The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

The speed of information transfer and greater mobility have created a condition of constantly expanding production that seems to absorb everything in its wake, in alignment with the capitalist/business system you describe. Within this scenario, it can be a daunting prospect when trying to make something new, meaningful and relevant, be it an artwork or an exhibition. How have you addressed these challenges in your own work, and have you hit any barriers? SK In my case, I work with international artists but bring their works into a local context to present a different perspective on the locality, a perspective that has not necessarily been the object of discussion within the local context. Abraham Cruzvillegas is an artist who does not lose interest in locality while working in a ‘globalised’ frame. At the Gwangju Biennale in 2012 and also at his 2015 solo show at Art Sonje Center in Seoul, he looks at the city’s current status through a foreign eye in the sense that he has not himself experienced its history. Here, the foreign eye is significant in that it provides a novel perspective that has its roots in globalism. YIL The question of what is contemporary art, and who it’s for and why, was foremost in my thinking when I was invited to be one of the 27 curators for the 2013 Singapore Biennale. My area was Malaysian Borneo. I am an artist, not a curator, and think I got the job because I am one of the few Borneans the Singapore art world knew. I initially said no, citing inexperience, but changed my mind for political reasons. I was told this edition of the Biennale would act as a survey of contemporary art from the region and we were given the title ‘If the world changed’ as a premise. While Singapore advertises itself as the arts hub for this ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) region, I wanted to know if there was room in this hub for its peripheral regions, indigenous origins and the many relative experiences of contemporaneity. My initial proposal included artisans working with Bornean tattoos, as this is one of our few international cultural exports; women who work with Pua Kumbu textile traditions (otherwise known as ‘the warpath of women’ because of the conceptual coding found in this cloth and its associated performative elements); and the very active Borneo punk rock community because of their subaltern cross-disciplinary coolness. I felt these were

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