Art Connexion |
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artconneXions is a combination of an artist in residency program and travelling exhibition initiated by the Goethe Institute in South East Asia in collaboration with its Bangkok office. The aim of this project is to initiate a connection between Southeast Asia Pacific regional artists with German artists. It consists of 9 artists from the region and 9 artists from Germany. The project was divided into three clusters, focusing on the exchange between Asia pacific countries from the Northern, Southern hemisphere and tropical countries. The artists` selection process was divided into two different sections: the German artists were recommended by Thomas Weski (Munich), and the local artists were recommended by a local curator with an agreement of a host curator. The selected artists are invited to jointly explore contemporary manifestations of and tensions between connecting/ blending/ mixing/ hybridity / isolation/ reassertion/ recontextualising/ and identity in urban contexts.
When a city as a background turns into a foreground & vice versa : As a context and site, cities has been read and reexamined in various occasions, be it a topic of thesis, seminars, and exhibitions. Bangkok is always an interesting site for visitors to be explored. Seeing the city and its urban phenomenon through their fresh eyes has always been refreshing our own perspectives. There are many art and exchange programs in the region and European countries dealt with cities, especial Southeast Asian cities as a theme. But none of such program encourages artists in their locality play double roles, as a host and a guest. This project, ArtconneXion, is initiated by the Goethe Institute, a German cultural organization which tries to rethink of a way to collaborate with Asia Pacific region. It sounds complicate, process based, boring, but interesting, at the beginning of this project. Nobody thoroughly understand the whole process, the only thing we know was who’s going to be our guests, and when is our artist going to another city.
ArtconneXion was divided into three clusters from the Northern hemisphere, tropical and Southern hemisphere of Southeast Asia and its archipelagos in Pacific ocean. Artists from this area were invited to work with regional artists and German artists for one month. Later, they will travel one month to another city in the same cluster as a guest artist. As a local curator from Bangkok, the decision to work with Jakarta and Auckland owes to its lack of cultural exchange among us. For us, Jakarta is too close, but it seems so far away culturally, and Auckland is too far, both geographically and culturally. Therefore, this project attempts to fill that gap, and serve as a starting point for establishing dialogue among Jakarta, Auckland and Germany.
In “Chungking Express”, Wong Kar Wai once mentioned that the main character of his film was the city itself. People and fragmented love stories between the cops and flight attendants were treated as a background of the film. But sometimes both became blurred. In ArtconneXion, Heidi Specker, a Berlin based photographer and Erik Prasetya, a Jakarta based photo journalist, our guest artists and Bangkok seemed to fit such shifting roles. They came to the city without any expectation, and ready to learn the new experience. They liked other, that’s a relieve! But none of them fell in love with Thai cops or flight attendants.They did fell in love with the city. We put them into the same house, around Rama 9 area. The house was great, it’s still in the city, but seemed to be a dead spot. Their transportation ranged from motorcycle, taxi, sky train and boat. They went out almost everyday, mostly together, to play tourists, to work and to hangout with us.
Heidi arrived early in the morning of New Year’s Day, 1st of January, welcomed by Michael (a host artist), and me, who still asleep. She wrote about this experience after her return to Berlin “Asia, before I had come here, was to my mind just interesting, but nothing special. In the cultural or political sense I would not really make a big difference between Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia or other Asian countries. During my residency in Bangkok I spent most of my time with Erik, the guest artist from Jakarta. We walked around in the city. While we were looking for images, we always compared Bangkok with our home cities, Berlin or Jakarta. For both of us every day was different. I saw Bangkok and also learnt about Jakarta. Erik told me about crime, corruption and the conservative behavior of the Muslims.I was really happy about my decision to go to Bangkok. Bangkok has every day been a big pleasure to me. I have never had problems with being a farang”
On the streets, they continued to explore the city on foot, to take a picture and observe Bangkok daily lives. Heidi rarely took pictures of person; she’s been interested in architectural element and nature. The first half of her time, she took lots of pictures of the building, from the taxi, and elephants on the streets. At the end of the period, she wanted to try video, and work with portrait of Thai women. Trying to portray the way they hold themselves and presented themselves to the world. I was happy to hear, and lend her the video camera to explore the new approach.
In contrast with Specker, Erik Prasetya is intrigued by the urban phenomenon, its fast paced transformation effected by either highly consumerism or globalization. He carried camera and took picture, captured the city or people their performances. Erik is working with daily life in the city and chose to portray by using a life of Bangkok working woman as a narrator. He worked with Noi, a gallery assistant in Sukhumvit area, who lived from the other of town. He portrayed them in two different parts, the past and the future. In the past, Erik wrote, “She took the motorcycle, then the shared cab, then the boat – a serial trip where she enjoyed the view of the natural landscape, the temple by the river, and greeted by local peasants – before entered the city and took the skytrain.” Erik turned her background around, and calls them the ‘future’, ’the house is no longer theirs. First, it was the big Carrefour in the district. Next real estates developers bought the surrounding area and they left no piece of land for even a strip of read to their house. What good is a home without a path to lead to ?’
While our guest artists tried to understand Bangkok from its façade, Michael Shoawanasai, a host artist played with the idea of ‘being a host’, and worked with that idea. Pursuing his interest in sub-culture in urban context, Michael reworked his 1996 series welcomed to my land, hope you come again, with graffiti. He gave an instruction for us, of how to be a host. Here is some example ; 1. Smile. Smiley faces always a good welcoming sign. Just like a pretty doormat, the one they love to wipe their feet on. 2. Or, do not smile. They are coming into your territory. Make it known, who the boss around here is. Look at them in the eye then reach out for a firm handshaking. 3. Get them something to drink, hors d’ oeuvres will do. It is common courtesy. At least get them occupied for a while, so you can finish what you are doing. Have you notice that they always arrive when you are on top of something? 5. Show them around and strike the conversation. It is the host’s duty and you will find out how your guest (s) is stupid or smart, interesting or boring. It will weight how far you should go, Foucault or just stick with Charles and Camilla. Gridthiya
Gaweewong Bangkok
Version :
In total during the last three months, six artists from Bangkok, Jarkata, Auckland, Berlin, Leipzig and Dussendorf travelled around Asian Pacific Region to fulfil their Artists In Residency Programs. They experienced new city, urban contexts and started to work with such challenging environment. At the end of their residency, six artists will exhibit their media based works mostly photography and video.
In Jakarta, guest artists Lisa Crowley (Auckland) and Matthias Koch (Dussendorf) arrived in November 2004 and worked with Erik Prasetya, a host artist. The guest artists in Bangkok were Heidi Specker (Berlin) and Erik Prasetya (Jakarta). They arrived at the end of December 2004. Specker and Prasetya spent most of their time together, and sometimes with host artist, Michael Shoawanasai. Specker and Prasetya went out almost everyday to ‘play tourists’ and ‘work’ simultaneously. Prasetya is a photo journalist, who is interested in everyday life on the streets in urban contexts. His project in Bangkok was constructing broken narratives of urban lifestyle, by taking a picture of young Thai woman, accompanying her at work from morning till night. Specker, on the other hand, pursued her interest in architecture in urban environment and its relationship with nature. She captured images of buildings and architecture in Bangkok, alongside with nature. She minimalized the chaotic atmosphere of Bangkok, and turned them into serenity.
In February 2005, at Auckland, Michael Shoawanasai (Bangkok), and Juergen Bergbauer (Leipzig) became guests artists of Lisa Crowley. This residency was hosted by Peter Shand, of Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland. Both guest artists taught at Elam, as part of their residency. Shaowanasai pursued his interests in sub-culture, gender and racism issue. He explored Maori culture, and did extensive research on their history. Previously working with landscape, Bergbauer was interested in the historical aspects their economy and politics at the harbour of Auckland. artconneXions bangkok version will be the first exhibition stop of this exchange art project. It will travel to Auckland in September 2005, and join the overall show, of three clusters, at Jakarta in March 2006. |
