Open Platform is an integral part of Asia Art Archive’s endeavour to enable new thinking in the field of recent art in Asia. Its inaugural edition was launched in 2013. Following an open call, selected researchers, curators, writers, artists, students, academics, and art organisations leverage the Archive’s network to host a series of ‘meetings without walls’ at AAA’s booth at Art Basel to further their ongoing projects, catalyse new ones, or simply make connections.

Special Events

Wednesday 14 May

Would you like a Chinese Name? | 5.30-6.30pm
Michelle Wong & Vivian Poon, Asia Art Archive
Featuring Chinese calligrapher Chui Pui Chee

Getting a name is no simple process, especially if it is one that is in another language that can be used in contexts different from your own. (There are plenty of examples of names gone wrong.) A good name ought to reflect one’s personality, work ethos, and sensibility; one never knows when a name might open doors to opportunities (especially in the art world). 

We invite you to join us for a conversation, which would hopefully yield a Chinese name that can be useful at least for the duration of your stay in Hong Kong this time around. 

Sessions are limited. Please email michelle@aaa.org.hk to book your session.

Live from Hong Kong Art Discovery Channel | 7-8pm

Clara & Gum, artists, Hong Kong

C&G will interview contestants of 'Not as Trivial as You Think: Hong Kong Art Quiz' that will take place on Sat 17 May, 2-4pm at Room N101B, HKCEC. 


Meetings

Wednesday 14 May


Archive Initiatives | 3.30-5pm

Hosts: 

Claire Hsu, Co-Founder & Director, Asia Art Archive
Chantal Wong, Strategy & Special Projects, Asia Art Archive

Participants: 

Jennifer Chang, Co-Founder, The Archives of Modern Chinese Art (AMCA)
Pilar Garcia, Curator, The Documents Collection, University Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City (MUAC)
Tan Hui Koon, Curator/Educator of National Visual Arts Gallery, Malaysia
Lee Wen, Founder, The Independent Archive and Resource Centre
Bakhtiar Naim, Assistant Curator at the National Visual Arts Gallery (NVAG)
Lydia Ngai, Head Librarian, Asia Art Archive
David Smith, Digital Collection Manager, Asia Art Archive
Farah Wardani, Director of Indonesian Visual Art Archive (IVAA)

 

Thursday 15 May


Mainstreaming the Alternative? | 12-1.30pm

The presentation of the Fourth Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art to Cui Cancan and Anthony Yung will be followed by the discussion: What are alternative art practices? Alternative to what?  What is the relationship between the art industry and alternative art practices? How can museums accommodate alternative art practices? How can alternative art practices maintain their integrity? How do alternative art practices become embedded in an understanding of history?
The public will be welcome to join in the discussion.

Host:

Keith Wallace, Editor-in-Chief, Yishu: Contemporary Chinese Art Journal

Participants:

Stephanie Bailey, Managing Editor, Ibraaz
Nikita Choi, Curator, Guangdong Times Museum
Cui Cancan, independent critic and curator
Daniel Kurjakovic, researcher, writer, and curator
Anthony Yung, Senior Researcher, Asia Art Archive


 

Opening the Treasure Chest - research and global art practice | 2-3.30pm

Hosts: 

Sook-Kyung Lee, Research Curator, Tate Research Centre: Asia-Pacific
Tessa Jackson, Chief Executive, Iniva

Participants: 

Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art in Gillman Barracks, Singapore
Doryun Chong, Chief Curator, M+, Hong Kong
Anselm Franke, Chief Curator, 2014 Shanghai Biennale
Hyunjin Kim, Director, Arko Art Centre, Seou
Hammad Nasar, Head of Research and Programmes, Asia Art Archive
Russell Storer, Curatorial Manager, Asian and Pacific Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Chaitanya Sambrani, art historia, curator, and Senior Lecturer, The Australian National University
Yeo Wei Wei, Deputy Director, Publications, Editorial & Resource Centre, The National Art Gallery, Singapore


Hybrid Models in China and Beyond | 4-5.30pm

In the absence of a strong network of independent non-profit organisations focusing on contemporary art, hybrid platforms offer critical support for emerging practice and curatorial experimentation. These hybrid platforms take many forms, from commercial galleries  pioneering experimental exhibitions and research initiatives to real estate ventures that provide private space for public exhibitions. Where did this hybrid model come from? What urgencies did it respond to? Is it still relevant today? This session will consider the work of Hans van Dijk, whose research, archiving and promotional efforts provide an early example of the hybrid model, and compare this with other pioneers in the field in China and elsewhere.

Hosts:

Venus Lau, Managing Curator, Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art
Ian Yang, Curatorial Fellow, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art

Participants:

Fiona He, Researcher, Asia Art Archive
Daniel Kurjakovic, Curator, Burger Collection
Warren Leung, artist, Founder, Para/Site
Davide Quadrio, curator & art critic, Co-Founder of Arthubasia
Leo Xu, curator, writer, Founder & Director of Leo Xu Projects
Anthony Yung, Senior Researcher, Asia Art Archive



Friday 16 May


How to Archive an Exhibition? | 12-1.30pm

Host:

Biljana Ciric, independent curator, Shanghai

Participants:

Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art in Gillman Barracks, Singapore
FX Harsono, artist, Jakarta
Michael Lee, artist, Singapore
Hammad Nasar, Head of Research and Programmes, Asia Art Archive
Jane Pong, data visualizer, Hong Kong
Russell Storer, Curatorial Manager, Asian and Pacific Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
Alia Swastika, curator, writer, Jakarta
Anthony Yung, Senior Researcher, Asia Art Archive

 

Making Private Public | 3-4pm

Host:

Jane DeBevoise, Chair of the Board of Directors, Asia Art Archive
Claire Hsu, Co-Founder & Director, Asia Art Archive

Participants: 

David Adjaye OBE, Adjaye Associates, CEO
Elizabeth Armstrong, Curator, Contemporary Art
Max & Monique Burger, Burger Collection
Payson Cha, Chairman, Qiu Shi Foundation
Lynn Fung, Liang Yi Museum
Michael Jacobs, collector
Risha Lee, Curator, South and Southeast Asian
Sylvain & Dominique Levy, DSL Collection
Steve McCoubrey, Co-Curator of UBS Art Collection
Pamela Policarpo, Executive Director, The Cultural Office of HH Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
David Pong Chun-Yee, Co-Vice Chairman, The Ink Society
Gene Sherman, Executive Director, Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation
Howard Tam, collector
Xiaoyu Weng, Kadist Art Foundation  

 

The Spirit Wakes in the Night Wind - publications as different ways to imagine art and culture | 4.30-6pm

This discussion round will look at the role and function of artist or artist-driven publications, both in print and online, at art criticism, and more generally at the function and present state of critical discursive platforms. Participants will look at case studies and examples before debating issues related to individual experiences within the Hong Kong art world and beyond. The event was organised around the Burger Collection publication Torrent n°2, and its special Hong Kong supplement Silver Silence/Golden Speech, conversational meetings by Hong Kong artists and cultural practitioners. In its print version, Silver Silence/Golden Speech contains transcripts of conversations realised by five groups of artists from Hong Kong involved in the exhibition and research project ‘I Think It Rains’ (exh. Burger Collection, curated by Daniel Kurjakovic, Hong Kong 2013). The conversations deal, amongst other topics, with the autonomy of artistic practice, ethics and morality in the visual arts field, and cultural policy.

Hosts:

Linda Jensen, Curatorial Assistant, Burger Collection
Daniel Kurjakovic, Curator, Burger Collection

Participants: 

Mary Chan, Publisher and Director, MCCM Creations, Hong Kong
David Elliott, Artistic Director, the IVth Biennale of Young Art, Moscow, 2014
Hu Fang, fiction writer, Co-founder and Artistic Director, Vitamin Creative Space Guangzhou and the Pavilion Beijing
Charwei Tsai, Publisher, Lovely Daze, Taipei
Yeung Yang, teacher, writer, curator, and Executive Director of soundpocket, Hong Kong
Oscar Ho, artist and art educator, Hong Kong

 

Saturday 17 May


Publicly Engaged Art Practices | 11-12.30pm
Host:

Ivy Lin, Curator, Oi!

 

Open Source Cities - next generation community mapping and open data infrastructure | 2-3.30pm

This conversation will examine new methods of open source software development as means for community transformation, preservation, and resistance in an era of relentless urban 'renewal' and development.

Hosts:

Melissa Cate Christ, transverse studio
Etienne Turpin, SMART Infrastructure Facility

Participants: 

Tomas Holderness, 2014 Twitter Data Grant Recipient & Geomatics Research Fellow, SMART Infrastructure Facility
Gabrielle Kirstein, Executive Director, Feeding HK
Mart van de Ven, Co-founder & Director
Darcy Christ, Journalism and Policy Analyst, Open Data Hong Kong
Benjamin Sin, Team Leader, Caritas Community Development Project
Paul Zimmerman, Founder and CEO, Designing Hong Kong, Representative from the Hong Kong MTR Data and Social Media 

Local NGOs and community groups interested in or currently using open mapping tools will be welcome to join in the discussion.

 


Art in the Digital Age | 4-5.30pm

Host:

Stephen McCourbrey, Curator, APAC, UBS Art Collection

 

Sunday 18 May


The Origins of Contemporary Art - examples from India, Korea, Vietnam and SE Asia | 12-1.30pm

This session will focus on the global circulation of contemporary art and its issues - how the onset of the ‘contemporary’ in different Asian art contexts is mapped, and how this depends on or is articulated by prior historical experience of the ‘modern’. 

Host:

John Clark, Emeritus Professor, Art History, University of Sydney

Participants:

Clarissa Chikiamco, Curator, National Gallery Singapore
Oscar Ho, art critic and educator, Hong Kong
Hammad Nasar, Head of Research and Programmes, Asia Art Archive
Phoebe Scott, Curator, National Gallery Singapore
Tina Pang, Curator, M+, Hong Kong


 

Making Publics for Art | 1.45-3.15pm

Making Publics for Art is a modest experiment, a platform for open exchanges, which proceeds by talking and exploring art and its cultures of production and reception as building blocks for our social imaginary. In these exchanges, political agendas and personal values can shift, mutate and form a basis for future action.   The public will be welcome to join in the discussion.

Hosts:

Marysia Lewandowska, artist, London and Hong Kong
Leon Tan, Institute for Public Art

Participants: 

Vivienne Chow, Journalist, Founding Director, Cultural Journalism Campus
Esther Lu, independent curator, Taipei
Pauline Yao, Curator, M+
Ellen Pau, artist, Co-founder, Videotage, Hong Kong
Lukas Tam Wei Ping, CUHK, Co-Founder and Chairman Art Map

 


Vernacular and the CityState | 3.30-5pm

Hosts:

Rahel Aima & Ahmad Makia, Editors, THE STATE

Participants: 

Amanda Lee Koe, writer, Singapore
Qinyi Lim, Curator, Para Site
Raja’a Khalid, artist, Dubai
Hammad Nasar, Head of Research and Programmes, Asia Art Archive
Lantian Xie, artist, New York and Dubai


Presented by Asia Art Archive
In conjunction with Art Basel
Supported by Wendy Lee & Stephen Li and Elaine & Anto Marden
Design Partners: Going Merry Design co. x LAAB
Media Partner: Timeable