A trilogy of publications on the artistic development in Asia from 1998 to 2018

Mousse Publishing is delighted to present a trilogy of publications: Shanghai Contemporary Art Archival Project 1998–2012; Arthub. From China to a Global Network 2008–2018; and Aurora Museum and Arthub. Contemporary Art within a Historical Collection 2013–2016. The volumes feature visual and textual research documents along with contributions by Defne Ayas, Chu Chu Yuan, Anna Coliva, Joumana El Zein Khoury, Charles Esche, Francesca Girelli, Lu Mingjun, Philippe Pirotte, Davide Quadrio, farid rakun, Aaron Seeto, Melati Suryodarmo, Xu Zhen, Yang Zhenzhong, and Zhao Yao.

The trilogy will be launched on the occasion of Art Basel Hong Kong with a conversation hosted at Para Site [booth P4] between Cosmin Costinas (Director of Para Site), Ute Meta Bauer (Founding Director of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University), Davide Quadrio (Arthub Founder and Director), Melati Suryodarmo (Artist and Artistic Director of the Jakarta Biennale 2017).

The aim of the three publications is to trace the artistic development in Asia from 1998 to 2018 through the eyes of practitioners both inside and outside the continent. Presenting primary sources and archival documents, along with analytical discussions and debates, the books lay down the foundations for an unconventional, non-academic approach to historicization which reflects their own subject: hybrid, alchemical artistic projects emerging from a context driven by rapidly changing local and global needs, impossible to categorize in a systematic manner.


Shanghai Contemporary Art Archival Project 1998–2012
The first volume stems from The Post-1998 Shanghai Contemporary Art Archive Research Project, launched by Vigy Jin, Davide Quadrio, and Xu Zhen—founders of the independent space BizArt—to sort through the history of Shanghai’s artistic development from 1998 to 2012.

Through the exemplary case of BizArt, the book attempts to historicize the moment when art in Shanghai, but also throughout Asia, first took on a professional stance; during this incubation phase, BizArt acted as a platform for experimentation. This publication spotlights a major opportunity to explore the actors and organizations that took part in that moment, the production of works and exhibitions, the beginning of the digital revolution that was explored, for example, through the creation of Art-Ba-Ba Contemporary Art Forum.

“The emotional history of Shanghai that this book reports on is only a fraction of the amazing energy that the end of the 1990s brought to the city, and which echoed and reverberated throughout Asia as a great awakening of cities and projects. It was a general movement of people and groups looking to define what art, cultural involvement, political engagement, and social unrest meant at the time.”—Vigy Jin, Davide Quadrio, Xu Zhen


Arthub. From China to a Global Network 2008–2018
The second volume of the series is dedicated to the first ten years of activity of Arthub, BizArt’s nonprofit offspring, which originated from the structural premises outlined in the first volume. Founded by Davide Quadrio together with Defne Ayas, Arthub first emerged as being deeply rooted in the Shanghai context, but right from the outset it expressed aspirations of a cross-national and cross-continental reach. The ambition and need to operate beyond the Chinese context, while exploiting the permeable nature of this locality (from South-East/Central Asia to European countries) has allowed Arthub to become a cross-cultural, global platform over the years.


Aurora Museum and Arthub. Contemporary Art within a Historical Collection 2013–2016
The trilogy concludes with a volume dedicated to a case study that outlines challenges and potential embedded in the orchestration of contemporary art initiatives within heritage-focused institutions. An analysis of a three-year program led by Arthub at the Aurora Museum of Shanghai serves as a backdrop to explore ideas to reactivate historical collections in the present tense. The experience of a “de-institution” guiding contemporary interventions in a private museum with a collection of antique Chinese art constitutes a unique project in the Asian context, revealing the potential of a quick-changing, unregulated cultural environment. The book furthermore includes contributions providing valuable insights into the ways two European institutions—respectively the Galleria Borghese and the Van Abbemuseum—have energized and re-contextualized their permanent collections.


One after the other, the three publications interconnect first-hand experiences of struggle and visionary experimentation that helped to consolidate a form of cultural hybridization that now defines China—and in broader terms, Asia—as a stage for innovation.

On the occasion of the conversation at Art Basel Hong Kong Place.Labour.Capital. will also be presented. Published by NTU CCA Singapore and Mousse Publishing in 2018 and edited by Ute Meta Bauer and Anca Rujoiu, the volume connects cultural production and artistic research to broader political and social concerns, engaging readers with contemporary debates in Southeast Asia and beyond, bringing together the voices of over 80 contributors.


Book Launch and Conversation
March 28th, 3pm, Art Basel Hong Kong, Para Site [booth P4]

Participants
Cosmin Costinas (Director of Para Site)
Ute Meta Bauer (Founding Director of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University)
Davide Quadrio (Arthub Founder and Director)
Melati Suryodarmo (Artist and Artistic Director of the Jakarta Biennale 2017)


Shanghai Contemporary Art Archival Project 1998–2012
Arthub. From China to a Global Network 2008–2018
Aurora Museum and Arthub. Contemporary Art within a Historical Collection 2013–2016
3 volumes, 376 pages
Language: English
Softcover, 13 x 19.5 cm
ISBN 9788867493333
2018