It Begins with a Story (FOCAL POINT Edition) is a symposium specially curated for FOCAL POINT by Asia Art Archive in collaboration with Sharjah Art Foundation, presenting new panelists with selected speakers from the original symposium, which took place in Hong Kong in January 2018.
This edition shifts the focus to historical and contemporary journals from South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. The symposium also features “Crossing Borders,” a conversation exploring the different languages of art writing in South Asia, in conjunction with Asia Art Archive in India’s Dossiers project, a three-volume anthology of artists’ writing drawn from all over South Asia.
The symposium features three panels of talks that are free and open to the public.
Date: 10 Nov 2018
Venue: Bait Obaid Al Shamsi, Arts Square, Sharjah
Language: English
Agenda
10am | Writing and Design in Twentieth-Century Journals
Words as Visuals, Lettering as Decoration: Bengali Little Magazine Covers
—Spandan Bhattacharya, Post Doctoral Fellow, Jadavpur University
From the Big to the Little: (Un)Periodicals in Marathi and the Public Sphere
—Noopur Desai, PhD Scholar, Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai
Searching for Structure: Identifying Constructivism in Tatar Periodicals
—Michael Erdman, Curator, Turkish and Turkic Collections, The British Library
Pakistan Quarterly: Sight of Substance
—Samina Iqbal, Assistant Professor, Center for Media Studies, Art & Design, Lahore School of Economics
Moderator: John Tain, Head of Research, Asia Art Archive
1pm | The Serial Impulse: Contemporary Publishing from Asia
The Periodical Presence of the Art Periodicals in the Singapore Art Archive Project
—Koh Nguang How, Artist and Independent Researcher on Singapore Art
Periodicals as Para-sites of Exhibitions and Conversations: Dislocation, Hong Kong, 1992–98
—Michelle Wong, Researcher, Asia Art Archive
Coming of the Hyphen: Recent Artist-driven Publishing Cases from Turkey
—Merve Unsal, Artist and Founding Editor of m-est.org
Discontinuity as a Working Tool for the Korean Art Publishing
—Helen Jungyeon Ku, Associate Curator, Research & Publication, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea
Moderator: Özge Ersoy, Public Programmes Lead, Asia Art Archive
Please note:18 seconds (59:02–59:20) of the original video has been removed at the panelist’s request.
3pm | Crossing Borders: Art and Artists’ Writings Across Languages
A conversation between the editors of AAA’s Dossiers project, a three-volume anthology of artists’ writing drawn from all over South Asia.
- Sabih Ahmed, Researcher, Asia Art Archive
- Sneha Ragavan, Researcher, Asia Art Archive
- Santhosh Sadanandan, Assistant Professor, School of Culture and Creative Expressions, Ambedkar University Delhi
- Vidya Shivadas, Director, The Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art
Moderator: John Tain, Head of Research, Asia Art Archive
Organisers:
Sharjah Art Foundation is an advocate, catalyst, and producer of contemporary art. Through the Sharjah Biennial, the annual March Meeting, year-round exhibitions, film and music programmes, education and community outreach programmes, grants, residencies, commissions and publications, the foundation encourages a shared understanding of the transformational role of art.
