Updated title and synopsis

On July 6 & 7, there will be a conference related to the GZT in Hong Kong. Tobias and me will do a brief introduction of our project. We have updated the title as Organizing Mutation. Below is the synopsis. Comments are welcome.

How do we think about (self) organization and what does it mean in today’s art world in Asia? Trying to analyze this question, we planned a three day workshop in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, to bring together twelve art-workers from different Asian countries to discuss the idea of organization. In the course of this workshop we try to find a way to come up with a common presentation at the exhibition of the Guangzhou Triennial. In line with an experimental spirit, we realize however that a workshop or seminar can never be over-planned and should not anticipate a predictable outcome. Instead of conventional conference structure and agenda, we try to focus on its space and time, in form of a journey across cities in the Pearl River Delta, which constitutes the ground work of a mobile organization of intense communication. We have however assured that the participants all are concerned with the idea of (art) organizations in some way or the other in their daily professions, be it as artists, curators or critics. In general we presume that organizations are mostly self-motivated and result of a personal interest and history imbedded in bigger local and global circumstances.

An Artist

An artist

Being an artist can be a simple thing. If you are the sort of Vincent Van Gogh, it can be simple. No more Vincent nowadays. Maybe there are some but not me obviously. I get my works showing, then, there are many of the third parties involved. There are relationships between my works and the audience, me and the art space/ organization, etc. When I was a student, I thought that being an artist is the freest life I can have. Today I still believe in it. It is free but not free absolutely. In Hong Kong, artists are free from the market. But whatever I do, I just cannot get rid of the rules of art. I just cannot explain what the rule is as breaking the rule is already a rule to me.
Let’s forget about the metaphysical things. Recently I am preparing a show in an art gallery. I feel too tired already when preparing the draft idea, budget plan, installation draft, etc. I cannot meet the deadline of sending the images. I am so guilty about this experience, I feel like I am meeting the deadline of being an astist.

a letter to artist participating 3rd Guangzhou Triennial from the Curators

Dear Artist,

A matter of some urgency concerns the Chinese visa application. Due to security measures during the period of the Olympics, which falls unfortunately on the Triennial's installation/manufacturing period, visas are closely scrutinised and take a much longer approval period. Please apply for your Chinese Visa as soon as possible, especially if you wish to apply for multiple entries.

As we are compiling all articles and materials for the Triennial's catalogue, we would appreciate if you could send in materials to your corresponding RC. Details as follows:

The catalogue format is 28cm by 25 cm, each artist has 4 pages on average. Each artist’s personal narration (of their Triennial projects) should be less than 500 words, with focus on the project. You should include photos (with/without sketches and plans) of this project. You should also send in an abbreviated bio of no more than 100 words, and a CV of exhibitions with a maximum of 10 entries (this includes solo shows and group exhibitions). We have already received some files for the catalogue, however, if changes need to be made, replacements should be sent before July 1st. We will leave the editing of information on artists to the corresponding RC, so please send all information to the RC for consolidation and editing.

Curators are now consolidating all the proposals, and are still in the process of planning the exhibition space. We cannot identify the space for your work at the moment, but hope to let you have more information by mid July. To help us in the process, please let us have as much information about your work/concept as possible.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Thanking you for your support, and looking forward to working with you,

With best regards,

Curators 

Gao Shimning

Sarat Maharaj

Chang Tsong-zung

 

The Guangzhou Triennial 2008

 

 

Weng's suggestions

Posted for Lee Weng Choy:

As for the format and content. I suggest that a first meeting should involve introductions, obviously, but then I think we can workshop together to see how as a group we can collectively set agendas. That to me seems to be the starting point for the whole exercise -- can you get a handful of people to sit together and come up with an agenda? Then that will determine the other meetings.

The agendas could include choosing topics to discuss; time per topic; number of presenters per topic; dividing the main group into sub-groups, etc.

The first objective of our various meetings is to think about how we as a group can work together, and to establish a process of working together. And only then should we focus on what exactly to do for the show in Sept. I wouldn't worry so much about the end result of the process, but the method of the process. At least at this stage.

What to do in those a few days?

Ok, everybody will arrive Hong Kong by July 10th afternoon. The first meeting will be in the same evening. Next day(July 11th) by noon we'll depart for Shenzhen (about 1.5 hour) where we'll do the second meeting and spend the night there. The third day we'll depart for Guangzhou (also 1-1.5 hour) to do the third meeting in the museum. We'll also have the site visit for the triennial. We'll spend the night in Guangzhou and return to Hong Kong next day(July 13th) by 6pm. Overseas participants leave Hong Kong in the same evening or next morning.

Nothing has been fixed for the agenda of the meeting(workshop) and we need your suggestions. But I guess, we would try to get informed with each other's ideas and proposals for the triennial in the first day by doing some casual presentations. Then the second meeting will be the follow-up with these presented ideas. Hopefully on the third day, we can generate something together for the triennial. Of course, I expect more dialogues will take place between these meetings over the drinks and meals. Since some of you may not come to GZ in Sept for the setup and opening, we can also talk about the logistics for this issue too.

I'm sure we'll have some diversity among our ideas on art institution and organization. For sure it'd be helpful for the meeting if we can identify our differences and generate more common interests to focus.

More....

Book: Building (or Quarrels are a Way of Saying I Love You)

The institutions with which I have the longest, most intense and most complex relationships revolve around the book and the building.

The book was an authority figure for me since young. From the earliest times, I was quite contented splitting it in two: the instructional type (e.g., textbooks, non-fiction) and the literary kind (e.g., storybooks, theoretical texts). The former was imposed by the main thrust of the science-oriented educational system, from which I benefited much and which I consciously need to unlearn. The latter, which required imagination and analysis, especially when embodied in ‘minor’ school subjects like literature and history, was much hated primarily because immensely feared by me. The lack of a reading culture at home (my parents were both hawkers) supported this forced (false) divide. On days when I deeply hated my incompetence in relaying messages and stories between my parents who had stopped talking to each other, my solace was in ploughing through piles of school textbooks, assessment books and study guides. Rote-learning was both an escape and a trap.

The building, on the other hand, was authoritative in another way – visually imposing yet unobtrusive, in fact, awesomely beautiful yet quietly confident. Far more easily grasped, objectified and represented, buildings were a subject of visual fascination. My earliest pastimes ranged from staring at construction sites, imagining and sketching the unseen foundations and basement levels, and creating hybrid buildings (thanks to science lessons on hybrid plants) on paper. This interest in the invisible, the impure and the inconsequential continues today, in my research on the ‘useless’ in architecture, particularly buildings that are unbuilt, unbuildable or no longer in use. Not having being trained in architecture is perhaps a misfortune and a blessing. I determine my time and space for engaging with it.

Victor Hugo once claimed, “This Will Kill That”, valorizing (“This”) book as a far more important and permanent record of (“That”) building than its physical, fragile realizations. It is the niches where one discipline wrestles, collides, connects with another (in my case, among the fields of writing and drawing, literature and publishing, art and architecture, urban planning and home-making) that I am particularly drawn to.

Perhaps I am restaging for my own visual pleasure, albeit in rather different forms, the tension-filled conflicts that I have failed to mediate or resolve between my parents. Hopefully, even if only temporarily or conceptually, the apparent distances between my parents, between my mum and me, between one kind of book and another, between books and buildings - start to vanish.

Michael Lee Hong Hwee
17 Jun 2008

A school

Posted for Doris Wong:

As long as I tried to talk about my personal relationship with organizations, I am confused with which kind of organizations should be talked about. I wanted to talk about something that is related to my values. In recent years the most difficult struggle to me is the teaching experience I had last year. Teaching in a high school to me is like speaking with other people's voices. Some voices from the education department, the parents, the principal, the pupils but not your own. I still remember my colleague asked me to talk about "The Last Supper" but not mentioning anything about religion. How can one learn about Western Art history without knowledge of Christianity? Because of the different Gods of the international pupils, the art history is written in a new way. I must say that I found myself not suitable to be a teacher because of all these sorts of occasions. I quitted my job because I don’t understand why the school rules stated that girls can have long hair but boys cannot. Do you guys remember that there are teachers’ comments on the exam reports? When I was the class teacher last year, I got a word file of 120 sample comments. When you comment on a pupil, you can choose from those 120 samples. I felt myself writing “Arcades Project” when finishing the reports.

observations on institutions

Christine Clark, Building a New Arts Infrastructure: Non-State Foundations in Asia

Tobias Berger, Mature Museums

Hello

Greetings from Tokyo. An introductory post to check in.
Will post at length soon.
roger

Let's start to build it.

As the theme is on art institution and organization (in very broad sense), we suppose each participant contribute something about it (be a new project, essay or previous ones with such a focus). Curators/writers probably can contribute a lot of cultural/ historical references and help to disseminate the whole project. From the very beginning, we intended to take a rather open approach, hoping for more creative but not old fashioned academic modes. So I confess it may be still confusing....

Now Tobias and I will take part in a conference organized by the GZ Triennial in Hong Kong on July 6 & 7. We're going to present our project in progress. It's indeed helpful for us to clarify what we're going to do in our workshop. But we need your guy's help first. So, I think we should start with something practical and substantial. I'd like to collect 4 or 5 images of each one's new ideas or old projects somehow related to the theme. Of course, please also feed us some texts about your thoughts and works. (Tobias, please feel free to amend....)

Opening date & etc.

The opening of the triennial is on Sept 6. As I don't know how much time we need to spend to set up the exhibits (we have to work this out together), I just put three days before that by common sense (it's only some info to be put in the letter for visa application. As we try to work together, I think it's ok if some participants couldn't attend the opening or come a little earlier to install the show. Later we shall have a better picture how to organize this when we know what to put up there.

For the workshop, nothing has been changed: still one day in Hong Kong, one in Shenzhen and one in Guangzhou. Also as a collaboration, we expect contributions from each member to shape its format and content. For sure, in Shenzhen we'll all stay in a private hotel of a huge factory with an interesting conference factory with an interesting conference facility/wine cellar and artificial lake, which is fully sponsored by the factory. In Guangzhou, of course we will be in the museum where the triennial is held whereas the Hong Kong part is pretty open still.

Participant list updated

Michael Lee Hong-Hwee, artist/curator (Hong Kong/Singapore) 

Doris Wong Wai Yin, artist (Hong Kong) 

Lee Kit, artist (Hong Kong) 

Haegue Yang, artist  (Berlin/Seoul)

Lee Weng Choy, Co-director, Sub-Station (Singapore)

Roger McDonald, Deputy Director, A.I.T. (Tokyo)

Masahiro Wada, artist (Tokyo)

Gimhongsok, artist (Seoul) 

Arin Rungjang, artist (Bangkok)

Ade Darmawan, artist/ Director, ruang rupa (Jakarta) 

Tobias Berger, Executive Director, Para/Site (Hong Kong) 

Leung Chi Wo, artist (Hong Kong)

Site for the Triennial

Guangdong Museum of Art, where Guangzhou Triennial will be held.

Download images and floor plans here

Plus, the height of the halls on different floors are:

Gound floor: 340cm,

Second/Thrid Floor: 310cm,

No. 5 hall: 670cm;

The doors of each hall are 288cm(h)*188cm(w).

Practical info for all participants

1. Every participant will propose what to do or exhibit in the Triennial. We registered a blog http://hkszgz72hours.blogspot.com/ for communication. Please upload your ideas, previous works and references (anything you think relevant). You will receive an invite to be author of this blog. Please reply to it.

2. We all meet for the workshop. Now we changed the date as July 10-13, Thur to Sun. Please come to Hong Kong by Thur afternoon. We go to China on Fri and return to Hong Kong on Sun. Overseas participants depart from Hong Kong on Sun night if flight schedule allows. There should be a lot of informal meetings and discussions on what to show and to do in the Triennial along this idea of organization of art. We expect each individual's contribution to shape this workshop.

3. We all take part in the triennial exhibition. Maybe we'll show individual pieces or we can collaborate for the exhibits. I don't know yet. We have to work that out. (Official invitation from the Triennial will be sent later, for example for visa purpose.) Opening on Sept 5 or 6.

Asia's World City

Recently I did a bit traveling between cities in Asia and have found how eager the local government there brands the city to promote trades and tourism. Such as Hong Kong where I live, it has branded itself as the “Asia’s World City” since a few years ago. However it reads a bit bizarre, it’s more important to concentrate what it means. I understand branding as more or less a proactive move for one’s own product to establish an image, which is not equivalent to reality, something good to see in others’ lens. But then who are “we” if “we” decided to be “Asia” as well as “World”. We might even argue if this statement is just, after all it may be only a wish. Instead, I am interested to think if an Asia’s world city could really exist. How and where it could be? Even in which continent?

 

Not long ago, I emailed to all in my address book to ask for wishes for “Asia’s World City” and I got responses from more than 70 people, making more than 400 wishes after some repetitions. Among them are more mainstream ideas on politics, economy, education and environmental issues. There are also some weird entries, kind of personal and even imaginative, like “all female police force”, “cheap lychee martini” and “jealousy-free zones”, etc. To the art people, of course there are hot topics like “international biennale” and “museum of contemporary art” too.

 

In the first fortnight of September 2008, there will be vernissages of at least nine biennales or triennales in Asia. By 2015, there will be a thousand more museums in China; and a 40-plus hectare-cultural district in Hong Kong including a museum of contemporary art at size of Tate Modern. When famous museums in West are opening branches in Asia, where is “Asia”? Where is “World”? And where is “City”?