Common is the notion that the south lies at the opposite of north and that the north is supposedly ascendant, more prone to power, and closer to the imagined center. The south is cast as the peripheral and the dispossessed and that it gathers at the perceived fringes of province on a map of asymmetries. Such a curious psycho-geographical, or geopolitical, imagination yields another antinomy: the west and the east, bearing more or less equivalent valences as north and south. This procedure of organizing the world reduces the latter into polarities and verticalities, the west is modern and everywhere yet the east is timeless and afar. The situation where the south and the east cohere to form the coordinate of the southeast is exceptional. It is possibly a double negation: not north, not west. And as such, it is a productive locus: it is not the center, twice.
Commencing from a specific geography and a state of mind to generate a certain way of observing and understanding locality, the exhibition South by Southeast. A Further Surface discusses the spectral idea of artistic initiative through the lens of materiality and reciprocity as poignant and also resolute stances. The body of works presented in the exhibition centers on “Southeast” as a trope to understand the world today. The socio-political tensions in Southeast Asia and Southeast Europe have informed the art works produced in these regions, in the same way that certain prominent ideas nurtured in this artistic environment have raised questions that would shape social policies at a global level – like the interpretation of history, the mediation of archives, or the importance of registering memory.
Dalibor Martinis, Dalibor Martinis Talks to Dalibor Martinis, part of “Data Recovery” project, 1978-2010; video installation, 9’53’’
Lyno Vuth, The Flying Man, 2012; digital C-Print, 180 ⅹ 80 cm
The format of bringing together two specific entities in an exhibition gives new sense to our ideas of the world, which functions like a plot for finding concealed or unapparent meanings and alternative structures of identification. It works with a set of coordinates that are interwoven, in which the speculative view of history mingles with the lived story, the conditional aesthetics converges with necessity, the possibilities of the present mixes with the imagination of the future, and the shift from hiding to disappearing leads to re-discovery.
South by Southeast. A Further Surface is extended from the original concept of South by Southeast held in Osage Art Foundation, Hong Kong in March 2015, by the invitation of Guangdong Times Museum. It is a gesture of the Times Museum to trace its location to Southeastern China and to take part in mediating imageries and geopolitical implications of the “Southeast” that were raised in the first part of the exhibition. Artists from Southeast Asia and Southeast Europe are brought together to create an experience that conveys the unique structure of the Southeast. The exhibition display creates the possibility for artists from both areas to relate to each other and to immerse the public in various states of mind. The Hong Kong articulation is further elaborated by bringing in new artists or by expanding the projects of those who had been part of the initial episode.
Maja Hodošček, We Need a Title, 2014; Video, 28'
Šejla Kamerić, Measure (L), 2015; cotton, steel nails, 735 ⅹ 53 ⅹ 4cm; Courtesy of the artist and Tanja Wagner Galerie
About the exhibition
Co-curated by Patrick D. Flores (The Philippines) and Anca Verona Mihuleţ (Romania)
Preview: 14:00-16:00, Sunday, 20 March, 2016 (invitation only)
Exhibition Period: 22 March – 8 May, 2016
Venue: Guangdong Times Museum
Address: Times Rose Garden III, Huangbianbei Road, Baiyun Avenue, Guangzhou, China
Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 10am-6pm (closed on Monday except for holidays)
Guided Tour: 3:00-3:30pm, 22 March – 8 May, 2016, every Saturday & Sunday
Participating artists: Art Labor (Vietnam), Pio Abad (The Philippines), Jon Cuyson (The Philippines), Maung Day (Myanmar), frombandungtoberlin.net (trans-national), Nilbar Güreş (Turkey), Ahdiyat Nur Hartata (Indonesia), Maja Hodošček (Slovenia), Ana Hušman (Croatia), Eisa Jocson (The Philippines), Šejla Kamerić (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Li Jinghu (China), Dalibor Martinis (Croatia), Sebastian Moldovan (Romania), Jakrawal Nilthamrong (Thailand), Aemilia Papaphilippou (Greece), Raluca Popa (Romania), Lia Perjovschi (Romania), Marko Tadić (Croatia), Saša Tkačenko (Serbia), Pradeep Thalawatta (Sri Lanka), The Bureau of Melodramatic Research (Romania), Lyno Vuth (Cambodia), Zhou Tao (China)
Conversation between Patrick D. Flores and Anca Verona Mihuleţ
Time: 10:30-12:00, 20 March
Venue: 1F, Multifunctional Hall, Guangdong Times Museum
(Free admission, English Lecture, Chinese interpretation)
Performative lecture: Transgression, Syncretism, Nomadism
Time: 14:00, 20 March
Venue: 19F, Exhibition Hall, Guangdong Times Museum
Chinese scholar Mi You collaborates with the transnational group frombandungtoberlin.net, presenting a lecture-performance based on her ongoing research on the Silk Road, related to the group’s discourse around the Cold War in Asia, on the exhibition preview.
Theater Workshop & Performance: Protect Your Heart at Work
Time: 8 May (Time to be confirmed lated)
Venue: 19F, Exhibition Hall, Guangdong Times Museum
The Bureau of Melodramatic Research is hosting a two-day workshop on 6-7 May and presenting a performance on the closing day of 8 May.
Jarai Dew Hammock Café
Time: 22 March -8 May
Venue: 19F, West-Wing Gallery, Guangdong Times Museum
The group Art Labor proposes a hammock café where visitors can enjoy Vietnamese coffee grown by the members of the group, while a selection of video works from various artists in the region presents fragments of daily living in Cambodia or Thailand.
Courtesy of the artists and Guangdong Times Museum, for further information please visit www.timesmuseum.org.
