RECOLLECTIONS. EXPERIENCES. COMMUNITIES
Program
Greeting & Introduction:
Udo Kittelmann (Director of the Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin)
Johannes Ebert (General Secretary, Goethe-Institut)
16:00 – 18:00 Performance Sweet Dreams Sweet by Melati Suryodarmo
17:00 – 20:30 Panels I to III
In a region so ethnically, culturally and religiously diversified as Southeast Asia, museums are currently confronted with a number of questions and challenges. National museums, most of which are working with traditional concepts, are searching for more modern narratives.
The contemporary art scene is characterized by a growing number of art fairs, biennials, museum start-ups by collectors, and the initiatives of independent curators. In the framework of the project
Transitioning Museums in Southeast Asia initiated by Goethe-Institut, various experts from the museum landscape in Southeast Asia and Germany have met for roundtable discussions in Phnom Penh, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.
Discussions have so far focused on how museums handle photographic documents and archives, the cooperation of educational institutions, the work of artists, working with a diversity of communities as well as expectations of the public. Curators, museum directors and artists from Southeast Asia and Germany are invited to Berlin to share their experience, views and different perspectives concerning exhibition practices in transition.
With:
Friedrich von Bose (Lab of the Humboldt University at the Humboldt Forum, Berlin), Puawai Cairns (Maori Culture at the National Museum of New Zealand), Maria Joselina Cruz (Museum of Contemporary Art and Design - De La Salle College of Saint Benilde, Manila), Clémentine Deliss (Curator, Berlin), Gridthiya Gaweewong (Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok; MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum Chiang Mai, Thailand), Anna-Catharina Gebbers (Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin), Annissa Gultom (Jakarta History Museum), Vireak Kong (National Museum Cambodia), Chor Lin Lee (Museum Consultant, Singapore), Kusra Mukdawi-jitra (National Discovery Museum Institute, Bangkok), Barbara Plankensteiner (Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg), Grace Samboh (Curator, Yogyakarta), Russell Storer (National Gallery, Singapore), Enin Supriyanto (Curator, Jakarta), June Yap (Singapore Art Museum).
The symposium is a cooperation between the Goethe Institut and the Nationalgalerie — Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and takes place in conjunction with the exhibition "Hello World. Revising a collection“, which opens on April 27 2018 at 8 pm at Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin.
Performance Sweet Dreams Sweet BY Melati Suryodarmo
Melati Suryodarmo
Sweet Dreams Sweet (2013)
2 h, 28 performers, outdoor and indoor
Sweet Dreams Sweet is a two-hour durational performance with twenty-eight female performers wearing white uniform clothing. They move in pairs, walk, lie down and sit around the performance area. They dip their feet into blue water and stain their white stockings. The performance invites the audience to confront the dichotomy between uniformity and plurality in relation to Suryodarmo’s interest in the individual and the people.
Social pressure often forces people into a state of homogeneity. People want to wear the same kind of clothing and to do the same kind of things as the people around them. They are uncomfortable when they are too different from their community, triggering a fear or herd response. When a majority community dominates an originally diverse society, it alienates those who are different, forcing away the social, cultural, linguistic or political factors that had allowed for plurality. This phenomenon is against individualism, as the people of a uniform society are not autonomous.
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