No Country: Contemporary Art for South and Southeast Asia
PUBLISHED March 11th, 2014 02:15 pm | UPDATED May 9th, 2018 03:13 am
Critically Acclaimed Guggenheim UBS MAP Inaugural Exhibition Showcasing Artistic Creativity in South and Southeast Asia Opens in Singapore at the Centre for Contemporary Art on May 10, 2014
The exhibition was first presented in New York at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum last year (February 22–May 22, 2013) before its recent showing at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center (October 30, 2013–February 16, 2014).
Curated by June Yap, Guggenheim UBS MAP Curator, South and Southeast Asia, the exhibition will feature 19 paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos, and mixed-media works by 16 artists and collectives from 11 countries, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United Kingdom. Through these works, No Country invites audiences to engage with some of South and Southeast Asia’s most challenging and inventive artists, including Tang Da Wu, who currently lives and works in Singapore.
No Country’s presentation in Singapore, which brings the artworks back to the region from which many of the artists hail, calls for an even closer examination of regional cultural representations and relations, and suggests the possibility of a renewed understanding through a process of mutual rediscovery that transcends physical and political borders.
Exhibition Overview
The exhibition—the title of which was drawn from the opening line of W.B. Yeats’s ‘Sailing to Byzantium’ (1928), which was later adopted by Cormac McCarthy for his novel No Country for Old Men (2005)—presents South and Southeast Asia in terms of transformation and trace, charting patterns of historical and contemporary influence within and beyond the region itself.
With a narrative stretching from the ancient kingdoms and empires to today (the region now comprises more than 15 nations), No Country seeks to reflect upon exchanges and relationships within and between South and Southeast Asian nation-states, on the overall status of the nation-state today, and on the pressures and effects of globalization and colonialism.
According to Ms. Yap, ‘There is a tremendous diversity of artistic practice in South and Southeast Asia, and certainly more artists and artworks than any single project can accommodate. In this exhibition, the intention is to present the range of aesthetic developments and subjects of interest to contemporary artists, and to challenge the privileging of nation and national narrative as a basis for understanding them. Accompanied by programs for engagement with different local audiences, No Country is more than an exhibition; it is a platform for discussion and exchange.’
The artworks are grouped according to four themes: reflection and encounter, intersections and dualities, diversities and divisions, and the desire for unity and community. No Country presents artworks that challenge and explore the region’s historical ambiguities, territories both psychic and literal, individual subjectivities, and political, economic, and aesthetic negotiations.
Within South and Southeast Asia, experiences of cultural transmission and adaptation, and of colonization and division, have become inscribed as cultural memory and identity. In this way, cultural representation has become closely tied to nationalism, and has been articulated through national difference.
The artists in the Singapore presentation are:
• Bani Abidi (b.1971, Karachi, Pakistan)
• Reza Afisina (b. 1977, Bandung, Indonesia)
• Poklong Anading (b. 1975, Manila, The Philippines)
• Sheela Gowda (b. 1957, Bhadravati, Karnataka, India)
• Shilpa Gupta (b. 1976, Mumbai, India)
• Amar Kanwar (b. 1964, New Delhi, India)
• Vincent Leong (b. 1979, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
• Tran Luong (b. 1960, Hanoi, Vietnam)
• Tayeba Begum Lipi (b. 1969, Gaibandha, Bangladesh)
• Tuan Andrew Nguyen (b. 1976, Saigon, Vietnam)
• The Otolith Group (est. 2002, London, United Kingdom)
• Sopheap Pich (b. 1971, Battambang, Cambodia)
• Navin Rawanchaikul (b. 1971, Chiang Mai, Thailand)
• Norberto Roldan (b. 1953, Roxas City, Philippines)
• Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo (b. 1978, Bandung, Indonesia)
• Tang Da Wu (b. 1943, Singapore)
About Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative
Launched in April 2012, the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative is a multi-year collaboration that charts contemporary art practice in three geographic regions—South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East and North Africa—and encompasses curatorial residencies, international touring exhibitions, audience-driven education programming, and acquisitions for the Guggenheim’s permanent collection. All works have been newly acquired for the Guggenheim’s collection under the auspices of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Purchase Fund. Launched in April 2012, the program builds upon and reflects the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s distinguished history of internationalism and significantly increases the Guggenheim’s holdings of art from these dynamic communities.
Visitor Information
Admission: Free Gallery Hours: Tue-Sun, 12–7 pm; Fri, 12–9 pm; Closed Mon
