Podcast with Wolfgang Zinggl

Wolfgang Zinggl is a Member of Parliament of Austria and the spokenperson for arts and cultural policy for the Green Party, but before these (in his own words) an active member of socially engaging artist group WochenKlausur that he founded in 1993 and exhibited in Venice Biennale in 1999. Stepping on both tracks of art and politics, Zinggl talks about how he has become politician from a State Curator and an art critic. Recorded on August 19, 2009, 39 min., English. Listen

Muse March 2009

Asian Art News May/June 2009

(Inter)Viewing Possession

My new site-specific project is now being exhibited at the Asia Art Archive. Probably it is the most difficult to explain about!

About (Inter)Viewing Possession

Process:
A group of interviewers were recruited to interview people from the neighbourhood about their treasurable possession. The artist listened to these audio recordings and transcribed/rewrote them into a series of monologues. Then the artist also interviewed the interviewers and has written another set of monologues about their experience and memory of the previous interviews. All the monologues were compiled and edited into eight pairs. Finally the artist read them together with his long time collaborator Sara Wong as the voice over of totally eight channels of video of slow panning motion of the close-up image of the windows from the buildings around. Eight video-viewing stations have been made and set against the cityscape as the backdrop of the installation.

Keywords:
Colonial The Asia Art Archive which houses the project is located in Possession Street that was extended from the waterfront where the British army landed in 1841.
Urban The location and the nature of the space where we are based.
Art In the name of art we begin to think beyond what we see and experience.
Observation The basic activity when encountering something unfamiliar, but perhaps we can also observe the familiar for something different. In addition, I imagine the AAA as an observation platform, a place to see how other see.
Tourist One becomes tourist to re-visit his/her home hoping to see something new. It is natural to see tourists in the observation platform.
Gaze/view Gaze is more dominant than view.
See/seen As said, we see how people see.
Photography It is this gaze for sure whereas our naked eyes always scan.
Value I try to learn about subjective value. It is the value being described but not to be justified.
Introspection When we start to talk to ourselves, pretending to talk to others….
Connection It is interesting to see how people can be connected, especially if invisibly. There is now connection between the AAA and its neighbours not because of their proximity…. Seeing is the link which is invisible.
Seeing It is a subjective act. No one else can really see if one really sees.
Voyeurism A voyeur sees another voyeur.
Private/pubic It is a performance which negotiates these two realms.
Community I am not sure. Or could there be a community that its members share views or have opposite views?
Fictional There are facts but no fact is identified. Or it simply does not matter one talked about facts in these interviews.
Interview The view in between, or views between two persons.
Monologue The subject is I.
Dialogue I and I.
Shift Still image in motion.
Windows The opening to go in but not to come out.
Process/medium The way to talk is more interesting than what to talk. My role somehow is also like a medium that might be tempted to take over.
Transcribing It is a creative process to turn from what you listened into somewhat you would like to read.
Reading It is not role-playing but to replace someone’s presence with your own voice. That is to possess.
Image We keep telling the reality is the substance which is far more important but we still like to treasure the image because it looks better than the reality.
Imagine However, the best image only exists when it is invisible.
Opposite field Il contro campo where we see each other, like the photographer and the photographed but their roles can be swapped.
Relational It is a trendy word.
Identity Something we do not really need but I. We better subvert it.

Emil Goh

Just got a sad news from Wendy Gan about Malaysian Chinese artist Emil Goh:
"Emil passed away suddenly on the morning of 7 September 2009 in Seoul. He had a seizure of some kind in the morning. The ambulance was called but his heart had stopped beating by the time the ambulance reached the hospital. His girlfriend was by his side.
This has been a huge shock. He was still young and with no health problems that we knew of. We do not yet know what exactly happened.
I hope you will remember him for the enthusiastic foodie and wonderful artist and designer that he was. He had a keen eye for the mundane but quirky beauty of small things and his vision, his sense of humour and his mind that bubbled over with intellectual curiosity and delight in the world will be sorely missed by all of us."

Our last meal in Seoul when I was there in 2008. Emil sitting behind the Korean bbq.

Podcast with Stephan Lugbauer

Saprophyt/ Installation view Jenni Tischer, Alle eure Farben, June 2009 Saprophyt is a very new art space founded by two young Austrian artists, Barbara Kapusta and Stephan Lugbauer in Vienna in August, 2008. Someone says artist-run initiatives are like generational phenomenon and almost all ambitious artists in the beginning of their career would similarly make their own space. Stephan Lugbauer talks about his ideas and thoughts about Saprophyt, named after a kind of fungi which live on dead matters. 51 min, English. Listen

Depot of Disappearance

Depot of Disappearance is a text-based installation that addresses issues of memory, space and cultural policy. It takes as its focus an independent arts organization, Depot, which was located in the MuseumsQuartier during 1994-2001. Fragments of personal memory and knowledge (or ignorance), be they contradictory or consistent, of Depot during this period from diverse individuals collectively suggest a metaphor for the independent cultural development in the times of socio-political changes. To recall the immediate past is neither a relief from fear of disappearance or a pursuit for nostalgia. Instead, it is to contemplate disappearance in its own right. In fact, Depot continues to exist behind the MuseumsQuartier today.

Lisa Devereux Kernan

I know so little about film. When I was searching for those speakers who gave talks in Depot, Vienna 10 years, Lisa Devereaux Kernan was one of them. I googled her in the hope to get her email contacts to ask her for memory sketches of Depot. But the first page I got about her was in memory of her. Suddenly a very strange sense of time came to my mind, something really really intense.

MuseumsQuartier

It happened that《二十一世紀》the magazine published by Chinese University was editing an essay on cultural districts by Desmond Hui and looked for illustrations. As I am doing the artist-in-residency at MuseumsQuartier in Vienna, I served as a volunteer photographer. A bit touristic in terms of the atmosphere, I guess that's the planner of the WKCD would also like to make! But here many are also locals.

The Death of Audience

A great exhibition at Secession in Vienna at the moment was carefully studied and curated beyond the conventionally western-euro-centric perspective of Conceptual Art from the 1960s & 70s. Amazing to see conceptual art practices in back then communist countries. Also for the first time I learnt about Filipino artist David Medella who did very interesting work already in the early 70s.

Podcast with Dominik Portune

A brief introduction of Depot, an independent organization promoting knowledges and debates of art and culture within a greater context of civil society in Vienna by its present team member Dominik Portune. English, 15 min. Listen

Podcast with Davide Quadrio

Davide Quadrio, also known as Dadou in China, speaks about BizArt, an independent art organization that he co-founded eleven years ago, and his experience in China. It's an interview made on March 13, 2008 when the commercial development of Chinese art was still burning hot. English, 50 min. Listen

Seoul

Back track Lee Ka-sing

Morning

Frank Gehry

I have never been a fan of Gehry but it was my first time to see his built project in person in Toronto. It's the renovation and extension of the Art Gallery of Ontario which was only opened to public last autumn. People said the AGO only had a rather small budget for Gehry to achieve a very spectacular outlook as usual. So ironically the revamp of the gallery space is kinda modest, nothing overwhelming. The additional 2 floors are solely for contemporary art collection which is interesting. My favourite area in terms of architectural space is the gallery behind the new façade. But I guess the "centrepiece" for most people would be the main staircase which is beautiful anyway.

Toronto: the morning

Around 7am on April 21, after 3 movies: Harvey Milk, Gran Torino & The Diary of Anne Frank; 2 meals and 3 hours of sleep, I arrived in Toronto. Slightly jamming in the traffic, I saw this blue sky above the lakeside. Obviously a lot of people drive in Toronto but this blue seems not really affected. Maybe because of the longitude of the city in up north, sun was so low in the morning, attributing to this colour?! I remember Beijing got that too some days in spring when the pollution had a pause.

Leung Chi Wo LOOP Chi Wo Leung

ifa-Galerie Stuttgart - Das Paradies ist anderswo - 17. April bis 16. Juni 2009

Living sculpture watching Victoria

Artist statement at one point

Keywords: time/ space/ negative/ negated/ invisible/ overlooked/ ignorable/ camouflaged/ illegitimacy/ city/ urban/ habitat/ resident/ physical/ cultural/ political/ historical/ sarcastic/ irony/ banal/ poetic/ search/ research/

Moon of Victoria

I have just done a very simple work for A.I.T. Tokyo.

Podcast with Zoe Butt

Slowly catching up with all those interviews that I did last year, I upload here the one with Zoe Butt, Director of International Programs at Long March Project conducted on March 14, 2008. She talks about generally Long March Project and her rather new position back then. Possible changes of Long March Project are also mentioned in it, now somehow as a note to the recent closure of its two of three galleries. English, 52 min. Zoe also co-curated Time Ligaments, opening this Sat, May 16, 2009 at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery Art Projects in Chai Wan. Listen

Cemeti closing

Surprise but not surprising! Cemeti Art House will be closed this summer. We talked about that a year ago in an interview.

View from 1927, Stuttgart

Toronto: In the name of Victoria

Press release

許願的橫額

俞是說亞洲國際都會

Lost in Stuttgart

After two days, a jealousy-free zone and clean air & ocean have been lost.

"Jealousy-free zone"

"An ocean that we can swim and the air we can breathe"

Stuttgart

Rich. Streitmatter-Tran

International Curators’ Talk Series
Public Lecture -
“Curatorial engagements in the Mekong Subregion of the Southeast Asia”
by Rich. Streitmatter-Tran

Date: Friday 17 April, 2009
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: Room C01, Hong Kong Arts Development Council, 14/F, East Warwick
House, Taikoo Place, 979 King's Road, Hong Kong.
Seats: Limited Seats: 60

Para/Site Art Space is honored to present a Public Lecture by Rich.
Streitmatter-Tran, Co-curator of Asia Pacific Triennial (APT6).

Streitmatter-Tran is going to introduce some of the conditions in the
Mekong sub region that affect contemporary arts practices with a particular
stress on the curator-artist relationship. He will draw upon his previous
research with the Mediating the Mekong Project, which is a connection to
his current curatorial research with the development of a Mekong-based
platform for the upcoming Asia Pacific Triennale. He will attempt to
provide some insight from the perspective of an artist working with
curators and what an artist might consider a “good curator” as opposed
to an art critic, institution, and the public at large.

Rich. Streitmatter-Tran is an artist living and working in Ho Chi Minh
City, Vietnam. He received his degree in the Studio for Interrelated Media
(SIM) at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. His work, solo and
collaborative, has been exhibited in several cities in the United States,
Europe and Asia including the 52nd Venice Biennale, 2007 Shenzhen and Hong
Kong Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture, the Singapore Biennale
2006 and 2008, the 2004 Gwangju Biennale, 2005 Pocheon Asian Art Festival,
ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany, Asia Art Now at Arario Beijing, the Hugh Lane
Gallery in Dublin, Kandada Art Space in Tokyo, the Blue Space Gallery in Ho
Chi Minh City, the Asiatopia Performance Art Festival in Bangkok, Art Tech
Media 06 in Barcelona. He is an Asia Pacific correspondent for the
Madrid-based arts magazine Art.Es and Ho Chi Minh City editor for
Contemporary. He was awarded the 2005 Martell Contemporary Asian Art
Research Grant in 2005 with the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong for his
year-long research project, Mediating the Mekong. He was Teaching Fellow at
Harvard University (2000-2004), conducted media arts research at the MIT
Media Lab (2000), Visiting Lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh Fine Arts University
in 2003. Currently he is a lecturer at RMIT University Vietnam and serves
as academic advisor to MOCA China and the co-curator of Asia Pacific
Triennial (APT6).

Para/Site Art Space
G/F, 4 Po Yan Street, Sheung Wan Hong Kong
Hours: Wed-Sun; 12-7
Tel: (+852) 25174620 │Fax: (+852) 25176850
info@para-site.org.hk
www.para-site.org.hk


藝術講座：國際策展人講座系列
公開講座
「東南亞湄公河屬區的策展空間」﹣RICH.
STREITMATTER-TRAN主講

日期：二零零九年四月十七日 (星期五)
時間：下午七時半
地點：香港英皇道979號太古坊和域大廈東翼14樓香港藝術發展局C01室
座位：60

Para/Site
藝術空間將於四月十七日，於香港藝術發展局舉辦公開講座；講者為Asia
Pacific Triennial (APT6) 聯合策展人﹣Rich. Streitmatter-Tran。

Rich.
Streitmatter-Tran將為大家介紹一些湄公河屬區影響當地的當代藝術發展狀況，
尤以策展人跟藝術家之間的關係。講者將講述其早前的研究計劃﹣「Mediating
the Mekong Project 」。這研究計劃跟講者現時為來屆Asia
Pacific Triennale
(APT6)而準備的策展研究計劃相連，是以湄公河屬區為發展平台的策展研究。
講者會嘗試以藝術家角度，表達藝術家跟策展人合作的一些觀點，
並對藝術家可擔當優秀策展人這舉措提供跟藝評、機構及公眾以外的看法。

Streitmatter-Tran現於越南胡志明市工作及居住，講者於波士頓Massachusetts
College of Art 的 Studio for Interrelated Media (SIM)
完成學士課程.。講者的個人及合作作品於不同城市如美國、歐洲及亞洲包括第五十二屆威尼斯雙年展、
二○○七年香港﹣深圳城市／建築雙年展、二○○六及二○○八年的新加坡雙年展、二○○四韓國光州雙年展、
二○○五年Pocheon Asian Art
Festival、德國卡爾斯魯厄的ZKM、Arario Beijing 的
Asia Art Now、都柏林的Hugh Lane Gallery、東京的Kandada Art
Space、
胡志明市的 Blue Space Gallery、曼谷的Asiatopia Performance
Art Festival、巴塞隆那的 Art Tech Media 06等展覽。Rich.
Streitmatter-Tran是西班牙馬德里藝術雜誌Art.Es的亞太區的特派員，
Contemporary的胡志明市編輯。講者與亞洲藝術文獻庫的研究計劃「Mediating the
Mekong」於二○○五年獲得Martell Contemporary
Asian Art Research Grant。講者是二○○○至二○○四年哈佛大學MIT Media Lab
(2000)的媒體藝術研究教學助理，二○○三年Ho Chi Minh Fine Arts
University的客席講師。講者現於RMIT University Vietnam任職講師、MOCA
China的學術顧問及Asia Pacific Triennial(APT6) 聯合策展人。

Para/Site 藝術空間
香港上環普仁街四號地下
開放時間：星期三至星期日；下午十二時至七時
電話：(+852) 25174620 │ 傳真：(+852) 25176850
info@para-site.org.hk
www.para-site.org.hk

Michael Lee

(photo by Qinyi Lim)
Singaporean artist Michael Lee Hong-hwee was based in Hong Kong for the last 30 months and has just bidded farewell to his first loft-studio in Fo Tan and moved back to Singapore. He talks about his artistic practice and Hong Kong experience. English, 53 min.
Listen

Gallery artists

Every now and then, artists of the new generation become our talking point. LK told me once art students here asked him how he could be hooked up with important curators. They wanted to be "gallery artist" which has become a new occupation in Hong Kong. Securing a gallery seems to be a very straight forward move when you graduate (or even before in some cases.) Having come across with this blog by a NY gallerist, it's very interesting to consider his advice for artists looking for galleries to see if it's also happening here. Sometimes I think artists are simply ordinary people who may just look for jobs in a way like other. But sometimes not.... there are many excuses.... every artist does think s/he has a talent that deserves to be discovered!

Paroles magazine

Jakarta Biennale

The Hong Kong Biennial somehow claimed itself as one of earliest biennales in Asia. Its first chaper was held in 1970s but nothing has been really changed as its nature as a local art contest. In spite of many expectations in the Hong Kong arts community, it made its "big" step simply to change its title to "Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial Award".

The first Jakarta Biennale was held in 1968 with a different title. It also takes it ages to evolve. Finally it went international this year. And Ade Darmanwen is the artistic director.

ruangrupa

"ruang rupa" means "visual space" in Indonesian. On Feb 17, 2008, I visited the artist-run space ruangrupa in Jakarta for the first time and saw a huge residential house-turned art space, a dog, some friends and artists. In this podcast, Ade Darmawan, Indra Ameng & Reza 'asung' Afisina talk about the organization, programming and development of ruangrupa. 75 min., English. Listen

Yoshimoto Nara

Japanese pop artist Yoshimoto Nara arrested for graffiti in N.Y.

Thank You Art

The Day of 39@rt ("thank you art") is a holiday to appreciate, promote, and otherwise positively engage ourselves in contemporary art. It was established by Japanese artist Yoshiaki Kaihatsu in 2000 to foster the appreciation of contemporary art in Japan. Last year it has been celebrated in 157 locations by individuals and institutions in three continents.

Quick shots to thank art

Quick shots

Date: Monday, March 9, 2009
Time: 7-9pm (video screening starts at 7:30pm)
Venue: 1821 Block A, Wah Luen Industrial Centre, Fo Tan

30 seats only, RSVP required. Reservation info@leungchiwo.com

Quick shots, featuring short videos by
Chow Chun Fai
David Clarke
ise parkingproject
Yoshiaki Kaihatsu
Kwan Sheung Chi
Lam Tung Pang
Michael Lee Hong Hwee, Willam Phuan & Tan Chee Tat
Lee Kit
Alexia Mellor
Nam HyoJun
Huong Ngo
Nguyen Quang Huy
Political Art Group
Qiu Anxiong
Gilad Ratman
Doris Wong Wai Yin
(co-curated by Nana Seo)

Quick shots is specially organized for the "Thank You Art" Day.

Something about Asia's World City

劉清平：香港．亞州國際都會

Jens Hoffmann

International Curators’ Talk Series: Public Lecture - Jens Hoffmann

“Curating and Creating” by Jens Hoffmann

Time and Venue: Saturday 28 February, 2009 ; 2:30 pm at Agnes b. CINEMA!, Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong. Limited Seats: 190

All women police force

Lacy Bond, Cathy Marshall, Jo Masters, Debbie McAllister, Sally Armstrong, Diane Noble, Maggie Doyle, Tess Gallagher, Deirdre McKinley, Kelly O'Rourke, Susie Raynor, Aya Brea, Jessica Angell, Laura Ballard, Carolyn Barek, Grace Barraclough, Dani Beck, Olivia Benson, G. Lynn Bishop, Natalia Boa Vista, Stella Bonasera, Aiden Burn, Annie Cartwright, Nina Cassady, Emma Chambers, Siobhan Clarke, Sofia Curtis, Eve Dallas, Calleigh Duquesne, Alexandra Eames, Sarah Essen, Bezu Fache, Nola Falacci, Joe Fontana, Amy Fox, Rachel Goldstein, Rinus de Gier, Kay Howard, Monique Jeffries, Jill Marsden, Katy Mahoney, Kate Lockley, Kathleen Mallory, Jennifer Mapplethorpe, Elisa Maza, Kit McGraw, Lindsay Monroe, Sasha Monroe, Renee Montoya, Karrin Murphy, Laura Murphy, Juliet O'Hara, Rita Ortiz, Diane Russell, Yelina Salas, Sara Sidle, Terri Stivers, Maggie Sullivan, Tessa Vance, Karen Vick, Lara Wade, Bernice Waverley, Megan Wheeler, Karen Williams, Catherine Willows, Ellen Yin, Faith Yokas, Kitaeva, 麻里愛, 柏木雪乃, 草薙素子, 小早川美幸, 佐藤美和子, 春麗, 薬師寺涼子, 恩田堇, 冲田仁美, 宫武久美子, 神戶美和子, 黄方儀, 楊建華, 莎莎, 可颐, 李鳳儀, Tania Johnson, 雷肖鳳, 林學宜, 余靖允, 藍嘉文, 楊佩琪, 張念恩, 馬靄琳, 高慧君, 湯靜雅, 姚玲玲, 袁慧妮, 文靜, 梁小柔, 馬幗英, 蔡小棠, 洪麗英, 陳三元, 朱素娥, 衛英姿, 駱碧姬, 范樹娃, Cybil Bennett, Seras Victoria, Nancy Ho, 田蕊, 安娜, Lilly Rush, 歐慶春, 高杉洋子, 林秀玲, 聶玲, 田島明日香, 鈴木真子, Amelia Sachs, Monica Rawling, 楊柳, 木蘭花, Clarice Starling, Phyllis Dobbs, Anne Lewis, Dana Scully, Christy Winters, Patricia Powell, Angela Cairn, Kanuka Clancy, Gwen Cooper, Marina Cooper, Ana Lucia Cortez, Irene Daniels, Jean DeWolff, Angela Del Toro, Shakima Greggs, Shayera Hol, Jen Scotts, Brenda Leigh Johnson, Reiko Catherine Akimoto, Charlotte Jones, 九羅密美星, Liza Warner, Turanga Leela, Anne Lewis, Paloma Lopez-Fitzgerald, Josefina Lupo, 真備清音, Kate Mitchell, Melanie Morton, Sophie Neveu, Leona Ozaki, Monica Rawling, Nene Romanova, Megan Russert, Maggie Sawyer, Karima Shapandar, Sharon Granger, Karen Sisco, Anita Van Buren, Donna Windsor-Dingle, Miranda Wright
(fictional police characters in TV, movies, cartoons, comics and games)

Excuse me, are you famous?