Asia Triennial Manchester: Transvaluation

The sixth edition of Asia Triennial Manchester (ATM6) has been curated by Hongjohn Lin, Henk Slager, Miya Yoshida, Kalen Lee, and Yusaku Imamura. They have realised the multivenue exhibition and research project Transvaluation, hosted by Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University. The curatorial framework of the triennial is ‘transvaluation’. To transvalue means to transgress the logic of value and the systemic structures it legitimises. The triennial brings together a diverse body of works by more than 30 international practitioners, which commune in their creation of new ways to think about value, extending beyond economics, efficiency and utility to establish new conceptions of social, sexual, ecological, indigenous and decolonial relations. The triennial also seeks to question and complicate the symbolic, cultural, political and poetic values associated with Asia today.

Manchester is an apt site for this edition’s critical inquiry. As one of the historical cradles of capitalism, industrial modernity and communism—the city in which Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels famously came together to theorise revolution—it holds symbolic weight to further reconsider value. Engels’ “The Condition of the Working Class in England” (1845) remains a powerful document testifying to industrial violence, urban transformation and social precarity. Informed by the climate catastrophe, the triennial further investigates how the conditions of the Anthropocene complicate the ways in which value is attributed and shared across human and more-than-human systems. 

ATM was established in 2008 by Alnoor Mitha as Europe’s only contemporary art event dedicated to exhibiting and engaging with contemporary art from Asia and its diaspora. ATM6 is hosted and supported by the Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University, and will run for a month at the University’s Poetry Library, the Holden and Modal galleries. It will further extend into the city, through partnerships with the Manchester Art Gallery, esea contemporary, and the arts centre HOME. Alongside the multi-venue exhibition, a film festival celebrating the work of groundbreaking filmmaker Tsai Ming-Liang will include screenings and an in-conversation with the Director. esea contemporary will present a partner exhibition, Marcos Kueh: Smooth Sailing, debuting an immersive textile installation work, co-commissioned by esea contemporary, Manchester Metropolitan University, and the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (CHAT), Hong Kong SAR. 

Alongside ATM6, an international collective of doctoral students has formed Research Jam—a discursive, intergenerational platform at the heart of Transvaluation which will activate the arches at HOME from Monday October 27  to Friday October 31. These events act as precursor to the triennial and a call to emergent artists, students, young people, and local audiences to explore the many themes, questions and contexts central to it. 

Throughout the month-long duration of Transvaluation, an extensive programme of artist performances and public events will take place at the University and partner cultural organisations across the city. A public symposium on November 6 will explore critical inquiries and artistic practices central to ATM6.

ATM6 artists: Tiong Ang & Company (Andreea David, Kexin Hong, Ingrid Sanghee Edwards’ Diego Ferrari, Li Xiangdong, Jan Yongdeok Lim, Changli Cui Luo, Andrés Novo, Heekyung Ryu, Wang Xue Sophia); Chien-Chi Chang; Ting-Tong Chang; Yang Ah Ham; Shur-Tzy Hou; Chia-Wei Hsu; Yi-Ting Hsu; Dondon Houmwm; Stephanie Misa; Ziliä Qansurá; Tsai Ming-Liang; Stefanos Tsivopoulos; Wei-Cheng Tu; Yu-Chen Wang; We Are Komachi (Jeffrey Angels, Sae Esashi, Hiromi Ito, Yuko Kaseki, Tomoko Mori, Kanoko Nishi) and Jui-Chung Yao.

Curatorial Assembly: Hongjohn Lin, Henk Slager, Miya Yoshida, Kalen Lee, Yusaku Imamura, Sarah James, and Anna Bergqvist.

Exhibition Team: Adam Butler, Technical Manager; Clare Chun-yu Liu, Research Associate; Angie Chia-Lin Lee, Assistant Convener; Vera Mey, Curatorial Research Fellow; and Laura Peters, Senior Faculty Planning and Operations Manager.

Venues: Manchester Metropolitan University and Manchester Poetry Library; esea contemporary; HOME and Manchester Art Gallery.

Partners: esea contemporary; HOME; Manchester Art Gallery; Castlefield Gallery.

For further enquiries please contact: press@mmu.ac.uk