“Art” in My Language: Writings in the Vernacular on Modern & Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia & the Region

In so doing, the symposium aspires to contribute to recent and continuing efforts to widen the scope of writings on art that are known to writers and readers in English and European languages. More specifically, speakers are invited to attempt the following questions:

• Beyond writings on art in English and European languages, what is the range of narratives articulated in the vernacular?
• Who wrote, and who read?
• What do these writings in the vernacular inform us about the ways in which once foreign constructs of “art” have been understood, engaged with and discoursed on in Southeast Asia, as well as in East and South Asia? How did they evolve over time?
• How are these narratives’ methodologies and modalities analogous to, yet distinct from, writings on art in the Western world? What might be the reasons for the similarities and differences?
• How might these texts in the vernacular have been shaped by local premodern thought systems as well as approaches to the activity of image-making and the function of images?
• How might language have shaped the formulation of these narratives of “art”?
• What are the similarities and differences between these narratives of art across these regions within Asia? What does the unevenness suggest about the practice of art and writing on art in Asia?

Scientific committee:
Dr Yin Ker, Art Historian
Dr Roger Nelson, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Dr Marcella Lista, Musée national d’art moderne - Centre Pompidou, Paris

Moderation:
Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

Organisation:
Chenxin Zhou, Musée national d’art moderne – Centre Pompidou, Paris

With the support of KD Collection and Amis du Centre Pompidou

^{Thumbnail illustration: Chen Zhifo (1896-1962), Wild geese with a quotation of Li Rihua (1565-1635), Mid-1940s. Ink and colors on paper, 106,3 cm x 36,8 cm ; Illustration banner: Detail from Bagyi Aung Soe’s (1923–1990) manuscript in Burmese and English, c. 1988. Digitised by National Gallery Singapore Library & Archive with kind permission from Maung Maung Soe, Save the Library in Myanmar.}

Program

^{Event in English, with simultaneous interpretation into French.}

09:30 : Opening

• Dr Marcella Lista, Chief Curator, Musée national d’art moderne - Centre Pompidou, Paris
• Floriane de Saint-Pierre, President of Amis du Centre Pompidou

09:45 : Introduction

• Dr Roger Nelson, Assistant Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

10:00 : Writings on Painting in Chinese

• Dr Éric Lefebvre, Director, Musée Cernuschi, Paris

10:40 : Tracing the Multiple Trajectories of Art Writing in South Asia

• Dr Sneha Ragavan, Senior Researcher and Head of Asia Art Archive, New Delhi

11:20 : The Modern in Southeast Asian Art: A Reader

• Dr Patrick Flores, Professor, University of the Philippines Diliman, Manila;
• Deputy Director, National Gallery Singapore, Singapore
• Zdenka Badovinac, Independent curator and writer

12:00 : Q&A

12:30 : Lunch Break

14:00 : The “New”, the “Avant-garde”, and Everything in Quotes: Tiptoeing Around Words and their Potential Meanings in the Indonesia New Art Movement 1975-1989

• Grace Samboh, Independent scholar; Hyphen —, Yogyakarta

14:40 : I Am An Artist, He (and She) Said: On Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook’s Writing

• Dr Roger Nelson, Assistant Professor, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

15:20 : The Writing of Angkor Wat

• Dr Ashley Thompson, Professor, SOAS, University of London

16:00 : Q&A & Roundtable

• Moderated by Shabbir Hussain Mustafa Senior, Curator and Head of Exhibitions, Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

18:00 : Closing

Detailed program