Restaging critical exhibitions: the will to archive/memorialise/subjectivity

Abstract

Why and how do we remember exhibitions, who remembers these exhibitions, what are their motivations, and what are the impulses to restage exhibitions? This paper examines the recent curatorial phenomenon of restaging a new exhibitionary mode – the critical exhibition – that first emerged from in Southeast Asia in the 1970s. The restaged critical exhibition is proposed as a new type of exhibition that reinterprets, contests, and mediates between the multiple contexts of the present and the past that inflects on the future. The term ‘restaging’ is used to evoke the stage as a metaphor and a site of memory not to represent but reflexively present the processes of remembering through memory structures such as the interplay between the memorial and history that is contested, the making of new subjectivities and the archive that resists forgetting.

Keywords:

• Seng Yu Jin
• critical
• exhibitions
• Southeast Asian art
• restaging
• memory
• remembering
• archive
• subjectivities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Yu Jin Seng is Senior Curator at The National Gallery Singapore. He was previously a Lecturer for the MA Asian Art Histories at LASALLE College of the Arts, and now lectures at the National University of Singapore. Seng’s research interests cover regional art histories focusing on Southeast Asian art in relation to the history of exhibitions and artist collectives in Southeast Asia. His curated exhibitions include From Words to Pictures: Art During the Emergency (2006) and he also co-curated The Artists Village: 20 Years On (2008), FX Harsono: Testimonies (2009), The Singapore Biennale: If the World Changed (2013), Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia, 1960s to 1990s (2019) and Suddenly Turning Visible: Art and Architecture in Southeast Asia (1969–1989) (2019). Seng received his PhD from the University of Melbourne, Asia Institute.

Notes

1 Restagings of Towards a Mystical Reality by Simon Soon in Soil and Stones, Souls and Songs took place at MCAD, Manila (2016), Para Site in Hong Kong (2017) and the Jim Thompson House, Bangkok (2017). A small re-staging of Towards a Mystical Reality was also part of Between Declarations and Dreams: Art of Southeast Asia since the 19th Century, a show that marked the opening of The National Gallery Singapore’s Southeast Asia Long-Term Gallery.

2 Lieux de mémoire has been translated as either ‘places’ or ‘sites’ of memory. This paper adopts ‘sites of memory’, as the concept of ‘site’ is closer to our aim of spatially comparing exhibitions. Place, on the other hand, emphasises the notion of a particular position.

3 It is important to recognise that not all sites of memory are equal. Dominant sites of memory are often patronised and legitimised by the state, such as war memories or the state-sanctioned status of historical figures. These dominant sites of memory have the capacity to summon people to them, such as national monuments during commemorative events. Restaged critical exhibitions, in contrast, are sites of memory that do not necessarily enjoy direct state support. Instead, they are often vehicles of resistance that generate counter-narratives to the hegemonic discourse. They make visible and give a voice to suppressed memories on controversial pasts.

4 See Dirgantoro (2017), who gives an account for art writings on GSRB being male dominated.

5 One approach is to interview women artists who have been overshadowed by their male counterparts. This will require a concerted effort of scholars and curators who have been advancing exhibition histories as a discipline.

6 For scholarship that provides a more balanced notion of female leadership in Southeast Asian societies, particularly in villages and in the economy, please refer to Reid (1988).

7 David Teh’s Thai Art (2017) proposes a calculated ethics of withdrawal manifested in the Thai word baramee.

8 The Curatorial Team of SUNSHOWER consisted of: practitioners from The National Art Center, Tokyo (Yoneda Naoki, Kida Sayuri, Mukasa Yuiko, Minami Yusuke); Mori Art Museum (Kataoka Mami, Tokuyama Hirokazu, Kumakura Haruko, Araki Natsumi, Kondo Kenichi, Tsubaki Reiko); and independent curators from Southeast Asia [Merv Espina (The Philippines), Vera Mey (Singapore), Ong Jo-Lene (Malaysia), Grace Samboh (Indonesia)].

9 The 13 arrested were: Prapansak Kamolpetch, Visa Kanthap, Thanya Chunkathatharn, Thawee Muenthikorn, Boonsong Chalethorn, Thirayuth Boonmee, Bandhit Hengnilrat, Montri Juengsirinarak, Nopporn Suwanpanich, Preedi Boonsue, Chaiwat Suravichai, Kongkiat Kongka and Khaisaeng Suksai. The number of protestors swelled to almost 400,000 by October 13 with the crowd moving to the Democracy Monument site, and only began to disperse when Thirayuth Boonmee managed to get word to Seksan Prasertkul, that the demonstrators who had been arrested had been released and granted an audience with the late King Bhumibol (Rama X), with the promise of a new constitution by October 1974.

10 The TUAFT called for a meeting to form a national organisation for all forms of cultural production one year after the traumatic event. Many of the artists who came for this meeting, like Chang Sae Tang, Prateung Emjaroen, Lawan Oopa-in (Daorai), Sompot Oopa-in, Chumleong Wichiakhet, Seht Thetsatham, Kumjorn Soonpongsri, Phanom Suwannanark, Thakon Priyakanitpong, Saetee Juntimatorn, Tawee Meurnnikorn, Pithak Piyapong, Sataporn Chaiseht, Chartchawun Patumvit, Nivat Kongpia, Luan Khetjasart, Trakul Preepun, Chookiat Jareonsook, Manut Kiasingha, and Chokchai Tukpo, were actively involved in the October 14, 1973 protest movement. See Wongsmai (1994).

11 This law criminalises any defamation, insult, or threat to the monarchy under Section 112 of the Thai Criminal Code, which has been in effect since 1908.

12 Recent exhibitions that claim a global perspective include: Global Conceptualism: Points of Origin, 1950s-1980s (1999), Global Feminisms (2007), The World Goes Pop (2017). Global Surrealism (2020) is to be organised by the Art Institute of Chicago and Tate Modern.

13 The restaging of exhibitions can also be part of the process of canon-making of exhibitions, especially when they are initiated by artists who were themselves the exhibition-makers. The question of self-interest should therefore always be consciously and reflexively considered. For instance, FX Harsono who was a leading exhibition-maker of the Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru recently restaged this exhibition at the Institute of the Arts, Yogyakarta (Indonesia) titled, Menafsir Gerakan Seni Rupa Baru (2016).