Beyond the Future: Papers from the Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

pure traditions (if there are really such th ings ! ), but specific moments of encounter and perhaps collusion, or, possibly, coercion that transpired between societies being represented and societies assuming the task of representing . [Example of eating implements without patina . . .] So, instead of overly concentrating attention on my one example, I am more concerned to stress that many things have been made for universal or international exh ibition for a very long time - certainly way before we prepared works of art and essays for this particular international exh ibition . The eminent historian Bened ict Anderson's new book is entitled The Spectre of Comparisons, a phrase he borrowed from the novel Noli Me Tangere by the extraord inary Jose Rizal , who lived in Europe during the time of - and who saw, among other wonders of the world, some of - the great un iversal expositions. Through the main character of his novel, Rizal described disturbing situations of doubling - a doble vista - during wh ich the witness cannot but compare one thing and other, however separated spatially or temporally. There is no innocent looking possible during this doubling, because the thing or scene looked at begs the comparison with something seen somewhere else, at some other time. The witness is bedevil led . Rizal called the agent of this experience, el demonio de fas comparaciones, 1 Anderson's spectre or ghost of comparisons. So now I borrow from Anderson , who borrowed from Rizal , for the demon has entered me, too, as I am bedevilled by this seeing of an object made for international exposition in the 1 880s, and cannot help but see, simultaneously, the objects and texts we have made for this international exh ibition for instance, and for others like it, at the end of our century. Expo Art It was during my possession by this demon of comparisons (a demon that has not, by the way, released me) that I began to n ickname the category to which the 1 880s exposition object might belong, 'expo art'. Th is sounds a b it specious, I know, like when , for instance, we say 'tourist art'. But I must confess to rather l iking this nickname because the term art is ironically expressed . I should also like to suggest that we consider the products we have prepared for showing in this event here - and for other international exhibitions - as expo art as well . Or expo products. We come from different places, and we create what we create, and invest these products with our notions of the authenticity of our l ives as we live them, where we live them - but nonetheless, what we create for the purpose of participating in this and other international events may in fact be best understood as things prepared for participation in an international event. I wish to furthermore suggest that those of us whose work it is to make sense of the cultural products on d isplay in this and other international events, may find an extraordinarily rich analytic terrain after acknowledging that our works here are, more authentically, or more precisely: phenomena of the international exhibition/universal expo, than they are about, or of, wherever it is we think we come from . And perhaps it doesn't have to be a wait of a hundred years to take stock of our confounding situation . The rest of this paper this morning is an extended explanation - and assurance - that I do not use this nickname 'expo art' maliciously. Well, perhaps with a bit of wicked glee . . . But all right: some of you will find my assurance somewhat bedevilling too . It will doubtless sound cheeky for me to suggest shifting the centre of gravity, so to speak, of what makes for the definition of an object for exhibition , from the society of the maker to the dynamics that caused or occasioned the making . For instance, it m ight indeed seem mean-spirited to say that there are artists from the Philippines who were comm itted to painting for most of their careers until they were invited to international exhibitions, where it seemed necessary or rewarding to suddenly become installation artists . My i ntent here is not to question their integrity. My intent, rather, is to assert that the fact of change and the result of the change are profoundly revealing - much more so, than if we kept our attention exclusively on the origin of artist. [ This part was added after the presentation: If we for a moment stopped celebrating how wonderful it is that so many artists come from d ifferent places, and started appreciating the meaning of the power that sucks everyone in.] 35