The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

Cinema has been an important component of the APT exhibition series since 2006, highlighting key practitioners, cinema histories and lines of influence between the moving image and other forms of cultural production. Three projects have been developed for APT8 that frame particular religious geopolitics and aesthetic concerns — ‘Pop Islam’, ‘Filipino Indie’ and a program of works by artist-filmmaker Lav Diaz. Together these projects reflect on the agency of the moving image in its varied contemporary forms and provide a platform to present some of the most engaging artists and filmmakers working throughout the region. Within the context of the broader exhibition, the APT8 cinema projects reveal the way the body continues to be activated by social, political and economic structures. ‘Pop Islam’ uses the paradigm of religious belief and practice and the means by which Islam has been examined and mobilised through visual media. ‘Filipino Indie’ and the works of Lav Diaz emphasise an artistic turn in contemporary art and cinema toward experimenting with documentary realism and temporality, creating doco-fictions and slow-paced, or durational works that resist accelerated changes in the way we communicate, as well as the global economies that have brought about a visual flattening and emphasis on spectacle in contemporary cinema. POP ISLAM Time magazine labelled 2014 the year of the selfie, suggesting the phenomenon is now an essential part of any discussion of contemporary visual culture. 2014 was also a year in which the ban on cameras at the Islamic sacred site of Mecca was lifted and selfies from the Hajj pilgrimage became highly visible. Through the ubiquity of social media, millions of Muslims were able to share and observe this ultimate form of worship, filtering images of religious piety and social mobility within a global and virtual network. ‘Pop Islam’ is a project that takes root in these resonant acts of cultural production and adaptation, highlighting the ways in which Islam presents itself to highly mobile and like-minded audiences throughout the contemporary world. Co-curated with artist Khaled Sabsabi and featuring a wide selection of artists, filmmakers and collectives, the project focuses specifically on the representation of Islam in contemporary film, documentary and video art and the way these works reveal complexities of faith in both orthodox and secular states. The reach is global, stretching from Australia and South-East Asia, through the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and Africa, while also visiting the growing communities across Central Asia, Europe and North America, demonstrating diverse experiences and opinion for the more than 20 per cent of the world’s population who are practising Muslims. While ‘Pop Islam’ is located within the present, Islamic popular culture is not a recent concept. Aspects of its beliefs, customs and ideals have a discursive tradition inspiring art, music, literature and cinema of broad appeal. Moustapha Al Akkad’s Quranic epic Al-risâlah (The Message) 1976 provides an important anchor, describing the birth of Islam. Working with the framework of Hollywood’s religious epic cinema, the film shows that a return to the scriptures doesn’t preclude an interest in science or vernacular culture. The works in ‘Pop Islam’, however, reveal other expressions derived from a networked culture in which satellite television serials are infused with moral subtext; fashion magazines integrate Islamic sartorialism with Western commercialism; Ramadan menus are developed for fast food outlets; and revolutions begin on Facebook. The contemporary Islamic world revealed in ‘Pop Islam’ is one where young people in particular question who decides for them and shape their own distinct version of religious identity. ‘Pop Islam’ exists at a time when religion continues to be a polarising subject in media and politics, and differing interpretations of Islamic ideals feed division and violence 202—203 WHAT BELONGS TO THE PRESENT