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Collecting entanglements and embodied histories

This was a dialogue between the collections of Galeri Nasional Indonesia, MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and Singapore Art Museum, initiated by the Goethe-Institut. It aimed to trace stories, counter-histories, and absent histories whose spirits populate the present and seek new narratives, "Collecting entanglements and embodied histories" explores the question of how these interwoven histories within nation-building processes, individual identity formation, and their embodiment are reflected in artistic works and their exhibition histories.

From 2017 to 2022, the members of the curatorial team have been sharing their investigations into their respective collections, expanding their research towards each other’s collections, and interrogating each other’s gazes. This dialogue will be followed by four different exhibitions in Chiang Mai, Jakarta, Singapore, and Berlin. These exhibitions are jointly conceived by the curatorial team consisting of Anna-Catharina Gebbers, Grace Samboh, Gridthiya Gaweewong, June Yap. In each chapter the nature of the exhibitions were altered, shape-shifted and specifically responded to each site and context with works from the collections of each chapter’s exhibiting institution. Loans from the respective other collections fostered the dialogue of shared knowledge and shared collections concerning shared and entangled histories. There were also film programs, performances, seminars, workshops, and publications conducted in conjunction with each of the site-specific exhibitions.

The exhibitions

The gift

August 20-November 7, 2021, at the National Gallery Singapore

The exhibition drew upon the project’s broader themes of interwoven histories, performed narratives and embodiment. Exemplified by Korean American artist Nam June Paik’s first meeting with German artist Joseph Beuys and the powerful feeling of being deeply moved by each other, SAM’s exhibition focuses on the nature of relations, affinities and influences, wherein history, geography and identity are observed as manifestations of such entanglement.

Nation, narration, narcosis

November 28, 2021-July 3, 2022, at Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin

The exhibition was dedicated to the relationship between art and political protests, historical trauma, and societal narratives from the 19th century to now. The works displayed explore the effects of nation-building, colonialism or the Anthropocene on societies, their narratives, as well as the ecology of our planet. Departing from Beuys’s concept of social sculpture, the exhibition confronts the notion of nation contained in the name "Nationalgalerie" with alternative concepts of connectivity, solidarity, and individuality.

ERRATA

July 30, 2021-February 14, 2022, at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Chiang Mai

“ERRATA”, in general, can be found as inserted sheets or papers within books or printed media, indicating the correction of errors of written texts. ERRATA in this exhibition context serves as a metaphor for MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum's collection as a manifestation of errata to Thai modern and contemporary art history. It’s not only about correction to and critique of the grand narrative of national centric art history, but offers alternative perspectives of small narratives to counter and contest constructed historiography in the regional and global social and geopolitical context.