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Flat World Dark Ocean
On the Impossibility of Curating Southeast Asian Contemporary Art
A Presentation by Merv Espina
24 March 2023 | 6:00 pm
Venue: KNMA Saket
23 March 2023
How did secret societies, national intelligence agencies, and idealistic artists and curators conspire to create art exhibitions that have shaped our view of art in Asia? Can we un-mar Asia and curate outside of area studies and geopolitical motivations amidst the clashing tides of neoliberal globalisation and conservative nationalism? Trailing from modernism's universal aspirations, this presentation problematises the impetus and ideas behind (Southeast) Asian art exhibitions and the burden of representation - in national- and region-specific surveys- across several decades in an attempt to tease out possible alternative approaches and perspectives, new models and methodologies.
Merv Espina is an artist and researcher whose practice spelunks through the cavities of systemic biases and historical lapses in media, knowledge and cultural production, and investigates the networks and organisms that have grown through them. Since 2022, his ongoing research project Media Encounters is supported by the Documenta Institut with the documenta archiv and the Goethe-Institut headquarters in Munich. He is currently artist-in-residence at Shiv Nadar University, Delhi NCR, January-April 2023.
