Zoe Butt

The Journey of Conscience as Consciousness: Re-tracing Histories

What does it mean to think and present, as a curator, the shared histories between artists and the trauma of cultural memory, to international audiences? In the process of commissioning work that undertakes an examination of nation beyond the borders of country, what are some of the considerations necessary in its research and realization?

This presentation examines particular projects commissioned / realized for Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber – Journey Beyond the Arrow. Sharing the learning experience of working across the violence of cultural borders; interrogating historical periods that remain locked under official red tape; acknowledging the residual suspicion and emotional stigmatism between and within differing community: all of this and more will be shared in addition to the curatorial praxis of interpretation in the realization of this labor as an exhibition experience for foreign audiences.

Central to the motivations behind such a journey of conscience is the question of responsibility in the facilitation of history as curators. In understanding the landscape of artistic production and art education across the world is very uneven, and in knowing how the art industry has an increasing penchant for “socially-engaged” artwork – how do we as curators, advise and engage community through artist’s and their production? What are our parameters of concern when it comes to our facilitation of representation of others, in the naming of people, issues, cultures and potentially tragic circumstances that are not our own, by the artists in our care? The necessity to comprehend there is always intangible elements to every tangible occurrence is crucial in the transference of object and testimony across differing spaces of culture.

Artists under discussion will include Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Jompet Kuswidananto, Phan Thao Nguyen, Antariksa, Ahmad Fuad Osman and Kidlat Tahimik.