Curatorial Pitch

Project Overview

  • Explores how contemporary Southeast Asian diaspora artists continuously generate and reconstruct their identities through materials, bodies and visual language within a cross-cultural context.
  • Diaspora is not a starting point but a continuous process of generation.
  • They are not only forms of expression, but also mediums that carry historical memories, bodily experiences and cultural traces.

 

Research Context

Artists will be selected through research platforms such as New Contemporaries and local art school networks.

The project will draw on the “Translation and Hybridity” (Simon, 2012). It focuses on migration, language, and cross-cultural communication, providing an important exhibition context for this project.

 

Key Themes

Image by: Tianshun Zhao
  • Diaspora identities are not fixed essences; rather, they are constantly formed within the context of history and culture.
  • Art, as a medium for cross-cultural translation, is reinterpreted in different contexts.
  • Technology and materials have become an important form for expressing ideas in contemporary art.
  • The materials carry the colonial history, migration experiences and physical memories.

 

Indicative Artists

KV Duong

By using materials such as rubber to metaphorically represent the history of Vietnam during the French colonial period, the work uses the body and materials as mediums for politics and history.

Frieze London, Pippy Houldsworth Booth, London UK, 2025

 

Danh Võ (Optional)

Reconstructing cultural memories using wood, birdcages and colonial-era letters. Considering budget constraints, it may serve as a research reference.

Danh Vo, Untitled, 2021 © Mirrored Gardens

 

Nhu Xuan Hua

Her website only presents images without any textual explanations. This absence of text itself creates a visual break, echoing the absence and gaps in the fragmented experience.

Is this a play? © Nhu Xuan Hua

 

Curatorial Format

The combination of a small white cube exhibition and a public project, tailored to fit within a budget of approximately £10,000.

The public projects will include:

  • Artist workshops
  • Lectures and seminars

This section is inspired by the Edinburgh Art Festival project “Decolonising the Outdoors: diaspora/sunago”, which creates a safe and caring shared space through collective activities and discussions.

Decolonising the Outdoors: diaspora/sunago, Image credit: Unfracturing 8 by Aileen Angsutorn Lees

 

Precedents

Documenta 15

Propose a curatorial model centered on sharing resources and collective collaboration, emphasizing the joint production of knowledge and materials.

ruangrupa, 2019, Ajeng Nurul Aini, farid rakun, Iswanto Hartono, Mirwan Andan, Indra Ameng, Ade Darmawan, Daniella Fitria Praptono, Julia Sarisetiati, Reza Afisina, Photo: Gudskul / Jin Panji
The concept of  lumbung

Encourage the sharing of resources and ideas, expanding the social and collaborative dimensions of the exhibition.

documenta fifteen: lumbung Kios, Harvest by Angga Cipta, 2022

 

Green Papaya Art Projects

The case of the artist-initiated space provides important references for small-scale, collaborative and artist-led projects.

A Remembrance of a Future (and Past) Fury © Asia Art Archive all rights reserved

 

Open Questions

Further exploration is needed:

  • The final list of artists
  • Potential exhibition venues
  • The balance between the exhibition and public projects
  • How to achieve the project scale within a £10,000 budget

 

Reference List

Simon, S. (2012) “Translation and Hybridity,” John Benjamins Handbook.