20:30-20:40   Introduction

20:40-21:05    Tayeba Begum Lipi & Mahbubur Rahman (Britto Arts Trust) | The Passage from Nothing to All

21:05-21:30      Fang Lu & Arie Kishon | Immediate Travel

21:30–21:50     Aslı Çavuşoğlu | Pink as a Cabbage, Green as an Onion, Blue as an Orange

21:50–22:10     The Center for Genomic Gastronomy | Gaian Gastronomy: Food & Waste Systems Across Scales

22:10-22:30     Chen Xiaoyang | Dinner with Another World: Ancestral Beliefs and Food in Rituals in Southern China 

22:30-22:40    Discussion and Q&A 

Aslı Çavuşoğlu’s work examines the way in which cultural and historical facts are transformed, represented, and interpreted by individuals. Working across various media, Çavuşoğlu often assumes the role of an interpreter, writer or facilitator in her projects in order to highlight the precarious and subjective nature of our shared histories. Recent solo shows include “With Just the Push of a Voice”, MASS MoCA (North Adams, Massachusetts, 2020); “The Place of Stone”, New Museum (New York, 2018); “Red/Red”, MATHAF Arab Museum of Modern Art (Qatar, 2016); “In Diverse Estimations Little Moscow”, RISD Museum (Providence, 2014); “The Stones Talk,” ARTER (Istanbul, 2013); and “Murder in Three Acts”, Delfina Foundation (London, 2013). Group exhibitions and biennials include; Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2020), Moderna Museet (Stockholm, 2017), Castello di Rivoli (Torino, 2019 & 2017), Manifesta 11 (Zurich, 2016), 14th Istanbul Biennial (Istanbul, 2015), New Museum Triennial (New York, 2015), Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art (Rotterdam, 2014), MAK Museum in Vienna (Vienna), and Performa 11 (New York, 2011). Her works are included in international collections including; Arter (Istanbul), British Museum (London), Castello di Rivoli (Turin), MATHAF (Qatar), MoMA (New York), and Kadist (Paris/San Francisco).

Chen Xiaoyang (Associate Professor of Sculpture and Public Art Department, GAFA, Deputy Director of GAFA Art Museum) 

Chen Xiaoyang holds a PhD in Visual Anthropology, and is currently the Deputy Director of the Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts (GAFA), and Associate Professor of Sculpture and Public Art Department of GAFA. As an interdisciplinary artist and researcher, in recent years she has been engaged in anthropological research and an art practice based on social participation. Her projects and works are largely based on hidden community history and ideas of reality. She has worked in urban village communities within Guangzhou and in the hills on the outskirts of the city with volunteer organizations, teaching institutions, museums, and non-profit organizations. In addition, she is engaged in researching, disseminating and reconstructing the culture of southern China by means of local exhibitions and research writing. Since 2008, she has participated in the initiation and implementation of social participatory art projects such as the “Lantian Project,” “Nanting Research,” “Yuan Art Museum,” and other practices related to new art museums.

Fang Lu (Artist) 

Fang Lu was born in Guangzhou, China in 1981. She currently lives and works in Beacon, New York. Her main artistic focus is video art, and her works have been shown and screened in museums and art spaces including the Asian Art Museum (San Francisco), Anthology Film Archive (New York), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Borges Libreria Institute of Contemporary Art (Guangzhou), Guangdong Times Museum (Guangzhou), OCAT Shanghai, UCCA (Beijing), and Inside-Out Art Museum (Beijing). Fang’s recent work addresses the tensions that are inextricably part of modern life. Through elevating personal experience and struggles to metaphysical settings, she strives to reveal the magical aspects of the so-called mundane.

Arie Kishon (Artist)  

Arie Kishon was born in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1983, and is presently based in Beacon, New York and Tel Aviv. His diverse artistic practice includes cinema, painting, music, and poetry. Kishon has a background in cinema and photography, and has been active as a sound art and vocal performer in the Israeli underground music scene for the past 15 years. His performances are often described as “noise meditations,” shapeless and animalistic.

Britto Arts Trust (Artist-run Not-for-profit Platform)

Britto Arts Trust is the first artist-run non-profit collective in Bangladesh. Founded in 2002 by 6 artists and permanently located at Green Road, Dhaka, the collective works extensively in different locations across Bangladesh. Britto Arts Trust is an expansive and sustainable non-commercial contemporary art environment that supports and promotes multiple interdisciplinary practitioners, groups and networks. As a catalyst it provides a platform for the development of professional artists, a place where they can meet, discuss, and upgrade their skills on their own terms. As part of Triangle Network, Britto Arts Trust is connected with a number of artistic organizations and institutions across the globe. It also belongs to the South Asian Network for Art (SANA) that includes Khoj Delhi, VASL Karachi, and Theertha Colombo. In partnership with Bengal Foundation (Bangladesh) and Gervasuti Foundation (Venice/London), Britto Arts Trust participated in the 2011 Venice Biennale, marking the first time the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was featured in the Biennale’s International Art Exhibition.

Artists Tayeba Begum Lipi and Mahbubur Rahman are co-founders and trustees of the Britto Arts Trust. They serve as the trust’s representatives for this talk.

Tayeba Begum Lipi (born Gaibandha, Bangladesh) graduated in 1993 with an MFA from the Institute of Fine Art, University of Dhaka. Tayeba’s significant group shows include the Asian Art Biennial (Taichung, 2017); Kathmandu Triennale (2017); Art Festival Watou (Belgium, 2016); SONSBEEK 16’ (The Netherlands, 2016); “Frontiers Reimagined“ (Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Venice, 2015); Dhaka Art Summit (2014 and 2012); “No Country” (The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Asia Society Hong Kong Center, and CCA Singapore, 2013-14); Colombo Biennale (2012); Jakarta Biennale (2012); and the Bangladesh Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011).

Mahbubur Rahman (born 1969, Dhaka, Bangladesh) completed his MFA at the Institute of Fine Art, University of Dhaka in 1993. Mahbub’s selected group shows include: Dhaka Art Summit (2020, 2014, and 2012); Jaipur Sculpture Park (2019); Kathmandu Triennale (2017); “Shadow Scenes” (Rio Complex, Colombo, 2015); “Daily Pasture” (Museum Of Contemporary Art, Xinjiang, 2014); Colombo Biennale (2014); Bangladesh Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennale (2011); Kathmandu International Art Festival (2009 & 2012); Gwangju Biennale (2008); South Asian Contemporary Art Exhibition (Copenhagen, 2006); and Indian Triennale (New Delhi, 2001).

Tayeba Begum Lipi and Mahbubur Rahman participated as an artist-duo in the 2016 exhibition “Artist as Activist” at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, USA, curated by Caitlin Doherty.

The Center for Genomic Gastronomy (Artist Collective)

The Center for Genomic Gastronomy is an artist-led think tank that examines the biotechnologies and biodiversity of human food systems. Launched in 2010 by Norwegian Cathrine Kramer and American Zack Denfeld, the Center has collaborated with scientists, chefs, hackers and farmers in Europe, Asia, and North America. Their mission is to map food controversies, prototype alternative culinary futures, and imagine a more just, biodiverse, and beautiful food system. The Center presents research about the organisms and environments manipulated by human food cultures in the form of public lectures, research publications, meals, and exhibitions. The Center’s work has been published in We Make Money Not Art, Science, Nature and Gastronomica and has been exhibited at the World Health Organization, Jeu de Paume, Kew Gardens, Science Gallery Dublin and the V&A Museum.

Moderator

Yan Fang (Curator of Public Programs, UCCA)

Yan Fang is an art critic and curator of public programs at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art. She graduated from University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne with a Master’s degree in History of Art: History of Art and Philosophy, and has previously worked at the Musée national d’Art moderne/Centre Pompidou.