Asia Art Archive Celebrates 10th Anniversary
AAA presents six exciting initiatives to usher in the next decade
Asia Art Archive
11/F Hollywood Centre
233 Hollywood Rd
Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
info [at] aaa.org.hk
www.aaa.org.hk
AAA is a community effort that has grown from a single bookshelf in 2000, to one of the most comprehensive collections of source material related to contemporary art in the region. With over 32,000 titles, freely accessible to the public via its physical space and searchable from its website, AAA is dedicated to documenting the recent history of visual art in Asia within an international context. To extend the reach of the Archive, AAA has organised over 100 artist talks, community projects, educational workshops, symposia, exhibitions, and screenings.
At the core of its mission is AAA’s commitment to create a collection belonging to the public, a collection which exists not in an enclosed area, but in a space that is open and productive, generating new ideas and works that continually reshape the Archive itself. The following programs celebrate the Archive’s 10th anniversary.
10th Anniversary Programmes
AAA recently launched Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990, a project that involved collecting, indexing, and preserving rare documentary material from the 1980s in China. Now, with over 70,000 digital documents, AAA maintains the world’s largest systematically organised archive of material on this seminal period. This scholarly resource is freely accessible to the public from AAA’s physical premises as well as through the dedicated web portal www.china1980s.org.
A Performance Art Initiative will build a focused collection of material on performance art and make it accessible to the public. In October 2010, AAA organized the symposium Action Script, a collaboration with the Centre for Community Cultural Development (CCCD). The event brought key members of this community together to address challenges in archiving performance art and to discuss ways in which AAA’s initiative will be realised. Speakers included Thomas Berghuis, Ray Langenbach, Seiji Shimoda, and Martha Wilson, with a special programme by Tehching Hsieh.
On 27 November, AAA will host its 9th Annual Fundraiser Gala Dinner and Charity Auction at China Club. A preview of works to be auctioned at Sotheby’s will be held on 19 November and will feature over 70 works of art from globally recognised artists.
AAA will host two International Artists-in-residence in 2011—web-art collaborative Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries and artist Song Dong. Seoul-based web-art collaborative Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries is known for their distinctive style, which challenges popular culture and manipulates power dynamics with black and white text-based animations. Their works have been shown globally, including at the New Museum, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Tate, London; Pompidou Centre, Paris; The Getty Center, Los Angeles; and Venice Biennial.
Beijing-based artist Song Dong has been a significant figure in the development of Chinese conceptual art since the early 1990s. His practice incorporates performance, photography, video, and installation and explores a rapidly modernising China. His works have been exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Sao Paolo Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, Istanbul Biennale, Guangzhou Biennale, and at other major museums and institutions around the world.
In early 2011, AAA will launch its rebuilt digital archive and updated website, offering users greater research capabilities and a more diversified search system, and enabling a deeper level of remote access to comprehensive information on contemporary art in Asia. AAA will also collaborate with Artstor, a digital image databank in New York, to share approximately 10,000 images through Artstor’s Digital Library.
Also in early 2011, AAA will launch Open Edit: AAA Mobile Library, a pilot project in partnership with Sàn Art from Ho Chi Minh City. This transportable archive will travel throughout Asia, delivering a selection of material from AAA directly to various art communities, and inviting input from users to promote a network of shared resources.
For more information on Asia Art Archive and it’s 10th Anniversary programmes, please visit www.aaa.org.hk.
