Pathways of Performativity in Contemporary Southeast Asian Art

The international symposium 'Pathways of Performativity in Contemporary Southeast Asian Art' casts a spotlight on the fascinating histories of performance practices which speak to the postcolonial, Cold War and politico-economic forces that have shaped Southeast Asia after the Second World War. Featuring keynote lectures by Nora Taylor (School of Art Institute of Chicago) and May Adadol-Ingawanij (University of Westminster), alongside contributions by Anida Yoeu Ali, Thomas Berghuis, Pamela Corey, Wulan Dirgantoro, Nathalie Johnston, Roger Nelson, Sally Oey, Eileen Legaspi Ramirez, Amanda Rath, Chương-Đài Võ, and meLê Yamomo, the symposium highlights the central role of performance in bridging the visual arts, theatre, dance, music and political activism across the region from the 1960s to the present. Concomitant with these discussions will be the live performances that take place on both evenings: Anida Yoeu Ali’s internationally-acclaimed 'Buddhist Bug Project' (27 June), and Ho Rui An’s performance lecture 'Conspiracy of Files' (28 June).

The symposium is accompanied by the launch of the exhibition 'Southeast Asia Performance Collection' curated by Eva Bentcheva, Annie Jael Kwan and Damian Lentini as part of the series "Archives in Residence" curated by Sabine Brantl at Haus der Kunst. The "Southeast Asia Performance Collection" is an expansive research project and digital archive conceived by the London-based curatorial collective Something Human, and compiled by an international team of researchers and curators in the UK and Asia between 2015 and 2017. Containing documentation of performance-based works such as live art, urban and social interventions by over 50 artists from across Southeast Asia and its diasporas, the archive is currently based at the Live Art Development Agency in London. Delving into the archive’s key themes and the processes through which its current collection came about, the exhibition 'Archives in Residence: Southeast Asia Performance Collection' will present a selection of its video-documentation for the first time in Germany; focusing on the archive’s exposition of performance networks and practices, particularly as they relate to the histories of Cambodia, Vietnam, Singapore and the Philippines.

Concluding the programme, Prof. Patrick Flores (University of the Philippines) will deliver a lecture on July 4 on performative "encounters" in the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, accompanied by the live performance 'Feast of the Predator' by Noel Ed De Leon.

Thursday 27 June

14.00 – 14.30
Welcome and opening remarks

14.30 – 16.00
Panel 1: Aesthetics and Politics of ‘Publicness’

Dr Pamela Corey (SOAS, University of London)
Performance as Picture: Performativity and Photography in Cambodia

Nathalie Johnston (Myanm/art)
No Intersection: Where Theatre, Protest and Performance Art in Myanmar Meet

Eileen Legaspi Ramirez (University of the Philippines)
Wagering Performativity in the Philippines among Sites and Selves

16.00 – 17.30
Panel 2: Expanding Intermedial Histories

Dr meLê Yamomo (University of Amsterdam)
Performing Epistemic Disobediences in Manila and Southeast Asia? Decolonial Possibilities in José Maceda’s Udlot-udlot and Ugnayan

Dr Thomas Berghuis (Curator and art historian, Leiden)
Pathways of Performance and Performance Art in Indonesia – ‘When was performance, performance art in Indonesia?’

Dr Amanda Rath (Goethe University)
Unpacking Indonesian ‘Performance Art’ as Transdisciplinary Collaborations in the 1980s and 1990s

18.00 - 19.00
Opening of the exhibition 'Archives in Residence: Southeast Asia Performance Collection' curated by Dr Eva Bentcheva, Annie Jael Kwan and Dr Damian Lentini in close collaboration with Sabine Brantl, with Live-Performance: Anida Yoeu Ali, 'The Buddhist Bug Project'

19.00 – 20.30
Keynote lecture:

Prof Nora Taylor (School of the Art Institute of Chicago)
Sedimented Acts: Southeast Asian Artists’ Engagements with History Through Performance

Respondents: Chương-Đài Võ (Asia Art Archive) and Dr Mechtild Widrich (School of the Art Institute of Chicago)

Friday 28 June

10.00 – 10.15
Welcome and introduction

10.15 – 11.30
Keynote lecture:

Dr May Adadol-Ingawanij (University of Westminster)
Animistic Medium: Genealogy of Performativity and Southeast Asian Contemporary Art

Respondent: Dr Roger Nelson (National Gallery of Singapore)

11.30 - 12.30
Curatorial tour, Archives in Residence: Southeast Asia Performance Collection

13.00 - 14.00
Lunch

14.00 – 15.30
Panel 3: Constructing and Contesting Identities

Dr. Wulan Dirgantoro (University of Melbourne)
Things Happen When We Remember: Memory and the Archive in FX Harsono’s Works

Sally Oey (Ludwig Maximilian University)
Re-building Space, Body and Self: Alienation and Appropriation in Marintan Sirait’s Performative Practice

Artist Talk: Anida Yoeu Ali (Artist, Phnom Penh)
Unchartered Distance: Performing In-Between Here and There

15.30 – 16.00
Break

16.00 – 17.30
Panel 4: Archiving Performativity

Chương-Đài Võ (Asia Art Archive)
Form and Process

Dr. Roger Nelson (National Gallery of Singapore)
Performativity Without Performance? Reflections and Questions on Medium in Post-Conceptual Contemporary Art

Performance Lecture: Ho Rui An (Artist, Singapore / Berlin)
Conspiracy of Files

17.30 – 18.00
Plenary discussion

Thursday 4 July

6-7 pm
Performance: Noel Ed De Leon (Artist, London / Manila)
'Feast of the Predator'

7-8 pm
Lecture: Prof. Patrick Flores (University of the Philippines / Director Singapore Biennale 2019)
To Demystify, Play, Manifest, and Take a Step Together: Annotations on the Performative Encounter in Southeast Asia

Free, registration required

The symposium is generously supported by the Goethe-Institut, and organised by Eva Bentcheva (Goethe-Institut Postdoctoral Fellow at Haus der Kunst), in consultation with Annie Jael Kwan (independent curator and founding director of Something Human). The live performance programme is additionally made possible through the support of "Gastspiele in Deutschland" of the Theatre and Dance Department of the Goethe-Institut.

The Southeast Asia Performance Collection at the Live Art Development Agency was initiated by Something Human in collaboration with Batubalani Art Projects, Java Arts, Independent Archive Singapore with the support of Arts Council England, ACE - Artists International Development Fund, and National Arts Council Singapore, with thanks to Dia Projects, New Space Arts Foundation, Nha San Collective, Phare Selpak Ponleu, Sa Sa Art Projects, Sangker Battambang, Six Space and Studio Revolt.