CURATORS CONVERSATION: OF HUNTERS AND GATHERERS (WITH ‘ART CURATOR GRID’, PORTUGAL

What motivates a curator to accompany an artist in the production of their art? In this process, what role does the curator have in assisting the artist navigate socially contentious content? Many artists, particularly those working with contested histories and communities, are collectors of rare data. To what extent is it the curator’s responsibility to record/archive/facilitate their findings? 

‘Art Curator Grid’ hosts The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre for a webinar on the occasion of their fourth edition of ‘The Plus Partnership Series’. Tune in to hear more about the project ‘Of Hunters & Gatherers’, as part of the Factory’s ‘Pollination’ program, where its curators will give global audiences the opportunity to discover this long-term residency initiative – reflecting on their process of working with artists Maryanto (Yogyakarta) and Ruangsak Anuwatwimon (Bangkok), inspired by local folk-lore, sharing the lives of particular mythical ‘hunter’, comparing the ethos of such stories to our contemporary context.

‘Maryanto’s tent-like installations, composed of paintings in charcoal and earth, share local knowledge of living with respect for Nature and its spirits, concerned by the impact of illegal, corporate and government hunting of water and sand, beneath Mount Merapi’ 

‘Ruangsak’s varied sculptural installations beg acknowledgement of the many animals whose lives are jeopardized along the heavy damming of the Mekong, creating various diorama from their bones as monument to their spirits that once guarded this crucial waterway’

Within this online forum, such questions, artwork (and more) will be posed and discussed, their being central to the realization of this third edition of ‘Pollination’.

Organized by The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, in Ho Chi Minh City, commissioned curators LIR (Yogyakarta) and Kittima Chareeprasit (Chiang Mai) in turn invited artists Maryanto (Yogyakarta) and Ruangsak Anuwatwimon (Bangkok) to create the project ‘Of Hunters and Gatherers’. After more than a year in field research  – beneath Mount Merapi’s explosive peaks and the over-dammed Mekong that gives border to Thailand and Laos – there is an exhibition that has opened at the MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum (Chiang Mai) and an online symposia (28-30 May, 2021) with dedicated website forthcoming.

What is Pollination?
Initiated by The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre (Ho Chi Minh City) in 2018, ‘Pollination’ provides emerging curators and artists in South East Asia the opportunity to co-produce and collaborate, to mutually benefit from this region’s private arts infrastructure – platforms recognizing the value of sharing (pollinating) their critical ideas and activities.

Our methodology
Each year, ‘Pollination’ invites an additional organization/community group to appoint a senior curatorial advisor. They in turn select an emerging curator who follows on to select an emerging artist. Dependent on location of funds, space and time, each year an edition is realized between two cities, comprised of travel, research, production and exhibition grants in the realization of a joint project (which is open-ended in form). Regardless of project involvement, regular meetings online are arranged to critically discuss forward projects and possible initiatives.

Current members
Organizations: The Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, SAM Fund for Art and Ecology, ILHAM Gallery, MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum

Advisors: Zoe Butt, Agung Hujatnikajennong, Rahel Joseph, Vipash Purichanont

Curators: Grace Samboh, Bill Nguyễn, Khatijah Rahmat, Lê Thuận Uyên, LIR (Mira Asriningtyas and Dito Yuwono), Kittima Chareeprasit 

Artists: Julia Sarisetiati, Vicky Đỗ, Izat Arif, Hoàng Minh Đức, Maryanto, Ruangsak Anuwatwimon