Artistic "incursions" into academic fields are challenging the established system of knowledge production and, in particular, its domination by local authoritative discourses. This research seeks to analyse the creative entanglement of academic and artistic research in Southeast Asia, particularly Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam, and to examine its epistemological significance as a potential new mode of knowledge production.
Since the 2000s, artists in Southeast Asia progressively engaged in research processes inspired by the social sciences, working as historians, archivists, archaeologists or sociologists. However, these artists applied the working methodologies of those disciplines freely. The outcome of the artists’ research is presented as an artwork and not in a written and academic format. These artistic “incursions” into academic fields are challenging the established system of knowledge production and, in particular, its domination by local authoritative discourses.
Research thus appears as a new strategy to convey legitimacy and value to counter-narratives on social, cultural, historical and political issues while bringing forth new creative possibilities and innovative epistemological languages.
Based on extensive fieldwork, this presentation analyzes the creative entanglement of academic and artistic research in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam) and examines its epistemological significance as a potential new mode of knowledge production.
Dr Caroline Ha Thuc (b.1974 Paris, France) is an independent Hong Kong-based art writer, researcher and curator. Specializing in Asian contemporary art, she contributes to magazines such as ArtPress in France and Artomity/Cobo Social in Hong Kong. As a curator, she promotes dialogue between artists from different cultures while reflecting on contemporary social and political issues. Ha, Thuc holds a PhD from the School of Creative Media, CityU Hong Kong. Her research deals with artistic modes of knowledge production.
The archival doubt as a working field explores the central role of the archive as a place for establishing critical connections.
Catarina Simão, artist, Portugal / Mozambique, 2022
The presentation explores the case of a stolen 1,000-year-old Buddhist mummy, the statue of Zhanggong-sushi, which caught the international community's attention.
Zuozhen Liu, Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences, 2022
This paper, titled Stolen Objects from China: The Histories and Biographies of Yuanmingyuan ('Summer Palace') Collections in British and French Museums, explores the lives of objects stolen from China's Yuanmingyuan, or old 'Summer Palace', to the northwest of Beijing.
Louise Tythacott - School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2022
SOS - Stolen Object Stories aims to bring together academic and artistic perspectives on crossovers between imperialism, colonialism, decoloniality, heritage and creative practices of knowledge production. It aims at expanding the debate beyond traditional frontiers, be it the collection, the institution, or the nation, into the domain of ethics of care and repair.
Margarida Saraiva, BABEL Cultural Organization, Macau, 2022