, a member The Killens Review. As co-curator of street art of UVADA, IRC-American embassy, ICI-New exhibition and Prospect P.3+ site ExhibitBE, Lydia York, 32° East | Ugandan Arts Trust and researched and documented the history of the Bayimba foundation. He is a co-curator of blighted apartment complex in which the work was the “Know Go Zone”, “Dance in the City”, created to guide the curatorial process, managed “KLAART014” and a curator of the “DADs” community programming and daily operations, and “Climate Change” exhibitions with and, after the exhibition closed, coordinated the Embassy of Sweden, JAMAFEST visual arts #PaintWhereItAint Tour through which several pavilion with UVADA, “Know Way Out” with ExhibitBE artists traveled across the southwest Belgian embassy, “Art Creates Water”, “Hope United States to collaborate with artists in other Art exhibition”, a retrospective of “25 years of cities on community-centered public art projects. Bruno Sserunkuuma’s Ceramic Philosophy” Since, Lydia has created “In/Between Spaces” - a and “Anecdotes of Origin” at the A Plus gallery mobile group exhibition series in a 26’ U-Haul featuring 5 renowned European artists in that explores Black identity in various spheres a group of 20 curators from; Africa, Asia, of modern life and that travels to predominantly Australia, Europe, south and North America. Black neighborhoods in New Orleans to engage Balimunsi has shared prestigious panel those who have been alienated from the world of discussions with leading curators and art contemporary fine art. Lydia continues to manage historians including; Zoe Whitely, a 2019 British production for artist Brandan “Bmike” Odums, pavilion curator, Fiona Siegenthaler, Kizito including his first solo exhibition “Ephemeral Maria Kasule, the dean of Margaret Trowell Eternal” at Studio Be and, in collaboration with School of art and many more. He’s previously Welcome Table New Orleans, the Algiers Oral published articles with Start Journal, JAMAFEST History and Public Art Intensive through which 24 magazine, and contemporary And. high school youth are creating a freestanding mural based on interviews they conduct with elders on the evolution of race relations. lorenzo sandoval Sandoval works as an artist and curator. He balimunsi philip holds a B.F.A and a Masters in Photography, Born of Kabuye Benedict family, Balimunsi Art and Technology from UPV (Valencia, Philip is currently the curator of Uganda Spain). He received curatorial prizes such as National Cultural Centre and the Uganda Inéditos 2011, Can Felipa curatorial prize and National gallery or Nommo gallery who for over Nogueras Blanchard 2012. He won the art seven years worked as an independent curator prize ‘Generación 2017’ presented in La Casa 64 Encendida (Madrid) and ‘V Beca DKV- Álvarez group member of the ...OPEN MUSEUM...project Margaride’ for ‘Shadow Writing (Algorithm initiated by the Museum of Ethnography, /Quipu)’ at LABoral, Gijón, 2017. He was Budapest (2014–2018). She is co-editor with nominated for the ‘Berlin Art Prize 2018’ Naeem Mohaiemen of the forthcoming and ‘Premio Arte Contemporáneo Cervezas anthology Solidarity Must Be Defended (tranzit. Alhambra 2020’. He presented ‘Shadow Writing hu – Van Abbemuseum – SALT – Tricontinental (Lace/Variations)’ in Lehman + Silva Gallery in – Asia Culture Center, 2020). She is a curatorial Porto and Nottingham Contemporary. He was team member of the civil initiative OFF- part of ‘Canine Wisdom for the Barking Dog. Biennale Budapest. Her practice revolves Exploring the sonic cosmologies of Halim El around questions of internationalism, methods Dabh’ curated by Bonaventure Soh Bejeng of cultural resistance, relations between Eastern Ndikung, Kamila Metwaly and Marie Helénè Europe and the Global South, as well as the Pereira for Dak’art Biennale 2018. He was artist exhibition form of research. in residency with Bisagra in Lima, with an exhibition at Amano Museum. He was part of the Miracle Workers Collective representing josh tengan Finland in the Venice Biennale 2019. He Josh Tengan is a Honolulu-based contemporary presented ‘Shadow Writing (Fábrica Colectiva)’ art curator. He was the assistant curator of the at IVAM Alcoi, a research on the collectivization second Honolulu Biennial 2019, To Make Wrong of factories related to sound. He was part of / Right / Now. Since 2015, he has worked with ‘Part of the Labyrinth’, Göteborg International Native Hawaiian and Hawaiʻi-based artists and Biennial for Contemporary Art 2019, curated by cultural practitioners, through the arts non- Lisa Rosenthal. Together with Tono Vízcaino, profit Puʻuhonua Society, to deliver Hawaiʻi’s he’s preparing ‘Industria. A partial study about largest annual thematic contemporary art sound and immaterial practices in the industrial exhibition, CONTACT, which offers a critical and heritage of Comunidad Valenciana’ for IVAM. comprehensive survey of local contemporary Since 2015, he runs The Institute for Endotic visual culture. In 2019, he curated CONTACT, Research, which opened as a venue in 2018, in Acts of Faith, presented at the Hawaiian collaboration with Benjamin Busch. Mission Houses Historic Site and Archive, which http://lorenzosandoval.net explored the role of religion in the colonization of Hawaiʻi through artistic interventions in the historic collections and an artist book library. He holds a Curatorial Studies M.A. with eszter szakács Distinction from Newcastle University (UK) and Eszter Szakács is a curator, editor, and a B.A. in Fine Art from Westmont College researcher in Budapest. She works at the contemporary art organization tranzit. hu, where she is co-editor of the online su wei international art magazine Mezosfera, co- Su Wei (born in Beijing, 1982) is an art writer editor of the book IMAGINATION/IDEA: The and curator based in Beijing. After conducting Beginning of Hungarian Conceptual Art—The his Ph.D research in Berlin between 2008 László Beke Collection, 1971 (Budapest, Zurich: and 2010, he received his Ph.D at Institute tranzit.hu, JRP|Ringier, 2014), and she curated for Foreign Literature, Chinese Academy for the collaborative research project Curatorial Social Sciences (CASS). His recent work focuses Dictionary, which has been realized in online on re-depicting and deepening the history of and offline formats, including being one of Chinese contemporary art, exploring the roots the participating projects of ICI’s exhibition of its legitimacy and rupture. He participated Publishing Against the Grain. She was a research in the 2012 Curatorial Intensive at Independent 65 Curators International (ICI) in New York. In 2014, he was awarded first place at the first International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC). He was the Senior Curator of Inside-Out Museum Beijing between 2017 and 2019. In 2012, Su Wei co-curated the 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale Accidental Message: Art is Not a System, Not a World, OCT Contemporary Art Terminal (OCAT), Shenzhen. In 2013, he curated I’m not involved in Aesthetic Progress: a Rethinking of Performance at Star Gallery This program is supported, in part, by public Beijing. In 2014, he curated Keep the Modern funds from the New York City Department Going: Immersion, Expectation and Idealism, of Cultural Affairs in partnership with City at OCAT, Shenzhen. In 2015, he participated Council, and the New York State Council on the in the symposium Dislocations: Remapping Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Art Histories at Tate Modern, London. In May Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. of 2016, he curated No References. A Revisit of Hong Kong Media and Video Art from 1985 at Videotage, Hong Kong. In November of 2017, he co-curated Permanent Abstraction: Epiphanies of Editor: Monica Terrero a Modern Form in Escaped Totalities at Red Brick Designer: Lara Atallah Museum Beijing. In 2018, he co-curated Crescent: Copy Editor: Yínká Elújoba Retrospectives of Zhao Wenliang and Yang Yushu and The Lonely Spirit at Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum. In 2019, he curated Community of Feeling: Emotional Patterns in Art in Post-1949 China at Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum. He has published a number of articles in local and international art journals including YISHU: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, Journal of Contemporary Art (Bristol, UK) and Kunstforum. His publications include Little Movements. Self-Practice in Contemporary Art (with others), Guangxi Normal University Publishing House, 2011; Individual Experience: Conversations and Narratives of Chinese Contemporary Art from 1989-2013 (with others), Ling Nan Art Publishing House, 2013; Hans Belting, Art History after Modernism, translated from German to Chinese by Su Wei, with additional annotations by Su Wei and others, Beepub Publishing House, 2014; Crescent: Retrospectives of Zhao Wenliang and Yang Yushu, Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum, 2018; The Lonely Spirit, Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum, 2019, etc. 66