About

Collecting Entanglements and Embodied Histories is a dialogue between the collections of Galeri Nasional Indonesia, MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, and Singapore Art Museum, initiated by the Goethe-Institut.

Aiming to trace stories, counter-histories, and absent histories whose spirits populate the present and seek new narratives, Collecting Entanglements and Embodied Histories explores the question of how these interwoven histories within nation-building processes, individual identity formation, and their embodiment are reflected in artistic works and their exhibition history.

Since 2017, the members of the curatorial team have been sharing their investigations into their respective collections, expanding their research towards each other’s collections, and interrogating each other’s gazes. This dialogue will be followed by four different exhibitions in Chiang Mai, Jakarta, Singapore, and Berlin. These exhibitions are jointly conceived by the curatorial team consisting of Anna-Catharina Gebbers, Grace Samboh, Gridthiya Gaweewong, June Yap. For each chapter the nature of the exhibitions will be altered, shape-shifted and will specifically respond to each site and context with works from the collections of each chapter’s exhibiting institution. Loans from the respective other collections will foster the dialogue of shared knowledge and shared collections concerning shared and entangled histories. Further, there will be film programs, performances, seminars, workshops, and publications conducted in conjunction with each of the site-specific exhibitions.