Raqs Media Collective presents a lecture-performance: 'As Transient as a Whale' as part of their Residency program at AAA.
Hong Kong has had two curious visitors in this month, a lost humpbacked whale on a detour and the Raqs Media Collective at the Asia Art Archive. Humpbacked Whales, like memories in a city eager to live forever in the future, are an endangered species. While Raqs has not yet met the whale, they have spent time with some of Hong Kong's memories. They have also spent some time thinking about the place of memory in an archive. In their lecture-performance presentation—'As Transient as a Whale'—Raqs will present their field notes, research and the images they have been working with as they travel in Hong Kong. The lecture performance will also present sketches of the in-situ installation that they will produce at the Asia Art Archive at the conclusion of their residency.
AAA welcomes Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta of Raqs Media Collective, Delhi based think-tank, curators and cutting-edge artist collective, as its first international residents.
Raqs Media Collective was formed in 1992 by Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula, and Shuddhabrata Sengupta. The Collective is based in Delhi and work at Sarai, a program of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, an initiative they co-founded in 2001.Their work takes the form of installations, video, photography, image-text collages, media objects, performances, and encounters. They cross contemporary art practice with historical and philosophical speculation, research, and theory. The Collective has been exhibited widely in major international spaces and events including Documenta 11 (2002), the Venice Biennale (2003, 2005), the Guangzhou Triennial (2005), and the Istanbul Biennial (2007). Their writings have also been published extensively. They curated 'The Rest of Now' in Bolzano/Bozen and co-curated 'Scenarios' for Manifesta 7, Italy. They are currently showing at 'Chalo! India', Mori Art Museum, Tokyo and 'Indian Highway', Serpentine Gallery, London.
AAA's Residency Programme is the first offered annually by an arts organisation in Hong Kong and one of the first in the world to take the art archive as its point of departure.
For more information about the Collective, please go to their website.
For their materials at the Archive, please click here.
Sponsored by Sovereign Art Foundation
Supported by home2home
Special thanks to Hong Kong Arts Centre for Venue support.