The Secrets of the South | Interview with Nobuo Takamori

For our inaugural issue of Southerly Journal, Chris Whitfield and I, sat down with Nobuo Takamori, co-curator of The Secret South: From Cold War Perspective to Global South in Museum Collection at Taipei Fine Arts Museum (25 July-25 October 2020) to discuss the exhibition and its approach to the archive, the cold war, and South-south relations. Thematically separated into six sections, with a focus on Taiwan’s relations with other countries and regions in the Global South, this exhibition reflected upon Taiwan’s political self-imagination.

Read the interview here.

Southerly Journal

Southerly is a platform for art writing and criticism that tracks the currency and intensities of ideas and practice in Taiwan and the Asia Pacific. From short and long-form criticism, essays and reviews to dialogues, commentary and experimental prose, Southerly prospects the shifting landscape of art and exhibitions in the region.

The inaugural issue features writing by CCSCA students explored the varied pathways, connections and entry points in art and exhibition-making in Taiwan and beyond

EDITORIAL

Francis Maravillas - “Editorial: Southerly”

ESSAYS

Cullen Pitney - “Left to Our Own Devices”

Leora Joy - “Decolonising Nature: The 2018 Taipei Biennial and Manifesta 12”

Shormi Ahmed - “Curating Tension”

Daniella Romano - “‘Everyday Life and Landscapes of the Island’: Unsettling the Colonial Gaze”

INTERVIEWS

Leora Joy Jones, Christopher Whitfield “The Secrets of the South: An interview with Nobuo Takamori”

RESPONSES AND REVIEWS

LU Pei-Yi, Leora Joy Jones, Shu-Yu Hsueh, Christopher Whitfield - “Roundtable Review: ‘The Secret South: From Cold War Perspective to Global South in Museum Collection'”

Assistant editors: Leora Joy Jones and Christopher Whitfield
Art direction and design: Joy Jones, Justine Rigal, and Christopher Whitfield

Curators' Intensive Taipei 2019

The National Culture and Arts Foundation and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum joined forces to co-organize the Curators' Intensive Taipei 19 (CIT 19). It's being billed as a platform established by the ARTWAVE─Taiwan International Arts Network and programmed by TheCube Project Space. The whole purpose? To really dig into and contemplate the profession of contemporary curating.

They're taking a two-pronged approach here. First, there's an international conference and a series of workshops. The goal? To echo the diversification of contemporary curatorial approaches, build up a strong network of art practitioners from around the world, and take curatorial education to the next level of profundity.

They've invited art practitioners and curators from Taiwan and beyond to lead these workshops. The participants get to learn, reflect, and put their ideas into practice through group interaction and pluralistic dialogue. The workshops are hosted by the Museum of National Taipei University of Education and co-programmed by their Master's Program in Critical and Curatorial Studies of Contemporary Art.

The international conference is running for three days, from October 11th to the 13th, and the theme is "Contemporary Curating Rethink: In the Context of Asia and Beyond." In the 20 years that curatorial studies have taken root and thrived in Taiwan, the National Culture and Arts Foundation and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum have been at the forefront - vigorously supporting and incubating all kinds of curatorial experimentation.

Building on that solid foundation, the conference organizers are tackling some big tasks. They want to construct Taiwan's curatorial history and deepen the collective knowledge about curating. They're starting from regional cultures and historical backgrounds, but they're also exploring the history and methodology of curating, the role and responsibility of curators in the Asian context. And they're aiming to stimulate reflections on how "curating" - with its research, exhibition, and pedagogical elements - can create brand new, effective and creative contexts in the face of cross-cultural fusion and the exhibition-based educational shift.

Quite the ambitious undertaking, eh? I'm curious to see what kind of insights and discussions emerge from all of this.

Photo: CCSCA

The 2019 Curators Intensive Taipei (CIT19) took place on several Saturdays between May and October 2019.

On Saturday 18 May 2019 the first of these six workshops took place at MoNTUE 北師美術館. Spanning a range of various contemporary curatorial issues across Asia, CIT19 aims to foster emerging curators in Taiwan and expand local professional networks.

The first session was led by independent artist and researcher Merv ESPINA (Philippines), and YAP Sau-Bin (artist and curator from Malaysia). Participants considered the various ways in which curators in Asia are tasked to work in and alongside institutions and museums, while still critically addressing the multiplicities of politics and dynamics in such a position.

Taking survey exhibitions like SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s — Now, (currently at the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts) as an example, the CIT19 participants explored different transdisciplinary and transregional approaches to showcasing art from Asia.

On the following Saturday (May 25) Freya CHOU (independent curator and writer, previously of Para Site, Hong Kong) and Alexander LAU (Empty Gallery, Hong Kong) discussed the personal bonds formed between the artist and the curator.

The next workshop (06/01) was run by TANG Fu-Kuen (the current curator of the Taipei Arts Festival under Taipei Performing Arts Center) and YUEN Chee-Wai ( a musician, artist, and designer based in Singapore).

The fourth session was led by HSU Fang-Tze (Taiwan/Singapore) and Vipash PURICHANONT (Thailand) on 06/08 and explored the concept of ‘hauntology’ in exhibition-making as a conceptual maneuver.

Th fifth session was held at TFAM’s Art Library and led by Yoann GOURMEL (France), and Esther LU (Taiwan) on 10/10.

The sixth and final session was an experimental and collaborative workshop led by Raimundas MALASAUSKAS (Lithuania) and CHANG Fang-Wei (Taiwan) on 10/14 at TFAM’s Art Library.

# 當代策展的新挑戰 Curators’ Intensive Taipei 19

Organizers: 國藝會NCAF + 臺北市立美術館 Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Programming: 立方計畫空間thecube project space
Workshop co-programming: CCSCA

Participants include curators from 高雄市立美術館, 鳳甲美術館 Hong-gah Museum, 台北當代藝術館 MOCA Taipei, 臺北市立美術館 Taipei Fine Arts Museum, 空總臺灣當代文化實驗場 C-LAB,竹圍工作室 Bamboo Curtain Studio.

Interview with Mali Wu

A few days before the end of the year, I sat down with Mali Wu, a socially engaged artist, who alongside Francesco Manancorda, co-curated the 2018 Taipei Biennial, titled Post Nature: A Museum as an Ecosystem. We spoke curatorial mechanisms, environmentally focused art, and her future plans.

42 participants from 19 countries were invited to participate. Many of these participants were non-traditional artists such as filmmakers, activists, researchers and other environmental groups.

Taipei Biennial 2018

Post-Nature: A Museum as an Ecosystem.

November 2018 - March 2019

Taipei Fine Art Museum

Tuesday to Sunday 9:30-17:30

Saturday 9:30-20:30

Loaded Guns

I wrote about Tatzu Nishi’s first monumental installation in Taipei.