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fasttrackwithmatthiasarndt-blog · 7 years ago

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The Southeast Asian Art World: From Periphery to New Global Art World Centre

Asia is undoubtedly the new centre of the art world, with Southeast Asia emerging as the next important art destination within its territory. It all started with Beijing and the rise of Hong Kong as a new central marketplace for Asian and international contemporary art. Then came the new private museums, successful new art fairs – such as ART021 and Westbund Art & Design in Shanghai – where every month a new museum, foundation or commercial gallery opened.

As the new Tate Director Maria Balshaw recently mentioned: "Asia and Southeast Asia is part of the world where we see incredible dynamism”. The Tate is among the few major international institutions that have invested in extremely intelligent and progressive infrastructure to acquire high calibre works from the region. This is due to their informed international and regional committees such as the “Asia-Pacific Acquisition Committee” that focuses exclusively on the Asia-Pacific region.

Installation view: “No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia”, Guggenheim Museum, Paris (Feb 22 - May 22, 2013)

Key global institutional players have featured content from Southeast Asia in their programs in recent years. For example, the Guggenheim Museum’s exhibition in New York “No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia” (Feb 22 - May 22, 2013), curated by June Yap, Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator, South and Southeast Asia. This project was part of the “Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative” which fosters cross-cultural interaction and expanding the Guggenheim’s collection with contemporary art from South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa.

The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has responded to the expansion of the art world into regions that have often been outside the field of vision of Western art museums with a series of projects that explore developing regions such as Southeast Asia. As part of this program in 2015, the Stedelijk presented the first European solo exhibition of Indonesian artists collective Tromarama. Similarly, the Centre Pompidou in Paris recently launched its series “Cosmopolis” that provides a new platform for the exploration of collaborative artistic practices and artist collectives in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Its first exhibition “Cosmopolis #1” (18 October - 18 December 2017) included work from Indonesia and Vietnam, among other regions. Additionally, French curator Hervé Mikaeloff produced the influential group exhibition of Indonesian art “Trans-Figurations — Mythologies indonésiennes” (24 June - 23 October 2011) that was staged at Espace culturel Louis Vuitton in Paris.

Installation view: “Cosmopolis #1”, Centre Pompidou, Paris (18 October - 18 December 2017)

Equally, within the Pacific region, awareness of and engagement with Asian art is growing. High quality work and well researched programs are consistently shown at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) in Singapore and at the Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Brisbane, Australia, specifically during the Asia Pacific Triennial. Further within the Asia Pacific region, The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, is commencing the exhibition series “Contemporary Worlds”, dedicating its first edition in May 2019 to Indonesian contemporary art and culture, further reiterating the relevance in tracking trends within Southeast Asia’s creative spheres.

Arndt Fine Art published a range of key publications on contemporary Southeast Asian art, in addition to exhibiting Indonesian, Filipino, Thai and Cambodian contemporary art in Europe and abroad in a range of exhibition projects spanning the past ten years. These exhibitions have assisted in reporting on the tremendously vital creativity energy that is taking place in these regional art scenes and markets. Art from these booming markets and vibrant microcosms throughout Southeast Asia are now finally finding a strong reception as part of a larger international institutional audience and dialogue within the context of museum exhibitions, art fairs and significant art collections.

Writer, Jason Farago, described the rise of Southeast Asia’s art scene in an article he published in September this year published in the New York Times “Southeast Asia Stakes Its Claim in the Art World” upon the occasion of the exhibition “After Darkness: Southeast Asian Art in the Wake of History” that was presented at the Asia Society in New York (8 September 2017 - January 21 2018). I wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment, which was also echoed in Lisa Movius’ recent feature in November in The Art Newspaper “Indonesia's grassroots scene gains major private museum” which reported on the opening of the new major private art museum Museum Macan in Jakarta.

Film still: FX Harsono, “Writing in the Rain” (2011), DVD; 6 mins, colour, sound

A further marker of this increased attention is captured in a number of other institutional programs across Europe and the United States displaying thematic exhibitions or solo presentations by artists from Southeast Asia. The following key examples outline this trend: The Mori Art Museum’s exhibition in Tokyo “SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now” (5 July - 23 October 2017); the Bozar - Palais des beaux-arts de Bruxelles’ exhibition in Brussels “Power and other things: Indonesia & Art (1835-now)” (10 October - 21 January 2018) curated by Riksa Afiaty & Charles Esche; the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco and the Asia Society’s innovative programming in New York; and the impressive curated presentations by artists Zai Kuning (representing Singapore) and Lani Maestro and Manuel Ocampo (representing The Philippines) at The 57th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia this year.

Installation view: Zai Kuning, Singapore Pavilion, The 57th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2017.

Due to lacking institutional infrastructures and the absence of public commitment for many of these art scenes across Southeast Asia, the resultant art environments are market-driven and often speculative in approach. Thus, we have recently seen a great multitude of private museums and art foundations on the rise throughout the region. The most prominent is Museum Macan – founded by Indonesian art collector alongside Director Aaron Seeto (formerly Director of 4A Gallery, Sydney and Curatorial Manager of Asian and Pacific Art QAGOMA, Brisbane) which recently opened. This museum will change the Indonesian art landscape in a similar way to that of David Walsh’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) which positioned a remote southern region of Australia on the global art map.

Museum MACAN, Jakarta

Opening of Museum MACAN: (left-right) Eugene Tan, Haryanto Adikoesoemo, Kirsten Paisley, Entang Wiharso, Matthias Arndt

Since 2006, the Akili Museum of Art has been presenting a very impressive in-depth collection of Indonesian art in Jakarta, assisting to educate local audiences. Additionally, there are a number of major private collections which will hopefully grow into similar examples of the above esteemed institutions.

Akili Museum of Art, Jakarta

Throughout Indonesia, the artist run initiatives, art spaces and residency programs such as SaRaNG art space and OFCA International and artist residency and Cemeti Art House in Yogyakarta, and ambitious commercial galleries such as ROH projects, Ruci Art Space and Galeri Canna in Jakarta support their artists beyond the borders of the Indonesian and Southeast Asian art market.

In Malaysia, the ILHAM – a public art gallery in Kuala Lumpur – promotes Malaysian modern and contemporary art within a regional and global context through its program. In Singapore, The Parkview Museum recently opened. As the youngest private art museum in the city, having just recently opened, its program presents a collection of Asian and International Art under the Directorship of Wang Lei.

Installation view: Yeo Kaa, “Distressful Satisfaction”, OFCA International, Yogyakarta (19.5.-19.6.2017)

In Thailand, Jean-Michel Beurdeley & Eric Bunnag Booth’s MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai presents leading figures within Thai contemporary art from their collection. Furthermore, art collector Lani Zimmermann is developing her plans to open a private museum to the public in early 2018 in a modern Guggenheim-style building in the mountains in Chiang Mai in order to present her collection of contemporary Thai and Southeast Asia and Australia art.

We also witness coordinated efforts between international art fairs to promote and present contemporary work from the region. While Art Basel in Hong Kong is touted as the “most international Asian art fair”, there are also many important regional fairs delivering a focused view and flavour from Southeast Asian Art. Art Stage Singapore has established their own satellite fair in Jakarta for example. Art Jakarta, formerly Bazaar Art Jakarta, is also a prominent event. Additionally, there is the highly successful, and from my perspective, currently the most vibrant fair in the region, Art Fair Philippines in Manila. Within Europe we are also observing the inclusion of more and more Asian art in high profile international art fairs such as at Frieze, London, Art Basel, Basel, and also FIAC and, of course ASIA NOW, Paris. ASIA NOW is an excellent boutique fair that was founded by Alexandra Fain in 2015.

Installation view: ASIA NOW, Paris (18.10 - 22.10.2017)

Within the realm of art biennales, both the Jakarta and Yogyakarta Biennales delivered excellent presentations this year. Accordingly with other similar events currently being planned, Southeast Asia is expected to have a strong presence at the 2018 Biennale of Sydney through the curatorial guidance of Artist Director Mami Kataoka.

It is also timely that contemporary art from the Australia and Pacific region is presented within Europe in the example of the major group exhibition “Indigenous Australia: Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Australia” which has just opened at ME Collectors Room in Berlin as part of the Australia Now 2017 cultural festival in Germany. As part of this broader cultural program Australian artist Del Kathryn Barton was invited to curate a group exhibition of some of Australia’s most significant artists entitled “mad love” that was staged at Arndt Art Agency, Berlin earlier this year.

Installation view: “Indigenous Australia: Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Australia”, ME Collectors Room in Berlin (17.11.2017 – 02.04.2018)

This shift in attention is just the beginning of a long anticipated process concerning international recognition of contemporary Asian and Southeast Asian art. Supported by their own histories and traditions, these lesser discovered art landscapes are challenging the international art world order making clear that the notion of “international contemporary art” is no longer reserved for western artists and institutions. Practitioners from central and Southeast Asia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore are firmly part of the global art world.

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