Toward the Future of the Archive: Revisiting the History and Movements of East Asian Contemporary Art
Po-Shin CHIANG
In recent years a trend has arisen of re-exploring the history of contemporary art in various countries of East Asia since World War II. Modernism, once viewed as the standard paradigm of art, met with a challenge from the New Art of the 1960s. The process of transforming this paradigm – by pursuing experiments in contemporary art within the milieu of modernism – took place in each country of East Asia amidst distinct historical contexts. “Archives” may be seen as a core subject within this paradigm shift.
The model of Western modernism, which viewed local styles of art as exotic specimens, is gradually being abandoned by academia as it has moved beyond the limited perspective of Western centrism. Instead, the framework of multiple modernities or alternative modernities now serves to examine the singularities of art in the various countries of East Asia. When attention centers on these highly distinctive forms of expression, contemporary art may be unbound from localized imitation of Western concepts or schools of art. Instead, certain key first-hand archives may facilitate reflection on contemporary issues either arising from the history of a certain locality or commonly shared among East Asian countries, such as: artistic sovereignty in the post-colonial context, cultural rebellion within the framework of the Cold War, the evolution of the historical avant-garde and left-wing movements before and after World War II, or experiments in the new avant-garde or post-war curatorial spaces.
In the context of globalization, governments, art museums and private organizations throughout East Asia have established art archives in recent years, to promote the establishment, translation and curation of basic textual and audio-visual data about their own countries and Asia as a whole. Art archives have elevated the previous static concept of historical materials and launched it in a new, kinetic direction. The concept of an archive blurs the line between document and artwork, encompassing illustrations, official documents, invitations, letters, manuscripts, journals, notes, sketches, drawings, drafts, models, photos, sounds, and images. This is not only a “visual turn” within academia criticizing visual-centrism and expanding research materials, but also a new revolution in archival installations, applications and concepts. Digital technology, the internet, and the open application of databases have truly enabled contemporary artists and curators to access audio-visual archives. Yet does the archiving of historical materials equal digitalization? Does database storage and use only take place on the internet or in the cloud? How should we respond to the host of media and vehicles breathing new life into art? While reordering archives and curating exhibitions, how do we deal with the expansion and relocation of media and vehicles? Within the genealogy of global art history and archive administration, and beyond it, how do we lay bare the tracks etched by bio-politics within the struggle of transnational counter-memory?
Archives are the habitation of memory. The re-archiving of history in contemporary art suggests that modernity in East Asian art history is not simply a singular narrative of progress toward enlightenment, but the specters of history reverberating along the island chain, driven by the force of archives. Here, archives no longer serve as mere empirical data used to construct linear history; they are redrawing the mental map of our collective memory. The establishment and recalibration of archives herald an overturning of the genealogy of East Asian art in its historical imagination and its writing. This is the active meaning of an “archival turn.”
2017 International Symposium
Archival Turn: East Asian Contemporary Art and Taiwan (1960-1989)
Organized by｜Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Spring Foundation
Venue｜Auditorium, Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Date｜April 8 (Sat.) - April 9 (Sun.), 2017
* Free entry for this event. No ticket or reservations required.
Speakers
Julia F. ANDREWS
Professor, Department of History of Art, Ohio State University
Po-Shin CHIANG
Assistant Professor, Department of Art History and Institute of Art History and Art Criticism, Tainan National University of the Arts
John CLARK
Professor Emeritus, Department of Art History, University of Sydney
Jane DEBEVOISE
Chair of the Board of Directors, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong and New York
FEI Dawei
Rotating Director of Academic Committee, Power Station of Art, Shanghai
Patrick D. FLORES
Professor, Department of Art Studies, University of the Philippines
Yuk HUI
Research Associate, Leuphana University, Germany
INABA (Fujimura) Mai
Assistant Professor, Kwangwoon University, Korea
Hee-Young KIM
Professor, Department of Fine Art, College of Arts, Kookmin University, Korea
Sunjung KIM
Director, Art Sonje Center.
Artistic Director, ACC Archive & Research in Asian Culture Center, Gwangju (2014-15)
KURODA Raiji
Chief Curator, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum
Yi-ting LEI
Assistant Researcher, Curator, Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Lesley MA
Curator, Ink Art, M+, Hong Kong
Yu Jin SENG
Senior Curator, National Gallery Singapore
Kuiyi SHEN
Professor, Department of Visual Arts, University of California, San Diego
Song-Yong SING
Professor, the Graduate Institute of Animation and Film Art, Tainan National University of the Arts
Simon SOON
Art Historian and Senior Lecturer, University of Malaya
SUZUKI Katsuo
Curator, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Clare VEAL
Lecturer, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore
WU Mali
Associate Professor of Graduate Institute of Interdisciplinary Art, National Kaohsiung Normal University
Anthony YUNG
Senior researcher, Asia Art Archive
Moderators
Catherine Tsai-yun CHAN
Senior Researcher, Chief of Research Department, Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Hsiangling LAI
Board Director, Spring Foundation
Dean-E MEI
Professor, Graduate School of Printmaking, National Taiwan University of Arts
* In alphabetical order by surnames