SEPTEMBER/OCTO B E R 2 0 1 2 V O LUME 11, NUMBER 5 INSI DE Special Issue: Institution for the Future US$12.00 NT$350.00 PRINTED IN TAI WAN 6 VOLUME 11, NUMBER 5, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2012 CONTENTS Editor’s Note 25 Contributors 6 Artists and Institutions: Institution for the Future Biljana Ciric 25 Curatorial Circulations in Southeast Asia Patrick D. Flores 33 Calling for a Process of De-alternativeness: 33 On Artist Initiatives in China Nikita Yingqian Cai 43 What's Next? A Conversation between Biljana Ciric and Carol Yinghua Lu 50 Future Intuitions Richard Streitmatter-Tran 61 Institutions of the Future: Singapore Eugene Tan 61 71 Rumah YKP: Art in the Margins of Society Nur Hanim Khairuddin 81 A Cartography of the “Other”: Social History and the Production of Spaces of the “Other” in Modern and Contemporary Art in Thailand Narawan Pathomvat 93 The Self-Invested Nation Sanjay Ghosh 71 108 Chinese Name Index Cover: He An, Wind Light as a Thief, 2011, installation view. 81 Photo: Wang Wei. Courtesy of Arrow Factory, Beijing. We thank JNBY Art Projects, Canadian Foundation of Asian Art, Mr. and Mrs. Eric Li, and Stephanie Holmquist and Mark Allison for their generous contribution to the publication and distribution of Yishu. Vol. 11 No. 5 1 Editor’s Note YISHU: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art Katy Hsiu-chih Chien Infoshare Tech Law Office, Mann C.C. Liu Yishu 52, guest-edited by Shanghai-based Ken Lum curator Biljana Ciric, builds upon issues raised -- Keith Wallace in the exhibition Institution for the Future, which Zheng Shengtian Julie Grundvig she organized for the Chinese Arts Centre Kate Steinmann in Manchester, UK, during the Asia Triennial Chunyee Li Larisa Broyde Manchester 2011. This exhibition explored new Michelle Hsieh ways artists in Asia are contributing to the Chunyee Li development of an art infrastructure within their respective communities. Judy Andrews, Ohio State University Melissa Chiu, Asia Society Museum John Clark, University of Sydney The texts inYishu 52 examine artist-initiated Lynne Cooke, Museo Reina Sofia Okwui Enwezor, Critic & Curator spaces, projects, and collectives in China, Britta Erickson, Independent Scholar & Curator Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Fan Di’an, National Art Museum of China Singapore, and India. Through these examples Fei Dawei, Independent Critic & Curator Gao Minglu, University of Pittsburgh we learn about different histories, cultural Hou Hanru, San Francisco Art Institute contexts, existing art infrastructures, and how Hu Fang, Vitamin Creative Space and the shop Katie Hill, University of Westminster artists are creating innovative institutional models Claire Hsu, Asia Art Archive within them. While we were unable to include Martina Köppel-Yang, Independent Critic & Historian Sebastian Lopez, Critic and Curator every country within this region of Asia, the ones Lu Jie, Independent Curator we selected have, for the most part, lesser-known Charles Merewether, Director, ICA Singapore Ni Tsaichin, Tunghai University histories within the broader international realm, Apinan Poshyananda, Ministry of Culture, Thailand and it is our aim that these texts will contribute to Philip Tinari, Independent Critic & Curator Chia Chi Jason Wang, Independent Critic & Curator an increased understanding of the past, present, Wu Hung, University of Chicago and future of artist initiatives within Asia and to Pauline J. Yao, Independent Scholar provide a forum for these various nations to see Art & Collection Group Ltd. themselves in relationship to each other. 6F. No. 85, Section 1, Chungshan N. Road, Taipei, Taiwan 104 Together, these texts look at opportunities Phone: (886)2.2560.2220 Fax: (886)2.2542.0631 that exist for artists within their particular art E-mail: [email protected] infrastructures where museums, galleries, foundations, as well as collectors, curators, Jenny Liu Alex Kao critics, and audiences play a fundamental role. In Joyce Lin most of Asia, these systems tend to be different Perry Hsu Betty Hsieh from those in the West; their recent art histories have frequently been altered by destabilizing Chi Wei Colour Printing Ltd. social, economic, or political interventions. http://yishu-online.com Institution for the Future proposes that in many Design Format 1683 - 3082 ways artistic practice has been taken out of the hands of artists, who, in order to become Yishu is published bi-monthly in Taipei, Taiwan, and edited in Vancouver, Canada. The publishing dates are January, successful, too often are compelled to adhere March, May, July, September, and November. All subscription, to the protocols and rules of what has evolved advertising, and submission inquiries may be sent to: into a huge, largely market-driven or politicized Yishu Editorial Office art industry, and presents the ways some are 200–1311 Howe Street Vancouver, BC, Canada strategizing to regain control of their destinies. V6Z 2P3 Phone: 1.604.649.8187 Fax: 1.604.591.6392 We thank Biljana Ciric for proposing this idea to E-mail: offi[email protected] Yishu and also to all the contributors who have brought valuable insights into artist initiatives 1 year (6 issues): $84 USD (includes airmail postage) within these regions of Asia. 2 years (12 issues): $158 USD (includes airmail postage) 1 Year PDF Download (6 issues): $49.95 USD (http://yishu-online.com) Leap Creative Group Keith Wallace Raymond Mah Gavin Chow Philip Wong No part of this journal may be reprinted without the written Erratum: The caption on page 12 of Yishu 51 should read permission from the publisher. The views expressed in Yishu are March Meeting speaker Dr. Youssef Aidabi, not March not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. Meeting speaker Salah Hassan. Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 200251 2 4 (Larisa Broyde) 6 Biljana Ciric (Chunyee Li) 25 (Philip Tinari) (Judy Andrews) Patrick D. Flores (Britta Erickson) 33 (Melissa Chiu) (Sebastian Lopez) (Claire Hsu) (John Clark) 43 (Pauline J. Yao) (Martina Köppel-Yang) 50 Richard Streitmatter-Tran Lynne Cooke Okwui Enwezor Katie Hill 61 Charles Merewether Apinan Poshyananda 71 81 “ 856 : (886) 2.2560.2220 (886) 2.2542.0631 [email protected] Yishu Office 93 200-1311 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2P3, Canada Sanjay Ghosh : (1) 604.649.8187 (1) 604.591.6392 : offi[email protected] 108 Leap Creative Group, Vancouver 6 http://yishu-online.com Design Format Contributors Nikita Yingqian Cai currently lives in Shanghai Contemporary Culture (2009). Her Guangzhou and is Curator at the Guangdong recent projects include Contemporaneity: Times Museum. She has curated and edited Contemporary Art of Indonesia, presented publications for A Museum That is Not at Shanghai MoCA (2010), and Body as a (2011) and Jiang Zhi: If This is a Man (2012, Museum, at Tensta Konsthall, Stockholm co-curated with Bao Dong) and organized (2010). In 2011, Ciric initiated a year-long No Ground Underneath: Curating on the exhibition titled Taking the Stage Over, Nexus of Changes (2012, co-curated with which investigates the performative aspects Carol Yinghua Lu). She was one of the of art, presenting works by artists such as founders of Ping Pong Space (2008–10), in Bestue Vives, Tino Sehgal, and Antti Laitinen. Guangzhou, which functioned as a platform She is also the co-curator of Asia Triennial of activities and artistic production for Manchester 2011. She is a regular contributor local artists. She is also a critic and writes to several Chinese and international art frequently for various catalogues and publications, including Broadsheet, Yishu, publications. Her major focuses are context- Flash Art, and Independent Critic. responsive curating, educational curating, exhibition studies, and institutional critique. Patrick D. Flores is Professor of Art Studies She graduated from the Journalism School at the University of the Philippines and of Fudan University and was a participant Curator of the Vargas Museum in Manila. of the de Appel Curatorial Programme, He is Adjunct Curator at the National Amsterdam, 2009–10. Art Gallery, Singapore. He was one of the curators of the Gwangju Biennale (Position Biljana Ciric has an M.A. from East China Papers) in 2008. He was a visiting fellow at Normal University, Shanghai. She was the National Gallery of Art in Washington, Director of the Shanghai Duolun Museum of D.C., in 1999. Among his publications are Modern Art Curatorial Department and Net- Painting History: Revisions in Philippine Working Curator (China) for the Singapore Colonial Art (1999) and Past Peripheral: Biennale 2006. Her ongoing Migration Curation in Southeast Asia (2008). He was Addicts project was presented at the Venice a member of the Advisory Board of the Biennale 2007 Collateral Events and the exhibition The Global Contemporary: Shenzhen/Hong Kong Bi-city Biennale of Art Worlds After 1989 (2011) and of the Urbanism and Architecture. Ciric was the Guggenheim Museum’s Asian Art Council curator of the public art project intrude 366 (2011). He co-edited with Joan Kee the (2008) and History in the Making: Shanghai special issue Contemporaneity and Art in 1979–2009, 30 Years Retrospective of Southeast Asia, for Third Text (2011). 4 Vol. 11 No. 5 Sanjay Ghosh is a communication Bangkok. She is a lecturer at the Department consultant with a research interest in of Art History, Faculty of Archaeology, contemporary Indian art and early Silpakorn University. Pathomvat is also an twentieth-century religious prints. He holds independent curator, writer, and translator. a B.F.A. from the College of Art, Delhi (1993–97), and an M.A. from the School Eugene Tan is a Singapore-based critic and of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru curator. His previous appointments include University (2010–12). Beyond critical Director of Exhibitions, Osage Gallery writing, he divides his time between graphic (Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Shanghai), novels and painting. Programme Director for Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art (Singapore), and Nur Hanim Khairuddin is an artist, curator, Director of the Institute of Contemporary and writer on arts and culture.