CONFERENCE
Stage, Record, Archive: Performance
DAY I
Online
February 22, 2022 12.30 – 17.10
SALT Online YouTube channel
youtube.com/saltonlineorg
12.30 - 12.45 Opening: Amira Akbıyıkoğlu and Sezin Romi, SALT
SESSION I
12.45 - 13.20 Chuong-Đài Võ: “Performance Art in Asia”
Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
Between the late 1980s and early 1990s the art scene in Southeast Asia became more independent and performance art came to the fore as an important genre. While artists were evading and challenging the requirements of the market and institutions as well as seeking alternatives through initiatives and festivals across Asia and around the world, performance art turned into “a field of social critique.” Examining the regional and transnational conditions behind this transformation, Võ’s talk will expand on the main issues explored in performative practices in Southeast Asia, particularly focusing on examples from Asia Art Archive’s collections.
Chuong-Đài Võ is a researcher at Asia Art Archive (AAA). Her writings have appeared in Afterall, and publications from Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie (forthcoming), Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA), Moderna galerija, Taipei Fine Arts Museum. She curated the exhibitions Form Colour Action: Sketchbooks and Notebooks of Lee Wen in 2019, and Ho Tzu Nyen’s The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia, Vol. 1: G for Ghost (writers) in 2017. She is a former Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT, Fulbright Scholar and Chercheuse Invitée at INHA.
13.20 - 13.30 Q&A
13.35 - 14.10 Yohko Watanabe and Kae Ishimoto: “Hijikata Tatsumi Archive - Art and Archive: Genetic Engine”
Keio University Art Center, Japan
The Japanese dance form Butoh was conceived by Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata (1928-1986) during the postwar era. It emerged as a reaction to the Western influences on Japanese dance and can be considered a form of avant-garde dance theater. Since its establishment in 1993, Keio University Art Center has gradually acquired ‘research archives’ on contemporary art and culture. The Hijikata Tatsumi Archive was acquired by the Art Center in April 1998, as a first initiative in assembling these ‘research archives.’ Prof. Watanabe, the chief curator of the Art Center and Ishimoto, the principal archivist of the Tatsumi Hijikata Archive, will introduce the rich archival holdings. Their talk will provide a glimpse into a behind-the-scenes of an artistic world for researchers and artists interested in performance, creativity, and social aspects of art practice.
Yohko Watanabe is a curator and currently the director at Keio University Art Center (KUAC). Specializing in modern and contemporary art history, she previously held curatorial positions at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art. Since 2006, she has been curating exhibitions and organizing events at KUAC, as well as being actively involved in archival projects such as the Tokyo Biennale 1970 and the architecture of Keio.
Kae Ishimoto is the director of the Tatsumi Hijikata Archive at Keio University Art Center (KUAC) since 2020. Beginning her dance career in 2002, and later becoming a member of the renowned Japanese contemporary dance company Co. Un Yamada, Ishimoto started dancing Butoh under the mentorship of Yukio Waguri. Within the scope of Perspectives On Hijikata Research Collective, a project she co-directs with researcher and academic Rosa van Hensbergen, she has organized intensive workshops and events in Japan and the UK for the past seven years.
14.10 - 14.20 Q&A
14.20 - 15.30 Coffee Break
SESSION II
15.30 - 16.05 Simge Burhanoğlu: “Performistanbul Live Art Research Space”
Performistanbul, Turkey
Live Art Research Space was initiated under Performistanbul, a performance art platform founded by Burhanoğlu in 2016 in Istanbul. In her work at Live Art Research Space, she aims to build a public archive comprising publications on performance art as well as visual and audio documents of performance pieces. Drawing from her experiences in the field, Burhanoğlu will discuss artist and institution relations, the acquisition of performance art, as well as the right to re-perform.
Simge Burhanoğlu is the founding director of the international performance art platform Performistanbul, Performistanbul Live Art Research Space (PCSAA), and Performance Art Development Association. In her work within the PCSAA, she is interested in collecting live art archives and fostering research on performance art. Since 2020, she has been teaching the course Performance Art Practices at Istanbul Bilgi University.
16.05 - 16.15 Q&A
16.20 - 16.55 Bojana Piškur: “Performance and Politics in the 1990s Post-Yugoslavia”
Moderna galerija, Slovenia
The 1990s was an extremely difficult decade for Yugoslavia, marked by war, nationalism, revisionism, corruption, particracy, transition, and a rapidly developing capitalist economy. The radical political, social, economic, and cultural changes experienced in the region after the dissolution paved the way for (political) performance to emerge as a form of resistance. Piškur’s presentation will cover the exhibition Realize! Resist! React! (+MSUM, Ljubljana), which examines performance and its scope of influence in this context. She will expand on the research and making of the exhibition that comprised various artworks and archival materials collected from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.
Bojana Piškur is a curator at the Moderna galerija (MG+MSUM, Ljubljana). Her curatorial project Southern Constellations: The Poetics of the Non-Aligned (Moderna Galerija Ljubljana, 2019; Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, South Korea, 2020; Drugo more, Rijeka, Croatia, 2021) explored the non-alignment movement. Recently she co-curated Realize! Resist! React!, Performance and Politics in the 1990s in the Post-Yugoslav Context at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM).
16.55 - 17.05 Q&A
17.05 - 17.10 Closing remarks
youtube.com/saltonlineorg
12.30 - 12.45 Opening: Amira Akbıyıkoğlu and Sezin Romi, SALT
SESSION I
12.45 - 13.20 Chuong-Đài Võ: “Performance Art in Asia”
Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
Between the late 1980s and early 1990s the art scene in Southeast Asia became more independent and performance art came to the fore as an important genre. While artists were evading and challenging the requirements of the market and institutions as well as seeking alternatives through initiatives and festivals across Asia and around the world, performance art turned into “a field of social critique.” Examining the regional and transnational conditions behind this transformation, Võ’s talk will expand on the main issues explored in performative practices in Southeast Asia, particularly focusing on examples from Asia Art Archive’s collections.
Chuong-Đài Võ is a researcher at Asia Art Archive (AAA). Her writings have appeared in Afterall, and publications from Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie (forthcoming), Institut national d’histoire de l’art (INHA), Moderna galerija, Taipei Fine Arts Museum. She curated the exhibitions Form Colour Action: Sketchbooks and Notebooks of Lee Wen in 2019, and Ho Tzu Nyen’s The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia, Vol. 1: G for Ghost (writers) in 2017. She is a former Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT, Fulbright Scholar and Chercheuse Invitée at INHA.
13.20 - 13.30 Q&A
13.35 - 14.10 Yohko Watanabe and Kae Ishimoto: “Hijikata Tatsumi Archive - Art and Archive: Genetic Engine”
Keio University Art Center, Japan
The Japanese dance form Butoh was conceived by Kazuo Ohno and Tatsumi Hijikata (1928-1986) during the postwar era. It emerged as a reaction to the Western influences on Japanese dance and can be considered a form of avant-garde dance theater. Since its establishment in 1993, Keio University Art Center has gradually acquired ‘research archives’ on contemporary art and culture. The Hijikata Tatsumi Archive was acquired by the Art Center in April 1998, as a first initiative in assembling these ‘research archives.’ Prof. Watanabe, the chief curator of the Art Center and Ishimoto, the principal archivist of the Tatsumi Hijikata Archive, will introduce the rich archival holdings. Their talk will provide a glimpse into a behind-the-scenes of an artistic world for researchers and artists interested in performance, creativity, and social aspects of art practice.
Yohko Watanabe is a curator and currently the director at Keio University Art Center (KUAC). Specializing in modern and contemporary art history, she previously held curatorial positions at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art. Since 2006, she has been curating exhibitions and organizing events at KUAC, as well as being actively involved in archival projects such as the Tokyo Biennale 1970 and the architecture of Keio.
Kae Ishimoto is the director of the Tatsumi Hijikata Archive at Keio University Art Center (KUAC) since 2020. Beginning her dance career in 2002, and later becoming a member of the renowned Japanese contemporary dance company Co. Un Yamada, Ishimoto started dancing Butoh under the mentorship of Yukio Waguri. Within the scope of Perspectives On Hijikata Research Collective, a project she co-directs with researcher and academic Rosa van Hensbergen, she has organized intensive workshops and events in Japan and the UK for the past seven years.
14.10 - 14.20 Q&A
14.20 - 15.30 Coffee Break
SESSION II
15.30 - 16.05 Simge Burhanoğlu: “Performistanbul Live Art Research Space”
Performistanbul, Turkey
Live Art Research Space was initiated under Performistanbul, a performance art platform founded by Burhanoğlu in 2016 in Istanbul. In her work at Live Art Research Space, she aims to build a public archive comprising publications on performance art as well as visual and audio documents of performance pieces. Drawing from her experiences in the field, Burhanoğlu will discuss artist and institution relations, the acquisition of performance art, as well as the right to re-perform.
Simge Burhanoğlu is the founding director of the international performance art platform Performistanbul, Performistanbul Live Art Research Space (PCSAA), and Performance Art Development Association. In her work within the PCSAA, she is interested in collecting live art archives and fostering research on performance art. Since 2020, she has been teaching the course Performance Art Practices at Istanbul Bilgi University.
16.05 - 16.15 Q&A
16.20 - 16.55 Bojana Piškur: “Performance and Politics in the 1990s Post-Yugoslavia”
Moderna galerija, Slovenia
The 1990s was an extremely difficult decade for Yugoslavia, marked by war, nationalism, revisionism, corruption, particracy, transition, and a rapidly developing capitalist economy. The radical political, social, economic, and cultural changes experienced in the region after the dissolution paved the way for (political) performance to emerge as a form of resistance. Piškur’s presentation will cover the exhibition Realize! Resist! React! (+MSUM, Ljubljana), which examines performance and its scope of influence in this context. She will expand on the research and making of the exhibition that comprised various artworks and archival materials collected from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.
Bojana Piškur is a curator at the Moderna galerija (MG+MSUM, Ljubljana). Her curatorial project Southern Constellations: The Poetics of the Non-Aligned (Moderna Galerija Ljubljana, 2019; Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, South Korea, 2020; Drugo more, Rijeka, Croatia, 2021) explored the non-alignment movement. Recently she co-curated Realize! Resist! React!, Performance and Politics in the 1990s in the Post-Yugoslav Context at the Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova (+MSUM).
16.55 - 17.05 Q&A
17.05 - 17.10 Closing remarks
