Symposium | Related Programmes | Speaker Bios & Synopses
Organised by Asia Art Archive in collaboration with The Department of Fine Arts at The University of Hong Kong, this symposium explores how periodicals have fostered conversations around art and emergent forms of visuality in twentieth-century Asia.
Periodicals are exemplary for how they bring technologies of word, image, and print together with notions of aesthetics, practices of viewing, and circuits of dissemination. The adage “modernism began in the magazines” is certainly true for Asia, where print media has been instrumental in taking debates, discourses, and images of art to wide audiences.
Periodicals have been more than just platforms or sites for artistic experimentation and exhibition; they have themselves shaped and staged them. In so doing, periodicals have played a defining role in forming diverse publics for art in Asia.
The papers presented in the symposium explore periodicals in relation to emerging practices that cut across genres, new nomenclatures and aesthetic propositions, verbal and visual manifestos, the production of alternative publics and communities for art, and other topics.
AAA presents a series of talks, discussions, and exhibitions leading up to the symposium. All events are free and open to the public. Register Now
Symposium
Date: 11–13 Jan 2018
Venue: The University of Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese, English and Mandarin, with simultaneous interpretation provided
Agenda
Thu, 11 Jan 2018
Venue: Wang Gungwu Theatre, Graduate House, The University of Hong Kong (HKU MTR station Exit A2 Map)
5pm | Welcoming remarks
Derek COLLINS, Dean, Faculty of Arts, The University of Hong Kong
Claire HSU, Co-founder & Executive Director, Asia Art Archive
5:10pm | Introduction
Chương-Đaì VÕ, Researcher, Asia Art Archive
5:30pm | Keynote | Reading the Zeitgeist
Speaker: Charles ESCHE, Director of Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, and Co-founder of Afterall journal
Moderator: Yeewan KOON, Associate Professor, Department of Fine Arts at The University of Hong Kong
Fri, 12 Jan 2018
Venue: CPD-3.04, 3/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, The University of Hong Kong (HKU MTR station Exit C1 Map)
10:30am | War and Alternative Modernities
Transformational in Form, Socialist in Content: An Exploration of the Aesthetics and Content of Early Soviet Turkic Periodicals
—Michael ERDMAN, Curator, Turkish and Turkic Collections, The British Library
Pakistan Quarterly: Art Historical Evidence
—Samina IQBAL, Assistant Professor, Department of Media Studies, Lahore School of Economics
Adaptation and Uncertainty: Visual Artists, Revolution, and Debate in the Periodical Văn Nghệ During the First Indochina War (1946–1954)
—Phoebe SCOTT, Curator, National Gallery Singapore
Moderator: Chương-Đaì VÕ, Researcher, Asia Art Archive
12:15pm | Break
1:30pm | Underground and Overground
Manila, Punks, Robots: Towards an Alternative Cultural Cartography of 1970s to 1990s Manila Through Its Unofficial Publications
—Mervin ESPINA, Program Director, Green Papaya Art Projects, Manila
Connecting Art to Society: A Preliminary Look at Sunday Mingpao
—Anthony LEUNG Po-Shan, PhD in Cultural Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
The Korean Dissident Journal Creation and Critique (Changjakgwa Bipyeong): Envisioning a ‘Democratic Modernity’ through Literature and the Arts
—Hyejong YOO, Art Historian, Seoul
Moderator: Yeewan KOON, Associate Professor, Department of Fine Arts at The University of Hong Kong
Sat, 13 Jan 2018
Venue: CPD-3.04, 3/F, Run Run Shaw Tower, The University of Hong Kong (HKU MTR station Exit C1 Map)
10:30am | Aesthetics and Internationalism
The Trespass of Non-design: The Avant-Garde Experiments of Designer and Its Surroundings
—CHIANG Poshin, Associate Professor, Department of Art History, Tainan National University of the Arts
The Sekai-sei of Circulation: The Catalytic “World Relevance” of the Avant-garde Japanese Calligraphy Periodical Bokubi (1951–1960)
—Naomi KUROMIYA, PhD Candidate, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, New York
The Journal of Art and Ideas: A Genealogy of Transition
—Sophia POWERS, PhD in Art History, University of California, Los Angeles
Moderator: John TAIN, Head of Research, Asia Art Archive
12:15pm | Break
2pm | Intersections of Art and Mass Cultures
Designing Prints, Documenting Cultures: Reviewing Bengali Little Magazine Covers in Post Independence West Bengal
—Spandan BHATTACHARYA, Adjunct Faculty for Film Studies, School of Culture and Creative Expressions, Ambedkar University Delhi
Kyegan Misool (1976–1988): The Flagship of Korean Art Journals
—Insoo CHO, Professor, Art Theory Department, School of Visual Arts, Korea National University of Arts
Mass Media as an Exhibition Site: Beijing Youth Daily and the 1994 Interior Design Art Proposals Exhibition
—WU Mo, PhD Candidate, History of Chinese Art, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Moderator: Sneha RAGAVAN, Researcher, Asia Art Archive
3:45pm | Break
4pm | Conversation with Li Xianting
Speaker: LI Xianting, Beijing-based Independent Critic and Curator
Moderator: Anthony YUNG, Researcher, Asia Art Archive
Related Programmes
Residency: 3–10 Dec 2017
Talk: Tue, 5 Dec 2017, 7pm
Venue: A Space, Asia Art Archive, 10/F Hollywood Centre, 233 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
The artist, scholar, and editor Verina Gfader speaks about the Italian avant-garde magazine movement of the 1960s to 1970s; the fictions around the sci-fi fanzine Cheap Truth; and the transmission of knowledge through the archive and paper-making.
Date: 5 Dec 2017–24 Feb 2018
Venue: Asia Art Archive Library, 11/F Hollywood Centre, 233 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
Asia Art Archive hosts three exhibitions that explore art periodicals in Asia as tools for criticism, historical research, travel writing, and fiction. AAA team members initiated each of these presentations.
Li Xianting’s Contribution to Art Journals in China (1978–2001) | Anthony Yung with Guo Hongwei
Somewhere Along the Line | Karthik K. G. in collaboration with Sneha Ragavan
Fantasy of a Dialogue | Nicole Yuen Lai with work by Au Sow-Yee
