Asian Curatorial Forum

Feb 2017

Asian Curatorial Forum 2017, a discussion on contemporary curatorial practice, gathered art professional from 10 Asian countries and took place at the auditorium of the National Gallery of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) in Dhaka.

The three-day programme was organized by Bengal Foundation, Britto Arts Trust and the National Gallery of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (Bangladesh) in partnership with the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts and the National Culture and Arts Foundation (Taiwan).

Acknowledging the unsettled landscape of curatorial practices in Asia, the event was conceived as an unconventional platform of exchange between visual arts professionals active today across the continent. Indeed, participants to the event hailed from very different professional contexts that rarely share the same stage, from independent artists-run spaces to large, publicly funded art institutions.

The Asian Curatorial Forum was organised in Bangladesh, a country where the visual arts scene is currently undergoing rapid, radical mutations – and where one therefore needs a strong local curatorial practice to channel this development and maximise its benefits.

By sharing experiences and confronting challenges common to various Asian contexts, the Forum identified specific, practical solutions that will benefit participants to implement in their respective contexts. The discussions have unfolded across four thematic sessions, each covering important issues currently at play in the visual arts sector in Asia. Participating panelists briefly introduced their practice to the public, highlighting a rich but also scattered landscape. Presentations of selected art initiatives in Bangladesh have also taken place before each session to enhance their international visibility and anchor the discussions within the local context of the country.

The Asian Curatorial Forum was an attempt to bring fresh perspectives on shared issues in the field of art curating across the continent. The variety of the roles of the curator across distinct institutional systems in Asia – public or private; non-profit or commercial – will constitute the point of focus of the discussions. Relatively recently established across the continent, these systems are porous, and the curator's many roles across them remain fluid. Discussions at the Forum examined the impact this fluidity may have on the definition of the curator's position. They attempted to redefine the role of the curators so as to better address ambiguities that may exist in the various systems they operate in.

The Asian Curatorial Forum thus aimed to devise a better integrated ecology of the visual arts sector on the continent. Art biennials are multiplying, and their format is in constant flux. Public and private art institutions reinvent their models and redefine their roles. The independent endeavour of artists-run spaces bring fertile disruptions to the art conversation. Curators' field of action extend beyond exhibition-making towards the production of discourse and knowledge in fields where it was previously non-existent. These changes make the case for a robust dialogue which could contrive imaginative solutions.

PANELISTS

Ms. Sangeeta Thapa – Founder of the Kathmandu Triennale, owner of the Siddhartha Arts Foundation (Nepal)

Ms. Pichaya Suphavanij – Bangkok Arts and Culture Centre (Thailand)

Mr. Umair Badeeu – Independant curator (Maldives)

Ms. Tayeba Begum Lipi – Founder, Britto Arts Trust (Bangladesh)

Mr. Feng Feng – Course Director, Guanzhou Academy of Fine Arts (China)

Mr. Lian Heng Yeoh – Founder, Lostgens’ (Malaysia)

Ms. Sharmini Pereira – Founder, Raking Leaves (Sri Lanka)

Ms. Vidya Shivadas – Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (India)

Ms. Nien Pu (Alice) Ko – Independent Curator (Taiwan)

Mr. Nhu Huy Nguyen – Founder, Zero Station (Vietnam)

Ms. Haema Sivanesan – Curator, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (Canada), Bengal Foundation (Bangladesh)

Mr. Nobuo Takamori – Curator, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (Taiwan)