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.

Back track Lee Ka-sing

Morning

View from 1927, Stuttgart

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

Park

Could we have a park like this right at the centre of the city?

Feast in Shimoda

Michelangelo Pistoletto

I'm a big fan of Pistoletto from my student days. In Yokohama I saw for the second time his live performance. Of course it's performed by someone else. Beautiful.

After Hours

After Hours was a 4-day-meeting co-organized by A.I.T. (Tokyo) and Samuso (Seoul) in parallel with Yokohama Triennale on New Institutionalism. Hu Fang spoke on the first day.

BizArt in Yokohama

Fancy shop space in Koganecho Bazzaar to replace the spot previously frequented by prostitutes.

Akasaka

Arrived in Yokohama on September 10 and had the evening free. Went with Hitomi to the opening of the Akasaka Art Flower 08 in an abandoned primary school. Curated by Kenji Kubota, it cost hugh amount of money to renovate the premises up to basic standard before they could put any art in it.

I met Tsuyoshi Ozawa three years ago and saw him again tonight. He made this kids' wonderland.

Open Space/ Art Cologne

Just did a talk with Tobias in Art Cologne about Para/Site and the project Asia Art Knots. Watch

Finale

Just returned from Tokyo (where I went from Seoul) today and it marked the end my "Asia" tour -- 26 days on the road since the Chinese New Year to nine cities. Some of these cities I only went for the first time, like Yogyakarta and Saigon. I really feel lucky to have taken part in this Open Space project. Just trying to count from memory whom I have met (and had good chat): Mella, Davide, Wimo, Rock, Gentong, Angki, Ade, Reza, Indra, Chiao, Shun-chu, Mia, Yao, Henri, Fang, XuZheng, Cody, Arin, David Teh, Connelly, Tho, Chuong-Da, Marco, Michael, Hyunjin, Jinsuk, Sunjung, Hitomi, Kenji, Emil, Roger, Kai.... should be more than 32. Although travelling was exhausting, it's such a rare opportunity that I couldn't miss. It's intense but I also learnt a lot from them and these places. Big thanks.

Michael and me in a Korean pizza shop in Seoul, photo taken by Cody. Cody is an interesting artist who spent 23 years in America, who I met in his solo show opening in Beijing. Michael is a contributing curator of this year's Busan Biennale. When I met him, he's already several meetings after arrival on the same day.

Borobudur

Got up at 4am to go to visit Borobudur, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Very impressive indeed and really worth sleeping a bit less.

I met these students who started conversation with me as part of their exam of their English course.

Dadou in Jogia

I had a very nice chat with Davide “Dadou” Quadrio of BizArt before he returned to Shanghai after a meeting with colleagues from Singapore, Manila and here Jogia. They have started a collaboration on a project with young curators in the region. Sometimes I really feel we might progressing in a similar direction as there’re more social/economic exchanges in Asia as in different places there’re drives for development of curatorial practice as Para/Site has implemented its curatorial programme.
It’s almost become a usual topic about the art market boom in Asia and the up-roaring price of contemporary Chinese art recently when you talk to anyone from the art community in Asia. Our conversation is no exception. Of course it also touched the idea of independent art organizations. In China’s context, an “non-profit” art space could also represent artists in art fairs. Somehow Dadou was proud that he didn’t do. Not that he had problem with commercial gallery practice, he’s bothered by the fact that you’re doing it but claiming something else.
By the end of the meeting, there’s also Daphne who once worked in the New Museum in New York but now lives in Shanghai and works with Dadou. Small world it is; she’s also from De Appel and her study here was partly due to Tobias’ advice!

Cemeti Art House

Cemeti Art House is located in a very nice premise, the second one that they moved in about 10 years ago. It’s very spacious and bright. Just so open that it merges inside and outside, like most houses here in Jogia. At the moment when I got there, they are packing the exhibits after the show of a Dutch resident artist.

Nice hotel

Arrived in Jogia on Friday at 8am, a little rain as backdrop it gave me an impress as a tropical garden. Indeed on my way to the hotel, there’re always rows of small houses, normally of one storey only. Mella booked me in a hotel of very inexpensive rate. To my surprise, it could be really one of the best I ever have stayed. I got a nice room facing the garden, full of trees and plants. There was also even a waterfall as a feature linked to the swimming pool. As it’s early, I had a nice power nap before I met anyone.

Asian Tour

Just embarked a tour to different cities in Asia, something I'd always like but not manage to do so. Last night I arrived in Jakarta at 7:30pm, too late to visit the people of Ruang Rupa. I simply stayed quiet in the hotel to wait for the early morning connecting flight to Yogyakarta (Jogya as commonly called). Not yet having seen the city of Jakarta, I saw it's infamous traffic jam from my window of the hotel which located somewhere between the airport and the city.

My first meal in Jakarta

Beijing scan II

The "tornado" by Anish Kapoor In Galleria Continua was the best I saw in Beijing this time, really a must-see exhibition.

Panda show of Zhao Bandi

Qiu Anxiong's solo in the Universal Studio was great. Still full of details and subtleties in the spectacular train compartment.

The Nam June Paik solo in Doart was nice. A lot of smaller pieces from different periods, good complement to his Guggenheim retrospective some years ago.

The Egg was not interesting as I expected. Too dry, too big and too much dwarfing the landscape around.

A tacky show rehearsal of dancing jockeys in a shopping mall promoting Olympic equestrian sport in Hong Kong 2008.

Dinner chat, Jeff & Vanessa

Beijing scan I

The current show curated by Huang Du in the Today Art Museum was interesting. The giant steel spine by Wang Jin was one of my favourites.

Koohaus' split CCTV towers in the smog.

In the new Ullens Center, the '85 New Wave show was touching. You could just feel the artists' passion then which is kind of rare nowadays. Huang Yong Ping's seminal work re-made with brand-new washing machines.