Contemporary Art Exhibition: Mode of Liaisons

In commemoration of 130th anniversary of Thailand – Japan diplomatic relations

Condition Report: Mode of Liaisons

[Duration] 31st March – 9th July 2017
[Venue] 8th Floor, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC)
[Admission] 49,910 visitors

The Japan Foundation Asia Center and Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, supported by the Embassy of Japan in Thailand, presented “Mode of Liaisons” exhibition as a part of “Condition Report”, a collaborative art project with curators from Japan and Southeast Asian countries with the objectives to incubate young curators through working in collaboration with senior curators. “Mode of Liaisons” exhibition curated by senior curator Pichaya Aime Suphavanij was held from March 31st until July 9th 2017 at 8th floor Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC).

The Condition Report Project was composed of 2 parts of the curatorial works under the main theme “What is Southeast Asia?”. The first part was 4 exhibitions curated by the senior curators in 4 cities: Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, and Bangkok to demonstrate their concepts, phenomenons, and contents of contemporary art as well as to employ the exhibition as an opportunity to train young curators. The second part was 14 separated exhibitions curated independently by young curators.

“Mode of Liaisons” was the last exhibiton of the first part of “Condition Report” curated by senior curator Pichaya Aime Suphavanij in Bangkok. The concept was rooted from biological standpoint employing the works of art from the senior curators’ previous selections in other cities, stemming out with the new artworks selected to reach the conceptual whole. Included in the exhibitions were the artworks of various media such as painting, sculpture, film/video, installation and performance. The project also presented specifically the projects by four young curators, Nakamura Fumiko, Aung Myat Htay, Bayu Genia Krishbie, and Vittavin Leelavanachai.

Curator

Pichaya Aime Suphavanij

Co-Curators:

Aung Myat Htay, Bayu Genia Krishbie, Nakamura Fumiko, Vittavin Leelavanachai

Artists:

Albert Samreth, Arie Syarifuddin, Au Sow Yee, Buka Warung, Ho Rui An, Ign. Susiadi Wibowo – LabTanya, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Mark The, Miyagi Futoshi, Nattapon Sawasdee, Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA), Rirkrit Tiravanija, Roslisham Ismail (aka Ise) in collaboration with Parking Project Superfriends, Tamura Yuichiro, Tanaphon Inthong, Ukrit Sa-nguanhai, Universe Baldoza, Yingyod Yenarkarn, Zai Kuning

[30 March 2017]

Opening Ceremony: MODE OF LIAISONS

On 8th floor, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre

EXHIBITION EVENTS & ACTIVITIES

[1 April 2017]

CURATORS FORUM (Post) Southeast Asia: A site to look back and gaze beyond

Keynote Speaker: Patrick Flores Panelists: Ade Darmawan, Yap Sau Bin, Shihoko Iida, Vipash Purichanont, Hiroyuki Hattori, Lyno Vuth, Kyongfa Che, Fan Chon Hoo

Moderated by: Ahmad Mashadi, Reuben Keehan, Pichaya Aime Suphavanij

As part of the Condition Report project that paves Southeast Asia as a background, the Curators Forum was organized as an open peer-to-peer network and a platform to connect ideas that have been migrating across the region. For the works of the curators with professional developments and practices that are increasingly global, diving into the local specificities are mandatory in comprehending the visual arts scene that is currently undergoing rapid, radical mutations. The goal of the forum was to bring fresh perspectives on shared issues in the field of curating that is recently established crossing boundaries using the Condition Report project as a point of departure.

[On-going events throughout the exhibition period]

Parking Project in Bangkok

Artist: Roslisham Ismail (aka Ise) in collaboration with Parking Project Superfriends

Relationship, friendship and networking was the essence of the parking project where it forms independent space for friends to meet, drink, eat, discuss, exchange to interchange ideas and inspiration. From 12 years of history, it started from the parking garage of the artist Roslisham Ismail aka Ise, then becomes a mechanism for borderless space for art, music, design, photography and literature. For the Parking Project in Bangkok, Ise and his superfriends collaborated to form events looking for interesting future outlooks.

[On-going events throughout the exhibition period]

Nid Noi Tan

Artist: Sindikat Campursari (Arie Syarifuddin, Buka Warung, Ign. Susiadi Wibowo – LabTanya, Nattapon Sawasdee, Tanaphon Inthong, Yingyod Yenarkarn)

Opening Performance: Revolution Announcement on 5 May 2017 Main gallery, 8th floor, BACC Nid Noi Tan or Nation Din backward was a final result from 3-week residency in Bangkok that aims to experiment on regional symbiosis stemming from Indonesian and Thai artists. This work questioned on the SEA archipelago territory before National Border has been established. By creating narrative of imaginary nation under the experimental process, the work proposed components that grow organically of the DNA of SEA roots.

[7 April 2017]

PERFORMING LECTURE Screen Green

Artist: Ho Rui An

Screen Green investigated the convergences between the politics of screening and greening by taking the notion of the “green screen” on a botanical turn. The lecture took as a point of departure the telecast of a speech made by the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien Loong, during which the man was pictured against a homogenous green backdrop that is incidentally of the shade used in special effects compositing. Encountering this “green screen” with the lush greenery that covered the city-state, it considers how the numerous green spaces in Singapore act as giant green screen studios that solicit the participation and imagination of the masses only in order to limit and modulate the articulations that are thus produced.

[3 June 2017]

WORKSHOP: Tran-Struction

Speaker: Aung Myat Htay

With the transition from the rapid growth, Yangon and Phnom Penh, two neighboring cities at present has become sister cities as confronting comparable limitations in the midst of change. What are factors that propel the transformation? What is the challenge of the city residents? What is a definition of Southeast Asian City? In this workshop, it proposed a collective of thoughts in searching for the meaning of the cities that floats above and beyond heavy waves of present and the past. It was also to look for the role of art and its possible function as a fill in a blank within the living of the city.

[1 July 2017]

EDUCATIONAL THEATER ADOBO MONOLOGUE

Artist: Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA)

ADOBO MONOLOGUE is a short performance about a boy and his relationship with his father, which he narrates to the audience while cooking his specialty – chicken adobo. Originally staged at the PETA Theater Center, this educational theater piece had toured different communities for the positive discipline advocacy of the Philippine Educational Theater Association – PETA ARTS Zone Project, an advocacy campaign for positive discipline and Save the Children.