The Multitude Art Prize Discourse Series is an annual program of discussions that travel with the exhibition program across Asia, opening up thematically with each edition. As a starting point for a long-term conversation, this year’s inaugural conference explores questions fundamental to the project’s inception.

The scale of geopolitical change taking place across Asia can make contemporary art seem powerless to intervene or even participate. As globalization has arguably taken over from where colonialism left off, contemporary art’s often-complicit relationship with this new cultural and economic order complicates or perhaps compromises its role in society. Within this backdrop, how do contemporary artists and institutions help to make culture relevant for society in different parts of Asia? Do they constitute a ‘multitude,’ and what meaning can be generated as their identities continuously evolve with their contexts?

The Multitude Art Prize Discourse Series has invited the European museum network L’Internationale to join a distinguished panel of curators and scholars from Asia and beyond to initiate this conversation in Beijing.

Multitude Art Prize

Presented by the Multitude Foundation and WH.A.T. in collaboration with UCCA for the 2013 event.

The Multitude Foundation

The Multitude Foundation was conceived out of the necessity for a genuine and sustainable cultural dialogue between the different regions of Asia. It was established in 2011, and is a Hong Kong registered charitable trust. Its remit is to support Asian contemporary artists and engage with young people through creative projects that are important for their development. The Foundation will raise awareness of contemporary culture throughout Asia and explore the relevance of art during this period of enormous geopolitical change.

The internationally acclaimed Multitude Art Prize (MAP) is the first major undertaking of the Multitude Foundation.

Wuhan Art Terminus (WH.A.T.)

Wuhan Art Terminus (WH.A.T.) is a contemporary art centre currently being developed in Wuhan, China. Located on the site of Wuhan’s most important historical railway station, WH.A.T. takes inspiration from the idea of the “terminus,” a place that both sends out and receives people and their ideas. By basing projects on international collaboration and the investigation of contemporary issues, WH.A.T. endeavors to create experimental projects both in Wuhan and around the world.

WH.A.T. is a Wuhan Dingyun project, and is scheduled to open in 2014. Wuhan Dingyun is cultural development company based in Wuhan initiating a number of cultural projects including the Wuhan Art Terminus (WH.A.T.).

Note:

FREE, ticket required. See Ticketing & Participation.*

10:00-10:20

Welcome & introduction
Phil Tinari & Colin Chinnery

10:20-11:35

Kate Fowle in conversation with the Multitude Art Prize jury on what it means for art to be 'relevant', and how relevance expresses itself as potentiality in different geopolitical contexts.
Panel: Zdenka Badovinac, Patrick Flores, November Paynter, Jack Persekian, Ravi Sundaram

11:35-11:45

Break

11:45-13:00

Bart De Baere in conversation with curators from different kinds of institutions on "Engagement: Do audiences constitute a 'commons' or a 'multitude'? To what end do institutions engage their audiences?"
Panel: Kate Fowle, Mami Kataoka, Jack Persekian, and Bartomeu Marí Ribas

13:00-14:30

Lunch

14:30-15:45

Zdenka Badovinac in conversation with L’Internationale speakers on the meaning of constructing institutional networks, how dialogues in Europe or the US can connect with wider dialogues, and whether/why we need to do so.
Panel: Bart de Baere, November Paynter, Bartomeu Marí Ribas, Georg Schöllhammer

15:45-17:00

Philippe Pirotte in conversation with Asian curators on institutional networks in Asia, whether they should be expanded, and why.
Panel: Patrick Flores, Mami Kataoka, Jack Persekian, Gao Shiming, Ravi Sundaram, Phil Tinari

17:00-17:10

Break

17:10-18:00

Response to ideas of the day
Panel: All speakers
Moderator: Colin Chinnery

18:00-18:30

Q&A from audience

Zdenka Badovinac, Director, Moderna Galerija (Museum of Modern Art) in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Bart De Baere, Director, Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp (M HKA), Belgium

Patrick D. Flores, Professor of Art Studies, University of the Philippines; Curator, Vargas Museum, Manila, Philippines; Adjunct Curator, National Art Gallery, Singapore

Kate Fowle, Chief Curator, Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture in Moscow, Russia; Director at Large, Independent Curators International (ICI), New York, United States

Mami Kataoka, Chief Curator, Mori Art Museum (MAM), Tokyo, Japan

Bartomeu Marí Ribas, Director of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), Spain

November Paynter, Associate Director of Research and Programmes, SALT, Istanbul, Turkey

Jack Persekian, Director, Palestine Museum, Jerusalem

Philippe Pirotte, Adjunct Senior Curator, University of California Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, United States; Programme Director, Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing, China; Partner Curator for the Multitude Foundation in Hong Kong, China; Senior Advisor, Rijksakademie (Royal Academy of Visual Arts), Amsterdam, Netherlands

Georg Schöllhammer, Director, Julius Koller Society, Vienna, Austria; Editor-in-Chief, Springerin - Hefte für Gegenwartskunst, Vienna, Austria

Gao Shiming, Executive Director, School of Intermedia Art, China Academy of Art (CAA), Hangzhou, China

Ravi Sundaram, Fellow, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi, India; co- Founder of Sarai (a research program on media), New Delhi, India