Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative - South and Southeast Asia
No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia
No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia is the inaugural exhibition of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, a multi-year collaboration charting creative activity in South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa. Organized by June Yap, Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator, South and Southeast Asia, No Country focuses on artistic practices in locales including Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India.
About the Region
“Curating South Asia” by Iftikhar Dadi
“Southeast Asia: Art History, Art Today” by Patrick D. Flores
Perspectives
One Size Fits All; or, Whose Public Space?
In 1997, addressing the idea of “contemporary Vietnamese art,” artist Truong Tan designed a T-shirt featuring a drawing of a seated male nude headed “Bao Ton My Thuat” (Defend Beautiful Art).
The Story of Myanmar Documentary Film
December 1974: I am ten years old. Rangoon’s roads and streets are almost empty of cars and pedestrians, but the chants of protestors sound in the distance. Eventually, rows of angry students appear, led by a young man in a white shirt, white long pants, and white canvas shoes.
Publics, Intellectuals, and Singapore
Beng-Huat Chua, an esteemed sociologist, once told me about the two-jumbo-jet theory of Singapore. This was several years ago, and he was half-joking or perhaps entirely joking (I’m not even sure he remembers the exchange).
Street Art in Indonesian Social and Political Life
Some people pass in front of a building. Architecturally, there is nothing special about the place, but in the eyes of photographer Cas Oorthuys, its walls frame a significant moment of struggle in the life of his country.
Laughter, Boos, and Silence: Duto Hardono in Conversation with Roger McDonald
In this interview, conducted in August 2012, curator and lecturer Roger McDonald talks to Indonesian sound artist Duto Hardono in Shinjuku, the high-rise shopping hub of Tokyo.
Decentralizing the Bangkok-centric Art Scene
Lacking a clear ethos and preoccupied with Bangkok, it took 40 years from the establishment of Thailand's first art school in the 1940s for related facilities to appear in Bangkok and other regional centers.
Wild Place
The descent begins. Sit on the right. The edge of the island is an endless, nondescript line on the horizon. The name Borneo however, colors that line with a sense of expectation and—if you know the place well enough—those inseparable partners, love and despair.
Rural Life in Myanmar
Myanmar has a landmass of 261,789 square miles and a population of 60 million people divided into over 130 ethnic races. 80 percent of its people are Buddhist and three-quarters of them live in rural areas.
Australia/Asia
In Australia, there's been a lot of talk recently about the Asian Century—again. Every day, issues emerge that testify to the crucial importance of the country's relationship with Asia.
Southeast Asia: Art History, Art Today
Consider the complexity of the category “Southeast Asia” as a kind of theater. On one level, it is a stage on which a great tradition is idealized, the spectacle of a storied past juxtaposed with the speed and density of current urban life.
Curating South Asia
At its best, curating is an intellectual and social passion, but it is also a “profession,” in the sense that any successful curatorial intervention requires interaction with physical and mental ecologies and infrastructures.
Stay Connected
Join the conversation with #GuggUBSMAP on Twitter.
Artworks
No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia is currently in development following curator June Yap’s research trips, during which she selected artworks to be presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and two further venues. These artworks will also become part of the Guggenheim’s permanent collection, and this section will ultimately become a comprehensive guide to the project and exhibition’s contents. Follow the Guggenheim on Facebook or Twitter (using #GuggUBSMAP), or via e-mail, for the latest developments.
Programs
The Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative will be supported by a variety of far-reaching educational and contextual activities, including lectures, panels, performances, films, gallery tours, multimedia mobile tours, and artist-led workshops. These programs and accompanying resource materials will evolve from a dynamic process of exchange among the Guggenheim’s curatorial and education staff, the project curators, the artists, and colleagues from participating institutions. Check this section, Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail for further details and news.
