Introduction:Initiated by Biljana Ciric, “From a History of Exhibitions Towards a Future of Exhibition-Making: The Third Assembly – Exhibition-Making Practices in China and Southeast Asia after 2000” will be held at the Guangdong Times Museum on December 14 – 15, 2019. The Reading Room, which occupies the space of Banyan Commune on the ground floor of the Times Museum, will be open to the public from September 30, 2019.
The Reading Room is an integral part of the research platform co-established by Biljana Ciric and the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, which focuses on the history and practice of exhibition making in China and Southeast Asia since the 1990s. Existing academic research on the history of exhibitions relies heavily on literature that arises from the context of Western contemporary art, while relatively few self-initiated research projects have been carried out in Asia. This groundbreaking research platform aims to demonstrate the singularity of different regions in Asia as well as the diversity of cultural contexts, thereby contributing to the representation of exhibition-making practices and the rewriting of exhibition histories in Asia from the perspectives and contexts of various localities.
The Reading Room treats the history of exhibitions as a subject worthy of serious investigation, and encapsulates current research and significant publications in the field, from archives from the 1990s to empirical research on exhibition history. Meanwhile, the Reading Room uses different approaches to explore the role of books in revisiting exhibition history and the multivalence of the book as a medium.
Drawing from the collections of the Rockbund Art Museum, OCAT Institute, Guangdong Times Museum, and the personal collection of Biljana Ciric and number of peers, curators, writers, artists who contributed with books the Reading Room makes available first-hand archives and documents, critical literature, exhibition catalogues, artist books, and facsimiles of out-of-print publications about the history of exhibitions in China and Southeast Asia since 1990. At the Times Museum, the Reading Room will also include titles suggested by researchers participating in the Third Assembly, as well as books and archival documents donated by the Macao Museum of Art, the He Xiangning Art Museum in Shenzhen, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Singapore Art Museum, and on loan from Asia Art Archive. We invite the audience to interact with these materials, to expand and circulate forms and methods of documenting exhibition history that enhance public awareness and appreciation.
The artist Cheng Tingting has also been invited to participate in the presentation of the Reading Room. Intimately informed by her experience as a woman and an artist, Cheng’s work reflects the complexity of gender and gender perspectives. Working closely with the curator, Cheng incorporates her work into the design and display of the Reading Room, including self-portraits, artist books and sculptures. Taking gender disparity in the Reading Room materials as the starting point of research, the artist will also create a series of new works to be shown in the Reading Room.
Dates: 2019.09.30 - 2020.02.16
Hours:14:00-18:00, Fri to Sun
Tickets:Free
Venue:1F Banyan Commune
Add.:Times Museum, Times Rose Garden Phase III Huangbian North Road, N. Baiyun Avenue, Guangzhou
Nearby metro station: Huangbian, Linie 2
Tel:+8620-26272363
