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Dublin Core
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Title
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Programmes
Programme
A non-persistent, time-based occurrence. Examples include symposia and conferences, public talks and performances, tours, workshops, open studios.
Short Description
During the past two years, a dispersed community of artists, thinkers, writers, and researchers was summoned, assembled, and brought together by curator Ute Meta Bauer on a set of three expeditions on board of the Dardanella, TBA21-Academy’s research vessel, which was travelling across various locations in the Pacific Ocean.
Programme Type
Screening
Audience
General
Location
Onsite (CCA)
Offsite
Online
Onsite (CCA)
Collaboration
Yes
Commissioned Work
No
Education
No
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Film programme: Liquid Traces–Visions
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oceans & Seas
Description
An account of the resource
<div class="event_single_dates text__exhibitions">3 Feb 2018, Sat 12:00 PM - 04:00 PM<br />4 Feb 2018, Sun 12:00 PM - 06:30 PM</div>
<div class="event_single_venue">The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road<br /><br /><p>What do we look at when we look at the ocean? From where do we look at when we look at the ocean? What shapes the visions of the sea, what are the sources of our personal and collective imaginaries, the references for our impressions, desires, and fears in relation to the sea?</p>
<p>During the past two years, a dispersed community of artists, thinkers, writers, and researchers was summoned, assembled, and brought together by curator Ute Meta Bauer on a set of three expeditions on board of the Dardanella, TBA21-Academy’s research vessel, which was travelling across various locations in the Pacific Ocean.</p>
<p>These expeditions were deeply cinematic experiences. In itself the boat was both a real and figurative site of projection: at once a privileged place from where to observe the ocean, the life forms, transactions, and infrastructures it hosts, and at the same time a vessel that embodied the tropes of the expedition, voyage, and exploration that were being performed.<br /><br />Further pursuing the production and sourcing of images of the ocean and all that surrounds it—from its infrastructure, to the politics and cultures of extraction and management, to the observation of its social and natural landscapes—the selection of films of <em>Liquid Traces—visions</em> (a title borrowed from Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani’s film <em>Liquid Traces: The Left-to-Die Boat</em> <em>Case</em> film) followed the collective agency of Ute Meta Bauer’s Dardanella expeditions. The films presented were chosen by the 12 participants of the expeditions.</p>
<p>The selection of films has been arranged around two programmes, the first focuses on poetic, dreamlike approaches and the second on documentarist portraits of more concrete scenarios and realities. Together, they interrogate the cinematic references that shape our dreamscapes and they offer glimpses of what sort of moving images inform the common gazes of the expeditions participants, their discourses and encounters.</p>
<h4><strong>PROGRAMME 1</strong></h4>
<p><strong>Saturday, 3 February 2018, 12.00 – 4.00pm<em><br /></em></strong><strong><em>Proteus</em></strong><em>,</em> David Lebrun, 2004, video, 60 min</p>
<p><em>Proteus</em> is an animated documentary film that depicts a 19<sup>th</sup>-century understanding of the sea with a particular emphasis on the life and work of German biologist and naturalist Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919). Haeckel was a promoter of Darwinism in Germany who discovered, described, drew and named thousands of new species, namely an extensive number of underwater creatures.</p>
<p>The key to Haeckel’s vision was a tiny undersea organism called <em>radiolaria</em>, one of the earliest forms of life. Haeckel discovered, described, classified and painted four thousand species of these one-celled creatures. In their intricate geometric skeletons, Haeckel saw all the future possibilities of organic and created form.<em> Proteus</em> explores the metamorphoses of the <em>radiolarian</em> and celebrates their beauty and seemingly infinite variety in animation sequences based on Haeckel’s graphic work. <em>Proteus</em> weaves a tapestry of poetry and myth, biology and oceanography, scientific history and spiritual biography.<br /><br /></p>
<p><strong><em>Marsa Abu Galawa (Careless Reef Part 4)</em></strong>, Gerard Holthuis, 35mm film transferred to digital file, 2004, 13 min</p>
<p><em>Marsa Abu Galawa (Careless Reef Part 4)</em> is a psychedelic, mind-altering, rhythmic sequence of images of the underwater world shot in the Red Sea and pacing at the soundtrack of Egyptian shaabi singer Abdel Basset Hamouda. The structure of the film is based on flicker films, in which the whole unconscious experience of the flux of images is more important than the single shots. <em>Marsa Abu Galawa</em> is the fourth part of the “Careless Reef” series, four short films made by Gerard Holthuis, which deal with the underwater world.<br /><br /></p>
<p><strong><em>Million Dollars Point</em></strong><em>, </em>Camille Henrot, video, 2011, 5 min 35 sec</p>
<p>Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris.</p>
<p><em>Million Dollars Point </em>is the name of a dive site on Santo Island, Vanuatu—a lagoon that became an underwater cemetery for hundreds of tanks and canons abandoned by the North American army after the Second World War. The site was named after the amount offered by the local islanders to buy out this war debris. <em>Million Dollars Point </em>juxtaposes the images of this submarine battlefield with footage of a local music video showing a French moustached man dancing and singing on a Pacific beach, flanked by Polynesian girls wearing typical costumes. The choreography of the young women seems to respond the images of engulfed weapons, they hide their faces as a refusal to see and they mimic waves, which recall the borderline between the surface and the sea bottom.<br /><br /></p>
<p><strong><em>Limits to Growth</em></strong>, Nicholas Mangan, HD video, 2017, 8 min 55 sec</p>
<p>“<em>Limits to Growth</em> begins by staging a comparison between two virtual monetary currencies: the cryptocurrency Bitcoin and Rai, the Yapese currency. While bitcoins are virtual and in a sense immaterial, Rai are made of stone and are often very large and heavy. Bitcoins are mined by computers solving complex algorithms, often collectively, working in a blockchain. In order to “mine” Bitcoins, vast quantities of energy are consumed by the computers processing the algorithms as they labour to verify and record transactions. Processor farms must labour continuously to keep the network alive. Although Bitcoin’s medium of exchange is virtual, it remains, like Rai, bound to the physical world. (…) My interest in Bitcoin was piqued by the use of terminology such as “mining” and “workers.” Trawling through various online forums, I found someone in Australia who was actually mining bitcoin, despite the fact that the country’s high electricity costs render it unprofitable. I came across a discussion taking place within a remote community in Western Australia that was established by a mining company to service an actual mine. As is common practice, the company provided free housing and electricity to workers, as well as much needed air-conditioning in the hot climate. In the online thread, a worker from the mine suggested that a Bitcoin rig could be set up at his company-<span>funded housing in order to take advantage of this free electricity and cooling. This physical mine could indirectly provide the climate for profitable virtual mining in Australia. This situation of a parasitical economy and how the potential overlay of the physical and the dematerialised might function in relation to resource extraction was of particular interest. </span><em>Limits to Growth</em><span> includes an underwater video of a Rai stone lying on the bottom of the Miil Channel off the northwest coast of Yap. The sound of a human breathing through a scuba apparatus is taken directly from the video.”</span><br /><br /></p>
<p><strong><em>Nauru – Notes from a Cretaceous World</em></strong>, Nicholas Mangan, HD Video, 2010, 14 min 50 sec<br />Courtesy the artist; Sutton Gallery, Melbourne; Hopkinson Mossman, Auckland; and LABOR, Mexico City.</p>
<p>“I wanted to look at this moment in human history within a much longer period of time. I wanted to place human agency within the contours of a deeper time frame and an evolving ecosystem that doesn’t place humans as the primary organism.”</p>
<p>—Nicholas Mangan</p>
<p><em>Nauru</em> – <em>Notes from a Cretaceous World </em>is a video essay that contrasts the ancient geological history of the Pacific nation of Nauru with the country’s more recent political and economic situation. Historically, Nauru’s coral limestone rocky landscape has been rich in phosphate—a valuable mineral which, in Nauru, is the product of a mixture of decomposed marine life and guano deposits compressed over millions of years. In the 1920s, the British Phosphate Commission initiated industrial strip-mining of Nauru’s ancient coral landscape, selling the phosphate mineral off to Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, where it was processed into a superphosphate fertiliser used to enrich agricultural soil.<br /><span>Over the coming decades, the Nauruan government allowed mining to occur at such intensity that, by 1977, the tiny island nation of Nauru had become the second-richest nation per capita after Saudi Arabia. That year, as a sign of its wealth, Nauru built the then-tallest sky scraper in Melbourne. Called Nauru House, it was crudely dubbed “Bird Shit Tower” by many Australians. By the turn of the millennium, as phosphate levels became depleted, the Nauruan government began to default on numerous major international loans and declared bankruptcy. At this time, the Australian government initiated its so-called </span><em>Pacific Solution</em><span> (2001–07) policy, and later </span><em>Operation Sovereign Borders</em><span> (2013–ongoing), in which it paid the financially desperate Nauru to house asylum seekers attempting to arrive in Australia by boat.</span><br /><br /></p>
<p><strong><em>Drawing Restraint 9</em></strong>, Matthew Barney, video, 2005, 135 min</p>
<p><em>Drawing Restraint 9</em> comprises the presented feature-length film, alongside large-scale sculptures, photographs, drawings and books. The “Drawing Restraint” series consists of 19 numbered components and related materials. Some episodes are videos, others sculptural installations or drawings.</p>
<p><em>Drawing Restraint 9</em> is a love story set in Nisshin Maru, a Japanese whaling vessel making its annual journey to Antarctica. The histories and traditions of Shinto religion, Japanese tea ceremony, whaling, and global forms of fuel extraction are intertwined in this non-narrative, monumental epic. Two actions unfold simultaneously on the vessel: one on deck and one beneath it. The narrative on deck involves the process of casting a 25-ton petroleum jelly sculpture that rivals the scale of a whale. Below deck, the two characters participate as guests in a tea ceremony, where they are formally engaged after arriving on the ship as strangers. As the film progresses, the guests go through an emotional and physical transformation slowly transfiguring from land mammals into sea mammals, as they fall in love. The petroleum jelly sculpture simultaneously passes through changing states, from warm to cool, and from the architectural back to the primordial. The dual narratives, the sculptural and the romantic, come to reflect one another until they merge into one.<br /><br /></p>
<p><strong><em>AXIS – Anatomy of space</em></strong>, Good Company Arts / Daniel Belton, video, 2017, 6 min</p>
<p>“With the same evolutionary effect that was followed by the ancient Greeks in their search for beauty, <em>AXIS</em> offers a resonating, lyrical space. Dancers are seen travelling through apertures tensioned with the happening of projected light. Their choreography establishes a circuitry of luminosity. Like a great celestial dynamo, the screen environment transmits oscillating shafts of digital dance and sound—illuminating song cycles in a cosmic choreography of light. We are each made up of photons.<br />Photons are particles of light. Light is inspiration. Every space has an “anatomy.” <em>AXIS</em> creates a new search with the human figure in space, as projected film and processed sound performance combine. Nothing is in stasis.”</p>
<p>—Good Company Arts</p>
<p>Note: This single-channel version of <em>AXIS </em>was created from parts of the original full-length work of 38 minutes made for 360º full-dome cinema.<br /><br /></p>
<p>Programme 2</p>
<p><strong>Sunday, 4 February 2018, 12.00 – 6.30pm</strong></p>
<p><strong><em>Trobriand Cricket: An Indigenous Response to Colonialism</em></strong>, Gary Kildea and Jerry Leach, 1976, 54 min</p>
<p>Anthropologist and filmmaker Jean Rouch described <em>Trobriand Cricket </em>as “a wonderful film, perhaps one of the greatest anthropological films of recent time”<br />(<em>Film Quarterly</em>, 1978).</p>
<p>A key reference of ethnographic cinema, <em>Trobriand Cricket </em>depicts the transformations introduced by the inhabitants of the Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea to the British version of cricket, a game that was introduced to Trobriand by a British Methodist missionary in the early 20th century as a way to replace violent tribal warfare with Western sportsmanship.</p>
<p>The film shows how the islanders responded to a British colonial imposition by appropriating and transforming the game into an expression of tribal rivalry, mock warfare, community interchange, eroticised dancing and chanting, and unruly fun.<br /><br /></p>
<p><strong><em>The</em></strong> <strong><em>Shark Callers of Kontu</em></strong>, Dennis O’Rourke, 16mm transferred to video, 1982, 54 min</p>
<p>From 1974 to 1979, Dennis O’Rourke lived in Papua New Guinea, where he taught documentary filmmaking. Made during his stay there,<em> The Shark Callers of Kontu</em> depicts the ancient tradition of ‘sharkcalling’ in the village of Kontu, on the west coast of New Ireland. The documentation of Kontu inhabitants’ traditional way of shark hunting, in which sharks are called and killed by hand, is combined with a portrait of their lives and environment, presented both from still images commented by O’Rourke and interviews with the local population. The film explores the changes to cultural values and traditional customs wrought by colonisation, alcohol, commerce, and Christianity.<br /><br /></p>
<p><strong><em>The People’s Elect – Pouvanaa te Metua</em></strong>, Marie-Hélène Villierme, HDCam PAL, 2012, 90 min</p>
<p>In the late 1940s, the French Establishments in Oceania (now French Polynesia), saw the dawn of a local political era. In 1949, Pouvanaa a Oopa (1895–1977) became the first Tahitian to serve in the French Chamber of Deputies. Pouvanaa was also the charismatic leader of the country’s first political party, the RDPT (Democratic Rally of the Tahitian People). A supporter of the independence of Tahiti, he strongly opposed the French colonial administration and the French nuclear testing in the Tuamotu Archipelago during the 1960s. Sentenced to prison and exile in metropolitan France, Pouvanaa only returned to French Polynesia in 1968. Combining archival materials, found footage, newsreels and interviews, <em>The People’s Elect </em>offers a vivid portrait of this important figure of French Polynesian political life.<br /><br /></p>
<p><strong><em>Liquid Traces: The Left-to-Die Boat</em></strong><strong> <em>Case</em></strong>, Forensic Oceanography (Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani), video, 2014, 17 min</p>
<p>“<em>Liquid Traces</em> offers a synthesis of our reconstruction of the events of what is known as the “left-to-die boat” case, in which 72 passengers who left the Libyan coast heading in the direction of the island of Lampedusa on board a small rubber boat were left to drift for 14 days in NATO’s maritime surveillance area, despite several distress signals relaying their location, as well as repeated interactions, including at least one military helicopter visit and an encounter with a military ship. As a result, only 9 people survived.</p>
<p>In producing this reconstruction, our research has used against the grain the “sensorium of the sea”—the multiple remote sensing devices used to record and read the sea’s depth and surface. Contrary to the vision of the sea as a non-signifying space in which any event immediately dissolves into moving currents, with our investigation we demonstrated that traces are indeed left in water, and that by reading them carefully the sea itself can be turned into a witness for interrogation.</p>
<p>As a time-based media, the animation also gives form to the Mediterranean’s differential rhythms of mobility that have emerged through the progressive restriction of legal means of access to the EU for certain categories of people and the simultaneous acceleration of the flows of goods and capital.”</p>
<p><strong><em>Neytal Diary</em></strong>, Ravi Agarwal, HD video, 2016, 38 min</p>
<p><em>Neytal Diary</em> was shot over one year off the coast of Tamilnadu in South India. It derives from artist and environmental activist Ravi Agarwal’s ongoing work with a fishing community near the town of Pondicherry, which seeks to examine the ecological understandings and conflicts from the perspective of its inhabitants. The texts of the film are extracts from a diary (<em>Ambient Seas</em>, published in 2016) kept by Agarwal over the years, and contain his reflections on the complex ecological, cultural, and political underpinnings of the fishermen’s lives and their absence from the dominant global debates on the Anthropocene and climate change.<br /><br /></p>
<p><strong><em>One Belt, One Road: Documentary – Episode One: Common Fate</em></strong>, video, 2016, 55 min </p>
<p><em>One Belt, One Road: Documentary – Episode One: Common Fate</em> focuses on “One Belt, One Road” or the “Belt and Road Initiative,” a development strategy and framework proposed by Chinese paramount leader Xi Jinping. This strategy focuses on connectivity and cooperation among countries and primarily between the People’s Republic of China and the rest of Eurasia, consisting of two main components: the land-based “Silk Road Economic Belt” and oceangoing “Maritime Silk Road.”</p>
<p>The strategy underlines China’s push to take a bigger role in global affairs, and its need for priority capacity cooperation in areas such as steel manufacturing.<br /><br /></p>
<p><strong><em>Matthew Barney: No Restraint</em></strong>, Alison Chernick, video, 2006, 72 min</p>
<p><em>Matthew Barney: No Restraint</em> documents artist Matthew Barney and his then partner, collaborator, and singer-songwriter Björk, as they film <em>Drawing Restraint 9</em>.</p>
<p>Selection of films made by TBA21–Academy’s participants to Ute Meta Bauer’s The Current three expeditions to the South Pacific: Nabil Ahmed, Atif Akin, Laura Anderson Barbata, Newell Harry, Stefanie Hessler, Dr Kristy H. A. Kang, Dr PerMagnus Lindborg, Armin Linke, Filipa Ramos, Lisa Rave, and Jegan Vincent de Paul.<br /><br />A public programme of <em>The Oceanic</em>.</p>
</div>
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
3 - 4 February 2018
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Ute Meta Bauer
Nabil Ahmed
Atif Akin
Laura Anderson Barbata
Newell Harry
Stefanie Hessler
Kristy H. A. Kang
PerMagnus Lindborg
Armin Linke
Filipa Ramos
Lisa Rave
Jegan Vincent de Paul
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Oceania
Asia
-
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Dublin Core
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Title
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Publications
Description
An account of the resource
A recipient and producer of knowledge, NTU CCA Singapore’s publishing activities contribute to its holistic approach, expanding the connections across the Centre’s exhibitions, residencies, public programming, and academic education.
Research Publication
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Based on DMCI Text type (https://www.dublincore.org/specifications/dublin-core/dcmi-terms/#http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text)
Short Description
Drawing on the rich cultural heritage and trajectories of the Asia Pacific and beyond, the exhibitions, works of art, and essays in <em>Climates.Habitats.Environments. </em>transcend disciplinary boundaries and linear histories to affirm the role of cultural production in the fight for environmental and social justice.
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Electronic (eBook)
Print
Print
Public Resource Centre Affiliation
Artist Research Platform
Library
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None
Library
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Climates.Habitats.Environments.
Subject
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Climate Crisis
Cultural Production
Description
An account of the resource
Published by NTU CCA Singapore and The MIT Press, 2022 <br />Edited by Ute Meta Bauer<br />Design by mono.studio<br />Printed by DZA Druckerei zu Altenburg GmbH<br />© 2022 the artists, the authors, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, Nanyang Technological University <br />ISBN: 978-0-262-04681-7 <br />Distributed by The MIT Press <br />Copies are available for sale at NTU CCA Singapore and through MIT Press S$80/US$60<br /><br />Modeling the curatorial as a method for uniting cultural production and science,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Climates. Habitats. Environments</i>. weaves together image and text to address the global climate crisis. Through exhibitions, artworks, and essays, artists and writers transcend disciplinary boundaries and linear histories to bring their knowledge and experience to bear on the fight for environmental justice. In doing so, they draw on the rich cultural heritage of the Asia-Pacific, in conversation with international discourse, to demonstrate transdisciplinary solution-seeking.<br /><p><span>Experimental in form as well as in method,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Climates. Habitats. Environments.</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>features an inventive book design by mono.studio that puts word and image on equal footing, offering a multiplicity of media, interpretations, and manifestations of interdisciplinary research. For example, botanist Matthew Hall draws on Ovid's<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Metamorphoses</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>to discuss human-plant interpenetration; curator and writer Venus Lau considers how spectrality consumes—and is consumed—in animation and film, literature, music, and cuisine; and critical theorist and filmmaker Elizabeth Povinelli proposes “Water Sense” as a geontological approach to “the question of our connected and differentiated existence,” informed by the “ancestral catastrophe of colonialism.” Artists excavate the natural and cultural DNA of indigo, lacquer, rattan, and mulberry; works at the intersection of art, design, and architecture explore “The Posthuman City”; an ongoing research project investigates the ecological urgencies of Pacific archipelagos. The works of art, the projects, and the majority of the texts featured in the book were commissioned by NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore.</span></p>
<p></p>
Publisher
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NTU CCA Singapore
The MIT Press
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Ute Meta Bauer
Anna Lovecchio
Michael Marder
Kong Yin Ying
Marian Pastor Roces
Ravi Agarwal
Donna J. Haraway
Matthew Hall
Nikos Papastergiadis
Donna J. Haraway
David Pledger
Dan Koh
Tan Zi Hao
May Adadol Ingawanij
Michael M. J. Fischer
Venus Lau
Elizabeth A. Povinelli
Cynthia Chou
Nina Oeghoede
Philippe Pirotte
Epeli Hau'ofa
Nabil Ahmed
Édouard Glissant
Tania Roy
Alfian Sa'at
Jake Atienza
Kenneth Dean
Faizah Zakaria
Stefanie Hessler
Huang Jui-mao
Anna Källén
Philippa Lovatt
Laura Miotto
Rob Nixon
Khim Ong
Markus Reymann
Dirk Snauwaert
Matariki Williams
Irene Agrivina
Nabil Ahmed
Irwan Ahmett
Tita Salina
Atif Akin
Animali Domestici
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Martha Atienza
Tarek Atoui
Laura Anderson Barbata
Rosella Biscotti
Guigone Camus
Choy Ka Fai
Roko Josefa Cinavilakeba
Sean Connelly
Ade Darmawan
Lucy Davis
Ines Doujak
Jef Geys
Tue Greenfort
Newell Harry
Ho Tzu Nyen
Chia-Wei Hsu
Pierre Huyghe
ila
inhabitants
The Institute of Critical Zoologists
Kristy H. A. Kang
Susanne Kriemann
Zac Langdon-Pole
Jae Rhim Lee
Liang Shaoji
PerMagnus Lindborg
Armin Linke
Nicholas Mangan
Alice Miceli
Manish Nai
Nguyễn Trinh Thi
Phi Phi Oanh
Lucy + Jorge Orta
Park Chan-kyong
Sophia Pich
Marjetica Potrč
Shubigi Rao
Lisa Rave
Lucy Raven
Bridget Reweti
Hito Steyerl
Melati Suryodarmo
Tanatchai Bandasak
Sung Tieu
Jegan Vincent de Paul
Wu Mali
Vivian Xu
Yeo Siew Hua
Zarina Muhammad
Edouard Glissant
Anna Kallen
Nguyen Trinh Thi
Marjetica Potrc
mono.studio
Format
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Publication
Language
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English
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Southeast Asia
Asia
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2022
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Videos
Video
A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation.
Based on DMCI MovingImage type (https://www.dublincore.org/specifications/dublin-core/dcmi-terms/#http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/MovingImage)
Short Description
The Current Convening #3: Talanoa Session #1
Video
Embedded video or link to video hosted outside of Omeka
<a href="https://vimeo.com/493254833">https://vimeo.com/493254833</a>
Video ID
Platform ID number for video hosted online (e.g., Vimeo)
493254833
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Current Convening #3: Talanoa Session #1
Description
An account of the resource
The Current Convening #3 Tabu / Tapu – Who Owns the Ocean? A collaboration with TBA21–Academy Part of Singapore Art Week 2018 <br /><br />25 Jan 2018, Talanoa Session #1: Ownership of Cultures, Images and Sound Production
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-01-25
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Laura Anderson Barbata
Ute Meta Bauer
Barney Broomfield
Guigone Camus
Cynthia Chou
Taholo Kami
Cresantia (Frances) Koya Vaka'uta
Emily Chua Hui Ching
Bjorn Christiansen
Roko Josefa Cinavilkeba
Paul Feigelfeld
Andrew Foran
Newell Harry
Stefanie Hessler
Ho Rui An
Armin Linke
Rasmus Nielsen
Lucy Orta
Valérie Portefaix
Lisa Rave
Markus Reymann
Joey Tau
Kiven Strohm
Jennifer Teo
Woon Tien Wei
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Southeast Asia
Oceania
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oceans & Seas
Environmental Crisis
Sustainability
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Video
Language
A language of the resource
English
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Videos
Video
A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation.
Based on DMCI MovingImage type (https://www.dublincore.org/specifications/dublin-core/dcmi-terms/#http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/MovingImage)
Short Description
The Current Convening #3: Day 1 Session 1 – Case Studies by Taholo Kami & Dr Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe
Video
Embedded video or link to video hosted outside of Omeka
<a href="https://vimeo.com/499094619">https://vimeo.com/499094619</a>
Video ID
Platform ID number for video hosted online (e.g., Vimeo)
499094619
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Current Convening #3: Day 1 Session 1 – Case Studies by Taholo Kami & Dr Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe
Description
An account of the resource
The Current Convening #3 Tabu / Tapu – Who Owns the Ocean? A collaboration with TBA21–Academy <br /><br />Friday, 26 January, 1.30 – 10.00pm The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road <br /><br />Day 1 Session 1 <br /><br />1.30pm Introduction by Markus Reymann, Ute Meta Bauer, and Stefanie Hessler<br /><br />1.45pm Case Study by Taholo Kami (Tonga/Fiji), Special Advisor, Pacific Partnerships and International Civil Society, COP23 Presidency Secretariat of the Fijian government <br /><br />2.15pm Case Study by Dr Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe (French Polynesia), Law Department, University of French Polynesia
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-01-27
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Taholo Kami
Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe
Herve Raimana Lallemant-Moe
Ute Meta Bauer
Markus Reymann
Stefanie Hessler
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Southeast Asia
Oceania
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oceans & Seas
Environmental Crisis
Sustainability
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Video
Language
A language of the resource
English
-
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Videos
Video
A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation.
Based on DMCI MovingImage type (https://www.dublincore.org/specifications/dublin-core/dcmi-terms/#http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/MovingImage)
Short Description
The Current Convening #3: Day 2 Session 2 – Short Provocations
Video
Embedded video or link to video hosted outside of Omeka
<a href="https://vimeo.com/499453365">https://vimeo.com/499453365</a>
Video ID
Platform ID number for video hosted online (e.g., Vimeo)
499453365
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Current Convening #3: Day 2 Session 2 – Short Provocations
Description
An account of the resource
The Current Convening #3 Tabu / Tapu – Who Owns the Ocean? A collaboration with TBA21–Academy <br /><br />Saturday, 27 January 2018, 11.00am – 6.00pm The Single Screen, Block 43 Malan Road <br /><br />3.15pm, Short Provocations <br /><br />Laura Anderson Barbata (Mexico/United States), artist Barney Broomfield (United Kingdom/United States), filmmaker Dr Guigone Camus (France), anthropologist Newell Harry (Australia), artist Dr Kristy H. A. Kang (United States/Singapore), media artist, and Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Dr PerMagnus Lindborg (Sweden/Singapore), composer, sound artist, and researcher Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Vietnam), artist Filipa Ramos (Portugal/United Kingdom), art writer, curator, and Editor-in-Chief, art-agenda Lisa Rave (United Kingdom/Germany), artist and filmmaker SUPERFLEX (Bjørnstjerne Christiansen, Jakob Fenger, and Rasmus Nielsen) (Denmark), artists <br /><br />Moderated by Ute Meta Bauer and Stefanie Hessler<br /><br />5.15pm, Tidalectics: Imagining an Oceanic Worldview through Art and Science Publication Launch and Reception <br /><br />Published by MIT Press and TBA21–Academy
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-01-27
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Laura Anderson Barbata
Barney Broomfield
Guigone Camus
Newell Harry
Kristy H.A. Kang
PerMagnus Lindborg
Tuan Andrew Nyugen
Filipa Ramos
Lisa Rave
SUPERFLEX
Ute Meta Bauer
Stefanie Hessler
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Southeast Asia
Asia
Europe
North America
Oceania
Subject
The topic of the resource
Oceans & Seas
Environmental Crisis
Sustainability
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Video
Language
A language of the resource
English
-
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Text
THE CURRENT
CONVENING #3
–
TABU / TAPU
Who owns the ocean?
25 – 27 January 2018
Part of Singapore
Art Week 2018
Block 43 Malan Road
Singapore 109443
�The Current Convening #3: Tapu / Tabu –
Who owns the Ocean? marks the culmination
of TBA21 –Academy The Current’s first
cycle of expeditions. It brings together The
Current Fellows; collaborators from Fiji
and French Polynesia; thought leaders from
diverse disciplines; and local researchers and
policymakers. Through a series of talanoa
sessions, case studies and short provocations,
and performative interventions, Convening #3
shares with the public questions, ideas and
proposals that arose from the three expeditions
to Pacific archipelagos: Milne Bay Province,
Papua New Guinea; the Tuamotus, French
Polynesia; and the Lau Island Group, Fiji.
Conceived by Markus Reymann, Director of
TBA21–Academy; Stefanie Hessler, Curator of
TBA21–Academy; and Professor Ute Meta Bauer,
Founding Director of NTU CCA Singapore, and
Expedition Leader of The Current’s first cycle.
A collaboration between NTU CCA Singapore and
TBA21 –Academy
Free admission.
For more information, please visit
http://ntu.ccasingapore.org/events/convening-3/
With the additional support of
Friday, 26 January 2018
Environmental governance and policy-making
Saturday, 27 January 2018
Environment and cultural rights and actions
1.30 – 2.45pm Case Studies by
Taholo Kami (Tonga/Fiji), Special Advisor, Pacific
Partnerships and International Civil Society, COP23
Presidency Secretariat of the Fijian government
Dr Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe
(French Polynesia), Law Department,
University of French Polynesia
11.00am – 1.00pm Discursive Brunch by
Lucy + Jorge Orta (United Kingdom, Argentina/
France) in collaboration with restaurateur
Ken Loon (Singapore), The Naked Finn
2.45 – 4.45pm Provocations by
Atif Akin (Turkey/United States), artist, designer,
and Associate Professor, Mason Gross School of
the Arts, Rutgers University, United States
Andrew Foran (Australia/Fiji), Head,
Pacific Centre for Environmental Governance, IUCN
Armin Linke (Italy/Germany),
photographer and filmmaker
Maureen Penjueli (Fiji), Coordinator,
Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG)
Valerie Portefaix (France/Hong Kong),
Director, MAP Office
Lisa Rave (United Kingdom/Germany),
artist and filmmaker
Roko Josefa Cinavilkeba (Fiji),
High Chief of the Yasayasamoala Island group
Joey Tau (Fiji), media and campaign officer, PANG
Jegan Vincent de Paul (Sri Lanka, Canada/Singapore),
architect and artist, NTU ADM/CCA Singapore
PhD candidate
As part of Art After Dark
6.30 – 7.30pm Reception with Guest of Honour
Masogos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment
and Water Resources of Singapore
9.00 – 10.00pm Sound performance by
Tarek Atoui (Lebanon/France), musician,
composer, and sound artist
By registration only: https://peatix.com/event/340972
2.00 – 3.15pm Case Studies by
Dr Cresantia Frances Koya Vaka’uta (Fiji),
Director, Oceania Centre for Arts,
Culture and Pacific Studies & Pacific Heritage Hub,
UNESCO Faculty of Arts, Law and Education,
The University of the South Pacific, Fiji
Dr Cynthia Chou (Singapore/United States),
Professor, Department of Anthropology,
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences,
University of Iowa, United States
3.15 – 5.15pm Provocations by
Laura Anderson Barbata
(Mexico/United States), artist
Barney Broomfield (United States), filmmaker
Dr Guigone Camus (France), anthropologist
Newell Harry (Australia), artist
Dr Kristy H. A. Kang (United States/Singapore),
media artist, and Assistant Professor, School of Art,
Design and Media, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore
Dr PerMagnus Lindborg (Sweden/Singapore),
composer, sound artist, and researcher
Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Vietnam), artist
Filipa Ramos (Portugal/United Kingdom),
art writer, curator, and Editor-in-Chief, art-agenda
SUPERFLEX (Denmark), artists
�THE CURRENT
CONVENING #3
–
TABU / TAPU
Who owns the ocean?
25 – 27 January 2018
Part of Singapore
Art Week 2018
Block 43 Malan Road
Singapore 109443
�The Current Convening #3: Tapu / Tabu –
Who owns the Ocean? marks the culmination
of TBA21 –Academy The Current’s first
cycle of expeditions. It brings together The
Current Fellows; collaborators from Fiji
and French Polynesia; thought leaders from
diverse disciplines; and local researchers and
policymakers. Through a series of talanoa
sessions, case studies and short provocations,
and performative interventions, Convening #3
shares with the public questions, ideas and
proposals that arose from the three expeditions
to Pacific archipelagos: Milne Bay Province,
Papua New Guinea; the Tuamotus, French
Polynesia; and the Lau Island Group, Fiji.
Conceived by Markus Reymann, Director of
TBA21–Academy; Stefanie Hessler, Curator of
TBA21–Academy; and Professor Ute Meta Bauer,
Founding Director of NTU CCA Singapore, and
Expedition Leader of The Current’s first cycle.
A collaboration between NTU CCA Singapore and
TBA21 –Academy
Free admission.
For more information, please visit
http://ntu.ccasingapore.org/events/convening-3/
With the additional support of
Friday, 26 January 2018
Environmental governance and policy-making
Saturday, 27 January 2018
Environment and cultural rights and actions
1.30 – 2.45pm Case Studies by
Taholo Kami (Tonga/Fiji), Special Advisor, Pacific
Partnerships and International Civil Society, COP23
Presidency Secretariat of the Fijian government
Dr Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe
(French Polynesia), Law Department,
University of French Polynesia
11.00am – 1.00pm Discursive Brunch by
Lucy + Jorge Orta (United Kingdom, Argentina/
France) in collaboration with restaurateur
Ken Loon (Singapore), The Naked Finn
2.45 – 4.45pm Provocations by
Atif Akin (Turkey/United States), artist, designer,
and Associate Professor, Mason Gross School of
the Arts, Rutgers University, United States
Andrew Foran (Australia/Fiji), Head,
Pacific Centre for Environmental Governance, IUCN
Armin Linke (Italy/Germany),
photographer and filmmaker
Maureen Penjueli (Fiji), Coordinator,
Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG)
Valerie Portefaix (France/Hong Kong),
Director, MAP Office
Lisa Rave (United Kingdom/Germany),
artist and filmmaker
Roko Josefa Cinavilkeba (Fiji),
High Chief of the Yasayasamoala Island group
Joey Tau (Fiji), media and campaign officer, PANG
Jegan Vincent de Paul (Sri Lanka, Canada/Singapore),
architect and artist, NTU ADM/CCA Singapore
PhD candidate
As part of Art After Dark
6.30 – 7.30pm Reception with Guest of Honour
Masogos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment
and Water Resources of Singapore
9.00 – 10.00pm Sound performance by
Tarek Atoui (Lebanon/France), musician,
composer, and sound artist
By registration only: https://peatix.com/event/340972
2.00 – 3.15pm Case Studies by
Dr Cresantia Frances Koya Vaka’uta (Fiji),
Director, Oceania Centre for Arts,
Culture and Pacific Studies & Pacific Heritage Hub,
UNESCO Faculty of Arts, Law and Education,
The University of the South Pacific, Fiji
Dr Cynthia Chou (Singapore/United States),
Professor, Department of Anthropology,
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences,
University of Iowa, United States
3.15 – 5.15pm Provocations by
Laura Anderson Barbata
(Mexico/United States), artist
Barney Broomfield (United States), filmmaker
Dr Guigone Camus (France), anthropologist
Newell Harry (Australia), artist
Dr Kristy H. A. Kang (United States/Singapore),
media artist, and Assistant Professor, School of Art,
Design and Media, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore
Dr PerMagnus Lindborg (Sweden/Singapore),
composer, sound artist, and researcher
Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Vietnam), artist
Filipa Ramos (Portugal/United Kingdom),
art writer, curator, and Editor-in-Chief, art-agenda
SUPERFLEX (Denmark), artists
�THE CURRENT
CONVENING #3
–
TABU / TAPU
Who owns the ocean?
25 – 27 January 2018
Part of Singapore
Art Week 2018
Block 43 Malan Road
Singapore 109443
�The Current Convening #3: Tapu / Tabu –
Who owns the Ocean? marks the culmination
of TBA21 –Academy The Current’s first
cycle of expeditions. It brings together The
Current Fellows; collaborators from Fiji
and French Polynesia; thought leaders from
diverse disciplines; and local researchers and
policymakers. Through a series of talanoa
sessions, case studies and short provocations,
and performative interventions, Convening #3
shares with the public questions, ideas and
proposals that arose from the three expeditions
to Pacific archipelagos: Milne Bay Province,
Papua New Guinea; the Tuamotus, French
Polynesia; and the Lau Island Group, Fiji.
Conceived by Markus Reymann, Director of
TBA21–Academy; Stefanie Hessler, Curator of
TBA21–Academy; and Professor Ute Meta Bauer,
Founding Director of NTU CCA Singapore, and
Expedition Leader of The Current’s first cycle.
A collaboration between NTU CCA Singapore and
TBA21 –Academy
Free admission.
For more information, please visit
http://ntu.ccasingapore.org/events/convening-3/
With the additional support of
Friday, 26 January 2018
Environmental governance and policy-making
Saturday, 27 January 2018
Environment and cultural rights and actions
1.30 – 2.45pm Case Studies by
Taholo Kami (Tonga/Fiji), Special Advisor, Pacific
Partnerships and International Civil Society, COP23
Presidency Secretariat of the Fijian government
Dr Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe
(French Polynesia), Law Department,
University of French Polynesia
11.00am – 1.00pm Discursive Brunch by
Lucy + Jorge Orta (United Kingdom, Argentina/
France) in collaboration with restaurateur
Ken Loon (Singapore), The Naked Finn
2.45 – 4.45pm Provocations by
Atif Akin (Turkey/United States), artist, designer,
and Associate Professor, Mason Gross School of
the Arts, Rutgers University, United States
Andrew Foran (Australia/Fiji), Head,
Pacific Centre for Environmental Governance, IUCN
Armin Linke (Italy/Germany),
photographer and filmmaker
Maureen Penjueli (Fiji), Coordinator,
Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG)
Valerie Portefaix (France/Hong Kong),
Director, MAP Office
Lisa Rave (United Kingdom/Germany),
artist and filmmaker
Roko Josefa Cinavilkeba (Fiji),
High Chief of the Yasayasamoala Island group
Joey Tau (Fiji), media and campaign officer, PANG
Jegan Vincent de Paul (Sri Lanka, Canada/Singapore),
architect and artist, NTU ADM/CCA Singapore
PhD candidate
As part of Art After Dark
6.30 – 7.30pm Reception with Guest of Honour
Masogos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment
and Water Resources of Singapore
9.00 – 10.00pm Sound performance by
Tarek Atoui (Lebanon/France), musician,
composer, and sound artist
By registration only: https://peatix.com/event/340972
2.00 – 3.15pm Case Studies by
Dr Cresantia Frances Koya Vaka’uta (Fiji),
Director, Oceania Centre for Arts,
Culture and Pacific Studies & Pacific Heritage Hub,
UNESCO Faculty of Arts, Law and Education,
The University of the South Pacific, Fiji
Dr Cynthia Chou (Singapore/United States),
Professor, Department of Anthropology,
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences,
University of Iowa, United States
3.15 – 5.15pm Provocations by
Laura Anderson Barbata
(Mexico/United States), artist
Barney Broomfield (United States), filmmaker
Dr Guigone Camus (France), anthropologist
Newell Harry (Australia), artist
Dr Kristy H. A. Kang (United States/Singapore),
media artist, and Assistant Professor, School of Art,
Design and Media, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore
Dr PerMagnus Lindborg (Sweden/Singapore),
composer, sound artist, and researcher
Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Vietnam), artist
Filipa Ramos (Portugal/United Kingdom),
art writer, curator, and Editor-in-Chief, art-agenda
SUPERFLEX (Denmark), artists
�THE CURRENT
CONVENING #3
–
TABU / TAPU
Who owns the ocean?
25 – 27 January 2018
Part of Singapore
Art Week 2018
Block 43 Malan Road
Singapore 109443
�The Current Convening #3: Tapu / Tabu –
Who owns the Ocean? marks the culmination
of TBA21 –Academy The Current’s first
cycle of expeditions. It brings together The
Current Fellows; collaborators from Fiji
and French Polynesia; thought leaders from
diverse disciplines; and local researchers and
policymakers. Through a series of talanoa
sessions, case studies and short provocations,
and performative interventions, Convening #3
shares with the public questions, ideas and
proposals that arose from the three expeditions
to Pacific archipelagos: Milne Bay Province,
Papua New Guinea; the Tuamotus, French
Polynesia; and the Lau Island Group, Fiji.
Conceived by Markus Reymann, Director of
TBA21–Academy; Stefanie Hessler, Curator of
TBA21–Academy; and Professor Ute Meta Bauer,
Founding Director of NTU CCA Singapore, and
Expedition Leader of The Current’s first cycle.
A collaboration between NTU CCA Singapore and
TBA21 –Academy
Free admission.
For more information, please visit
http://ntu.ccasingapore.org/events/convening-3/
With the additional support of
Friday, 26 January 2018
Environmental governance and policy-making
Saturday, 27 January 2018
Environment and cultural rights and actions
1.30 – 2.45pm Case Studies by
Taholo Kami (Tonga/Fiji), Special Advisor, Pacific
Partnerships and International Civil Society, COP23
Presidency Secretariat of the Fijian government
Dr Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe
(French Polynesia), Law Department,
University of French Polynesia
11.00am – 1.00pm Discursive Brunch by
Lucy + Jorge Orta (United Kingdom, Argentina/
France) in collaboration with restaurateur
Ken Loon (Singapore), The Naked Finn
2.45 – 4.45pm Provocations by
Atif Akin (Turkey/United States), artist, designer,
and Associate Professor, Mason Gross School of
the Arts, Rutgers University, United States
Andrew Foran (Australia/Fiji), Head,
Pacific Centre for Environmental Governance, IUCN
Armin Linke (Italy/Germany),
photographer and filmmaker
Maureen Penjueli (Fiji), Coordinator,
Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG)
Valerie Portefaix (France/Hong Kong),
Director, MAP Office
Lisa Rave (United Kingdom/Germany),
artist and filmmaker
Roko Josefa Cinavilkeba (Fiji),
High Chief of the Yasayasamoala Island group
Joey Tau (Fiji), media and campaign officer, PANG
Jegan Vincent de Paul (Sri Lanka, Canada/Singapore),
architect and artist, NTU ADM/CCA Singapore
PhD candidate
As part of Art After Dark
6.30 – 7.30pm Reception with Guest of Honour
Masogos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment
and Water Resources of Singapore
9.00 – 10.00pm Sound performance by
Tarek Atoui (Lebanon/France), musician,
composer, and sound artist
By registration only: https://peatix.com/event/340972
2.00 – 3.15pm Case Studies by
Dr Cresantia Frances Koya Vaka’uta (Fiji),
Director, Oceania Centre for Arts,
Culture and Pacific Studies & Pacific Heritage Hub,
UNESCO Faculty of Arts, Law and Education,
The University of the South Pacific, Fiji
Dr Cynthia Chou (Singapore/United States),
Professor, Department of Anthropology,
College of Liberal Arts & Sciences,
University of Iowa, United States
3.15 – 5.15pm Provocations by
Laura Anderson Barbata
(Mexico/United States), artist
Barney Broomfield (United States), filmmaker
Dr Guigone Camus (France), anthropologist
Newell Harry (Australia), artist
Dr Kristy H. A. Kang (United States/Singapore),
media artist, and Assistant Professor, School of Art,
Design and Media, Nanyang Technological
University, Singapore
Dr PerMagnus Lindborg (Sweden/Singapore),
composer, sound artist, and researcher
Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Vietnam), artist
Filipa Ramos (Portugal/United Kingdom),
art writer, curator, and Editor-in-Chief, art-agenda
SUPERFLEX (Denmark), artists
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Resources
Programme Resource
Collateral and other print or digital materials pertaining to residency programmes. Examples include residency brochures, postcards, etc.
Short Description
Through discursive events including talanoa discussions, case studies, workshops, as well as performative events, Convening #3 shares with a wider public the research and challenges generated through the format of such expeditions.
Programme Series
None
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Current Convening #3 Postcards
Description
An account of the resource
The Current Convening #3 Tabu / Tapu – Who Owns the Ocean? marks the culmination of TBA21–Academy The Current’s first cycle of expeditions, bringing together The Current Fellows; thought leaders from diverse disciplines; local agencies and activist NGOs. Through discursive events including talanoa discussions, case studies, workshops, provocations, as well as performative events, Convening #3 shares with a wider public the research and challenges generated through the format of such expeditions. It focuses on the modalities of exchange, addresses environmental urgencies, raises questions regarding responsibilities and ownership, and discusses whether rights of nature can be equal to human rights. Environmental researchers, conservationists, anthropologists, and policymakers will share a platform that invites active and creative participation on how we can understand and effect the development to international law, policies, culture, and environmental education. Coinciding with NTU CCA Singapore’s current exhibition The Oceanic, featuring contributions by TBA21–Academy The Current Fellows from the first cycle of expeditions (2015–17), Convening #3 marks the culmination of inquiries on the vessel Dardanella to the Pacific archipelagos of Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea; the Tuamotus in French Polynesia; and the Lau Island Group in Fiji.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-01-25
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Atif Akin
Laura Anderson Barbata
Guigone Camus
Newell Harry
Kristy H. A. Kang
PerMagnus Lindborg
Armin Linke
Filipa Ramos
Lisa Rave
Jegan Vincent de Paul
Tarek Atoui
Barney Broomfield
Cynthia Chou
Andrew Foran
Taholo KamiCresantia (Frances) Koya Vaka’uta
Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe
Sandor Mulsow
Rasmus Nielsen
Lucy Orta
Maureen Penjueli
Roko Sau
Joey Tau
Markus Reymann
Stefanie Hessler
Ute Meta Bauer
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Postcard
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Southeast Asia
-
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THE CURRENT
CONVENING #3
–
TABU / TAPU
WHO OWNS THE OCEAN?
25 – 27 January 2018
�Christmas and Malden islands
Potentially radioactive waste
Missing information on the management of
potentially radioactive technological waste
5908
2546
6625
2639
1524
5913
3
30
6716
Midway
Technological waste
(518GBq)
Depth: 5487 m
7 containers
1272
6310
5058
1 152
3578
6917
6640
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ture Zon
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1 165
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ture Zon
Polymetallic Nodules
Clarion- Clippertone Zone
Exploration area
2975
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Marray
REPUBLIC OF KIRIBATI
Population: 112,423
Pacific Ocean US: 1 atmospheric test
Christmas Island US: 24 atmospheric tests /
UK: 6 atmospheric tests
Partial evacuation of local inhabitants
1/3 stayed on site.
Environmental rehabilitation works153
1
commissioned by the Republic of Kiribati
since 2004.
Malden Island UK: 3 atmospheric tests
Unsuitable for human habitation.
Wildlife sanctuary.
1 187
Faralion
Technological waste and
"special" nuclear materials
(536 500 GBq)
923
Depth: 900m- 1700m
47 500 containers
5509
Zone
Fracture
Clipperton
3918
8238
463
6377
2179
5638
Au
Fandora Mine
2410
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5733
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waste (5254 GBq)
Depth: 1800m- 3600m
7529 containers
87
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Au, Cu
Imperial Metals Mine
Au
New Prosperity
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Cu, Au
Pebble Mine
USA
San Diego:1 underwater tests
5397
1884
Au, Cu
Cananea Mine
Polymetallic Nodules
Clarion- Clippertone Zone
Exploration area
Au, Ag
Dolores Mine
1670
Au
Paredones Amarillos Mine
6038
5886
6242
157
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Cu, Ag, Zn, Pb
Grupo Mine
Au
Cocula Mine
Ridge
Au, Ag
San Jose del Progresso Mine
Cocos
Cu, Ag, Au, Pb, Zn
Huehuetenango Mine
Au, Ag, Pb, Zn
El Escobal Mine
Au
Cerro Blanco Mine
Au, Ag
Bela Vista
ge
Au, Cu, Ag Zn, Ni
Bribri Mine
gie Rid
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ch
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Bayovar Mine
Au, Ag, Cu, Zn
Tambogrande Mine
a Mine
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Cogema Mine
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Suarez Mine
Au
Dagua Mine
Au, Ag, Cu, Pb, Zn
Curipamba Mine
Au
Sona Mine
Au, Cu
Cerro Quema
Mine
Ba
Chicomuselo Mine
Sb, W
San Ildefonso Mine
Au
Au Los Chocoyos Mine
La Puya Mine
Au, Ag
El Dorado Mine
Au
Crusitas Mine
Cu
Comarca Mine
Au, Ag, Cu
Petaquilla Mine
Au
Farallones Mine
Ni
Cerro Matos Mine
Au
Au, Cu, U Tamesis Mine
Dojura Mine
Ag, Au
Capulalpam Mine
Ag
Miner Plata Real Mine
Inner Cover — INTERPRT, Unfolded Pacific Ring, 2016–ongoing,
detail. Courtesy Nabil Ahmed.
Au, Ag, Zn
Guanajuato Mine
5357
Cover — Armin Linke, Nickel Ramu NiCo Basamuk Refinery,
view from the Basamuk Communities gardens, Bismarck Sea, Alotau,
Papua New Guinea, 2017, documentation. Courtesy the artist.
1574
5720
7370
�1
THE CURRENT
CONVENING #3
–
TABU / TAPU
WHO OWNS THE OCEAN?
25 – 27 January 2018
A collaboration between NTU CCA Singapore
and TBA21–Academy
Conceived by Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA
Singapore; Markus Reymann, Director, TBA21–Academy;
and Stefanie Hessler, Curator, TBA21–Academy
On the occasion of The Oceanic,
9 December 2017 – 4 March 2018, NTU CCA Singapore
�2
A VOYAGE INTO THE GEOPOLITICAL AND
BIOPHYSICAL OF THE PACIFIC
Initiated by TBA21–Academy, The Current is an ongoing research initiative
focusing on pressing environmental, economic, and socio-political concerns.
Its first cycle, on board of the research vessel Dardanella, brought us to remote
archipelagos in Papua New Guinea (2015), French Polynesia (2016), and Fiji
(2017). Each of these journeys into the complex waters of the South Pacific was
guided by a theme informing the activities of the two-week long trips. The first
expedition to Milne Bay Province (PNG) followed The Kula Ring, a ceremonial
exchange system practised in the Trobriand Islands, with Convening #1 in
Kingston, Jamaica. The second was titled Tuamotus – Distant Islands, tracing the
consequences of 193 nuclear tests in French Polynesia, which informed Convening #2
in Kochi, India, joined by The Current Fellows as well as Cesar Garcia, who led
a second expedition team to the Trobriand Islands. Lastly, the third expedition
focused on the tradition of the tabu / tapu, practised for centuries in Fiji, where
a community chief demarcates something as “sacred” or “forbidden.”
After three years of collectively researching, while meandering through vast bodies
of waters, transgressing the surface and exploring their depths, passing limestone
formations, low-lying atolls, and volcanic islands, the first cycle is coming to a close
with Convening #3 that explores the potentials and challenges of tabu. In Fijian
communities, the concept of tabu extends to social, cultural, and environmental
traditions. Throughout the Pacific, the creation of tabu areas has existed for a
long period of time, including temporarily closing off areas to fishing as a mark of
respect for the death of an important community member, to protect sacred sites,
to affirm a village’s rights to a fishing ground, or as part of traditional ceremonies.
While tabu has not always been motivated solely by environmental reasons, in
the current global climate situation, it has become highly
significant in marine conservation and resource management.
The traditional concepts of rāhui and tabu have the potential
of protecting oceanic habitats as an effective, contemporary
alternative to existing legal frameworks. In this custom,
a “resource,” such as the sea, is not understood in terms of
rights of property, but based on rights of use in which an
entire community partakes—both in the present and with
a view to the future.
�3
The expeditions engaged with large-scale human interventions in oceanic
ecospheres, such as nuclear tests and mining, and, more recently, seabed mining.
They not only created a connection to the histories of the diverse and rich cultures
of Pacific Ocean archipelagos and their astonishing biodiversity, but also prompted
exposure to the alarming environmental and economic threats. The issues around
ecological urgencies, which affect the ocean and its littorals as a habitat for humans
and a myriad of other species, raise crucial questions regarding sea governance and
ownership. In which way can humanity create for itself a set of rules and societal
agreements that respects the ocean as a shared habitat and resource? The Current
allowed a diverse group of artists, filmmakers, composers, and researchers to
embark on these inspiriting journeys and engage with local communities. Pacific
Island societies have an intimate relationship with the environment—land and
ocean are inseparable for them—as marine habitats provide irreplaceable resources
for their societies.
From the outset, the aim of The Current has
been to foster exchange between disciplines,
bringing together thinkers and practitioners,
whose work was not necessarily engaged
with the oceans before, to imagine new ways
�4
to communicate, or even
tackle, some of the pressing
ecological issues of our time.
On all three expeditions, we
were graciously welcomed by
diverse communities and met
many individuals who have
become close dialogue partners, collaborators,
critics, and friends. This encountered generosity
allowed us to gather a wealth of information,
both physical and conceptual, as a result of this
first cycle. Now that we are back on land, an unsettling sense of urgency is still
resonating with us. But where do we go from here? What are we doing with
this overwhelming amount of material? What are the ethical implications? And
what about ownership? Convening #3 is an attempt to share and address these
challenges and questions. To situate this gathering at the NTU CCA Singapore was
a natural choice, not only is it the base of the expedition leader, but also because
its geographical, political, and cultural history is closely linked to the sea. Its
container port is the second busiest in the world, connecting the country to over
600 harbours in 123 other nations. Land use, coastal territories, and the design of
“natural” habitats within a densely populated city-state give rise to important issues
concerning our relationship to the environment.
During this multi-day gathering, The Current Convening #3 applies various formats
of exchange. Policy makers and educators from Oceania will present case studies
that will be followed by short provocations pointing to the fluidity of fact and
myth, resistance to climate migration, food security, the difficulty of an exchange
without exploitation, or the curse of natural resources. Another case study will
refer to the customs of the Orang Suku Laut, who continued their traditional
ways of living, adjacent to high-tech Singapore. Talanoa is a traditional system of
communal conversations. For a full day, The Current Fellows and collaborators
from the Pacific will apply this format to discuss and exchange questions of
ownership of cultures, images, and sound production, the oceans as resource,
human interference in natural habitats, and the potential of traditional knowledge.
�5
Convening #3 focuses on modalities of exchange, addresses environmental
urgencies, raises questions regarding responsibilities and ownership, and
discusses whether rights of nature can equal human rights. While travelling in
Fiji, we discussed issues of marine protection, self-determination, community,
and ownership with diverse communities, organisations, scholars, and activists.
Before sailing to the Lau Islands, we spent a day at the Oceania Centre for Arts,
Culture and Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific (USP)—one of
two regional universities of the world, which is supported by 12 Pacific Island
Countries—in Suva, Fiji, where we participated in a talanoa roundtable discussion
sharing our research and were introduced to the practices and concerns of local
artists, cultural workers, and activists. The Pacific Network on Globalisation
(PANG), for instance, key in the resistance against deep-sea mining, generously
shared information with us. The artist and poet Peter Sipeli and the educator for
�6
sustainable development Dr Cresantia Frances Koya Vaka‘uta introduced us to
contemporary Fijian arts and contemporary poetry, and the artist and curator
Lingikoni Vaka’uta presented his work towards an indigenous art theory to us.
Roko Josefa Cinavilkeba, High Chief of the Yasayasamoala Island Group, joined us
for 10 days on the vessel Dardanella, and included us in the creation of a marine
protected area on a reef between 2 islands in the Lau region, one of the first
tapus established in the open ocean. In Fiji, we were also challenged with critical
questions regarding our role, entering the local community as foreigners. We
discussed what it means to partake in issues that affect Oceanian communities,
the potential and responsibilities to research and gather information, and how to
reciprocate and give back after being on the receiving end of generous gestures
of sharing.
Convening #3 coincides with the exhibition The Oceanic at the NTU CCA Singapore
(9 December 2017 – 4 March 2018), in which artworks, films, and research of 12
The Current Fellows manifest. This gathering comes with the hope to share the
questions that have arisen during the past three years with a wider audience, and
envision the next steps that are necessary to develop a suitable response. Such a
response can only come from a shared effort and a close dialogue between regions
facing immediate threats and those involved in causing them. We have to address
the existing barriers between “worlds.”
Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore;
Stefanie Hessler, Curator, TBA21–Academy;
Markus Reymann, Director, TBA21–Academy
�7
CONTRIBUTORS
Atif Akin
Laura Anderson Barbata
Dr Guigone Camus
Newell Harry
Dr Kristy H. A. Kang
Dr PerMagnus Lindborg
Armin Linke
Filipa Ramos
Lisa Rave
Jegan Vincent de Paul
Markus Reymann
Stefanie Hessler
Professor Ute Meta Bauer
Tarek Atoui
Barney Broomfield
Dr Cynthia Chou
SUPERFLEX
Andrew Foran
Roko Josefa Cinavilkeba
Taholo Kami
Dr Cresantia Frances Koya Vaka‘uta
Dr Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe
Tuan Andrew Nguyen
Lucy + Jorge Orta
Maureen Penjueli
Valérie Portefaix
Joey Tau
�8
TBA21–ACADEMY THE CURRENT
TIMELINE OF THE FIRST CYCLE
OF THREE EXPEDITIONS
LED BY UTE META BAUER
Expedition I
The Kula Ring: Collective Body,
Exchange, and Knowledge
Milne Bay Province,
Papua New Guinea
30 September – 9 October 2015
The Current Fellows 2015–16
Laura Anderson Barbata
Tue Greenfort
Newell Harry
Armin Linke
Jegan Vincent de Paul
Convening #1: The Kula Ring
Kingston, Jamaica
16 – 17 March 2016
Convened by Ute Meta Bauer, Francesca
von Habsburg, and Markus Reymann
�9
The Kula Ring
A complex system of ritual exchange,
the Kula Ring links hundreds of Massim
clans and tribes, with their unique customs
and cultures, as it is practised throughout
the Louisiades, Trobriand, Amphett,
Woodlark, and the d’Entrecasteaux
Islands in the South Pacific. This historical
ceremonial exchange structure, from a
Western perspective first identified and
studied by the Polish-British ethnographer
Bronislaw Malinowski between 1915 and
1918, involves annual inter-island visits
between trading partners who exchange
treasured shell ornaments like necklaces
(soulava) and armbands (mwali), or other
artefacts like tapa cloths. Hereditary objects
passing from generation to generation,
the items acquire value through their
provenance, and the acts of exchange
can serve as means of acknowledgement,
agreement, or peacekeeping amongst the
different groups. The Current expedition
to Papua New Guinea (2015) looked into
the possibilities of gift economies between
communities and cultures, exploring
modalities of exchange.
�10
Tuamotus – Distant Islands
The Tuamotus, an island group in
Tahiti, French Polynesia, was originally
denominated Paumotus, meaning
“Subservient Islands.” The name was
later changed to Tuamotus, the Tahitian
term for “Distant Islands.” The Current
expedition from Tahiti and Moorea to
atolls of the Tuamotus group (2016)
considered the idea of remoteness from
different angles, particularly in respect
to the French government’s decision
of executing nuclear weapons tests in these
islands. Between 1966 and 1996, the atolls
Moruroa and Fangataufa were the sites
of 193 nuclear tests, despite being declared
a biosphere reserve by UNESCO in 1977.
The expedition coincided with the 50th
anniversary of the first atomic weapons
test on Moruroa, then a French colony
in Polynesia, and discussed the neglected
long-term and devastating impact of
nuclear experiments in the Pacific on the
population and the environment.
�11
Expedition II
Tuamotus – Distant Islands
Tuamotu Archipelago,
French Polynesia
28 June – 14 July 2016
The Current Fellows 2016
Dr Nabil Ahmed
Atif Akin
Dr PerMagnus Lindborg
Armin Linke
Filipa Ramos
Convening #2: Tuamotus, Distant Islands
Kochi, Kerala, India
13 – 15 December 2016
Convened by Ute Meta Bauer,
Cesar Garcia, and Stefanie Hessler
�12
Tabu / Tapu
The third expedition (2017) of
The Current’s first cycle focused on the
tradition of the tabu / tapu, practised for
centuries in Fiji, where a community chief
delimits a place or an object as “sacred,”
“forbidden,” or “demanding of respect,”
detaching it from the “common.” In Fijian
communities, the concept of tabu extends
to social, cultural, and environmental
traditions, as it can be applied to
demonstrate respect for the death of an
important community member, protect
sacred sites, affirm the rights of a village,
or as part of a ceremony. Throughout
the Pacific, the creation of tabu areas
has been a long-time practice, including
temporarily closing off areas to fishing,
even though not always motivated by
environmental reasons. In today’s global
climate situation, the potential of tabu for
marine conservation and resource management has become highly significant.
�13
Expedition III
Tabu / Tapu
Fiji and the Lau Island Group
9 – 23 July 2017
The Current Fellows 2017–18
Dr Guigone Camus
Lisa Rave
Dr Kristy H. A. Kang
Armin Linke
Roko Josefa Cinavilkeba
Convening #3: Tabu / Tapu
Singapore
25 – 27 January 2018
Convened by Ute Meta Bauer, Stefanie
Hessler, and Markus Reymann
�14
PROGRAMME
–
THE CURRENT
CONVENING #3
–
TABU / TAPU
WHO OWNS THE OCEAN?
Tapu and rāhui are related ancient Polynesian concepts.
In a first sense, tapu is the state of a person, a thing,
a place where mana (divine power) is present. In a
second meaning, it signifies “forbidden to certain
categories of persons in certain contexts.”
Rāhui generally refers to the ability of a chief to order
a tapu on a specific place or a particular resource, for
a limited period of time.
— Dr Tamatoa Bambridge, 2014
�15
Wednesday, 24 January 2018
2.30 – 4.30pm | The Seminar Room
Thursday, 25 January 2018
9.30am – 5.00pm
Workshop:
Fish Tales and Fish Tails
Closed Talanoa Sessions
by Filipa Ramos (Portugal/United
Kingdom), art writer, curator, and
Editor-in-Chief, art-agenda
Ownership of Cultures, Images,
and Sound Production
Led by Dr Cresantia Frances Koya
Vaka’uta, Armin Linke, and
Ute Meta Bauer
How do images lead to stories? And
how do stories convey images? In this
workshop, we will explore the stories
that pictures of oceanic life and sites of
environmental transformation tell, and
the images that stories summon.
Together, we will write and enact one
and many stories, thinking about how
tales are told, inventing new ways of
combining memory with discovery and
imagination, and discussing the ways
in which we share experiences, visions,
and emotions with others.
Workshop for children aged 7 to 12
By registration only
The Oceans as Commons
Led by Andrew Foran, Taholo Kami,
Dr Kristy H. A. Kang, and
Markus Reymann
Human Interferences in Natural
and Traditional Habitats
Led by Maureen Penjueli, Lisa Rave,
and Joey Tau
Traditional Knowledge and its Potential
Led by Dr Guigone Camus, Roko Josefa
Cinavilkeba, and Dr Hervé Raimana
Lallemant-Moe
“Talanoa is a generic term referring to a conversation,
chat, sharing of ideas, and talking with someone. It is
a term that is shared by Tongans, Samoans, and Fijians.
Talanoa can be formal, as between chiefs and his or her
people, and it can be informal, as between friends in a
kava circle. Talanoa is also used for different purposes;
to teach a skill, to share ideas, to preach, to resolve
problems, to build and maintain relationships, and to
gather information.”
— The Kakala Research Framework by Seu’ula Johansson Fua,
cited by Arieta Tegeilolo Talanoa Tora Rika (talanoa.com.au)
�16
ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE AND POLICY-MAKING
Friday, 26 January 2018
1.30 – 10.00pm
1.30pm | The Single Screen
6.30pm | Outside Block 43 Malan Road
Introduction by Markus Reymann,
Ute Meta Bauer, and Stefanie Hessler
Welcome Addresses by
Ute Meta Bauer, Markus Reymann,
Professor Alan Chan, Dean, College of
Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences, NTU,
and Minister Masagos Zulkifli, Minister
for the Environment and Water Resources
of Singapore
7.00pm Public Reception
8.00pm | The Single Screen
1.45pm Case Study by
Taholo Kami (Tonga/Fiji), Special
Advisor, Pacific Partnerships and International Civil Society, COP23 Presidency
Secretariat of the Fijian government
2.15pm Case Study by
Dr Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe
(French Polynesia), Law Department,
University of French Polynesia
2.45pm Short Provocations by
Atif Akin (Turkey/United States),
artist, designer, and Associate Professor,
Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers
University, United States
Roko Josefa Cinavilkeba (Fiji), High
Chief of the Yasayasamoala Island Group
Andrew Foran (Australia/Fiji), Head,
Pacific Centre for Environmental
Governance, IUCN
Armin Linke (Italy/Germany),
photographer and filmmaker
Maureen Penjueli (Fiji), Coordinator,
Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG)
Valérie Portefaix (France/Hong Kong),
Director, MAP Office
Joey Tau (Papua New Guinea/Fiji), media
and campaign officer, PANG
Jegan Vincent de Paul (Sri Lanka/
Canada), architect and artist, NTU ADM/
CCA Singapore PhD candidate
Place.Labour.Capital. Publication
Launch and Reception
Published by NTU CCA Singapore
and Mousse Publishing
9.00pm | Outside Block 43 Malan Road
Sound Performance
I/E – The Solo Sessions by Tarek Atoui
(Lebanon/France), musician, composer,
and sound artist
�17
RIGHTS OF CULTURES, RIGHTS OF NATURE
Saturday, 27 January 2018
11.00am – 6.00pm
11.00am | Outside Block 43 Malan Road
Discursive Brunch
70 x 7 The Meal Act XLI (41)
by Lucy + Jorge Orta, Studio Orta
(United Kingdom/France, Argentina/
France) and restaurateur Ken Loon
(Singapore), The Naked Finn
By registration only
2.00pm | The Single Screen
Introduction
2.15pm Case Study by
Dr Cresantia Frances Koya Vaka‘uta
(Fiji), Director, Oceania Centre for Arts,
Culture and Pacific Studies & Pacific
Heritage Hub, UNESCO Faculty of Arts,
Law and Education, The University of
the South Pacific, Fiji
2.45pm Case Study by
Dr Cynthia Chou (Singapore/United
States), Professor, Department of
Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts &
Sciences, University of Iowa, United States
3.15pm Short Provocations by
Laura Anderson Barbata (Mexico/United
States), artist
Barney Broomfield (United Kingdom/United
States), filmmaker
Dr Guigone Camus (France), anthropologist
Newell Harry (Australia), artist
Dr Kristy H. A. Kang (United States/Singapore), media artist, and Assistant Professor,
School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore
Dr PerMagnus Lindborg (Sweden/Singapore), composer, sound artist, and researcher
Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Vietnam), artist
Filipa Ramos (Portugal/United Kingdom),
art writer, curator, and Editor-in-Chief,
art-agenda
Lisa Rave (United Kingdom/Germany),
artist and filmmaker
SUPERFLEX (Denmark), artists
5.15pm Tidalectics: Imagining an Oceanic
Worldview through Art and Science
Publication Launch and Reception
Published by MIT Press and TBA21–Academy
�18
ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE AND POLICY-MAKING
ABSTRACTS
The Reconciliation of Law and Traditions
in French Polynesia: The Case of Rāhui
Case Study by Dr Hervé Raimana
Lallemant-Moe
On 5 October 2017, the law in French
Polynesia, as per the new environment code,
article LP. 2122-1, defines the the rāhui as
“a land or marine space on which unwritten
rules triggered by a resource management
imperative, are applied in a traditional way.”
Polynesian people always used rāhui in
our islands, but it is the first time that local
law explicitly recognises this mechanism as
an official means to protect the environment.
For many years, the principle was only to
copy what was applied in more economically
developed states, like France for example.
This return of traditional ways into the French
Polynesian legal system is surprising and we
must ask ourselves if this is a new beginning
for a more inclusive way of thinking local and
international law to protect our environment.
Morph, Mutant, Myth
by Atif Akin
“This is to state once again that the essence of
the deserted island is imaginary and not actual,
mythological and not geographical. At the
same time, its destiny is subject to those human
conditions that make mythology possible.”
—Gilles Deleuze, Desert Island, 1953–1974
The modern world perceives a hard distinction
between the supernatural and reality. In fact, in
the case of Moruroa and Fangataufa, humanity
mimicked nature, blurring this distinction.
Myths build on events. They formulate answers
to unknowns. The taboo in my work is scientific certainty. One should never lean into the
comfort of scientific certainty, but instead
move fluidly between the fact and the myth.
Climate Migration: Fight and Flight
by Andrew Foran
The discussion about climate migration is a
challenging one for Pacific Islanders, given
their connection to the sea and the land, but
they also understand it is a discussion that
inevitably needs to be had. In 2013, Tuvalu’s
Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga told the Warsaw
climate summit: “We do not want to move.
Such suggestions are offensive to the people of
Tuvalu. Our lives and culture are based on our
continued existence on the islands of Tuvalu.
We will survive.” This tension between fight
and flight will grow as the impacts of climate
change grow.
Situating and Affirming Indigenous Peoples’
Struggles within the Complex Power
Dynamics of Nation States, Multinational
Corporations, and International Banks
over the Dominion of Oceanic Resources
by Maureen Penjueli
Regional and international policy documents
relating to the overall governance of the
Pacific Ocean recognise and celebrate the rich
cultural heritage of the Pacific people and
their custodianship of the ocean. Indigenous
knowledge, kastom practices, or transport
means such as vaka, waka, and canoes, are
admired as innovative, ingenuous, and
sustainable in their use of resources. This
celebration of all things “indigenous” contrasts
sharply with the response to indigenous
peoples’ assert dominion over oceanic territory
that contains seabed minerals. These guardians
then become the subjects of human rights
violations, as powerful outside forces gain
interest in their territories. How can Papua
New Guinea’s economic development be
understood in relation to its costs on peoples
and environments?
�19
Famous are the Flowers
by Valérie Portefaix
The Belt, the Road, and the Curse
by Jegan Vincent de Paul
MAP Office’s ongoing research in Hawaii
resulted in the complex filming of the film
Famous are the Flowers. Documenting a
transect of Kauai Island through an assemblage
of drawings, texts and a video, the project
reflects on the possibility of landscape
as both artifact and artifice. It draws upon
the achievement of Queen Emma and the
experimental landscape she developed in
Lawai Bay, the traditional land division from
mountain to ocean, the weight of memory
and colonial history in Hawaii, the impact of
Monsanto and other genetic farming industries
on the land and water, etc.
Papua New Guinea being both a large island
and heavily resource-oriented, has become the
central node of The Belt and Road Initiative’s
South Pacific Line. Large-scale developments
by Chinese firms are underway to transform
both the country’s internal and coastal regions.
A 1600 km road network worth US$3.5
billion by the China Railway Group and the
Frieda River Project for mining copper and
gold worth US$1.7 billion by PanAust, are
but two of numerous major projects that
are determining the economic and physical
landscape of a twenty-first century Papua
New Guinea. At the same time, a UN report
has declared the country to be “cursed” with
its own resources. How can PNG’s economic
development be understood in relation to its
costs on peoples and environments?
The Ancient Nautilus vs Nautilus Inc.
by Joey Tau
The Nautilus is the only living fossil that has
great significance to ancient practices. The
main feature of the Nautilus is the large snaillike shell that is coiled upwards and lined with
mother-of-pearl, with the shell growing larger
on each spiral following the Golden Mean. This
ratio is represented by the Greek letter phi,
(with the decimal representation of 1.6180...),
one of those mysterious natural numbers
that seems to arise out of the basic structure
of our cosmos. The Nautilus Minerals Inc., a
Canadian company with the highest number of
exploration licenses over vast amounts of ocean
floor in the Pacific has taken a sacred symbol
of ancient cultures and made it their public
trade mark.
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RIGHTS OF CULTURES, RIGHTS OF NATURE
ABSTRACTS
IS ANYTHING SACRED ANYMORE?
Unpacking the Significance of Tapu/Tabu
in Contemporary Oceania
Case Study by Dr Cresantia Frances Koya
Vaka‘uta
What is tapu or tabu in contemporary
contexts of Oceania? This paper unpacks our
understandings of tapu/tabu as sanctity or
sacred vessels and spaces including the human
body, objects, and physical places or sites.
Related concepts of mana (spiritual forces,
energy, power), and relational spaces will
also be examined. Cultural and contemporary
examples of sacred spaces will be provided
to enable a deeper understanding of how these
indigenous ideas may be used to enhance
participatory research undertakings and
provide a deeper understanding of indigenous
communities in context.
The Orang Suku Laut of Riau, Indonesia:
The Spirit that Resides in Things and
People
Case Study by Dr Cynthia Chou
Living afloat the oceans of Southeast Asia
are various groups of sea nomads. One such
group comprises the Orang Suku Laut, literally
“Tribal People of the Sea” who are well-known
in the region’s history as the “orang asli”
(indigenous people) of a vast maritime world
known as the “Alam Melayu.” Complex items
exists in their communities exits within their
communities. They range from items with
inherent meanings and the spirit of the person,
to those whose meanings and values undergo
redefinition as they circulate through different
domains of exchange within and beyond their
communities. Boundaries have been set up to
determine the ways in which these different
types of things may circulate as they bear and
impact upon one’s identity and well-being.
Must We See to Believe?
by Laura Anderson Barbata
How do we lobby for an ethical treatment of
our ocean and for the communities that live
in close relationship with it when they are out
of the immediate line of sight of dominant
cultures and, therefore, ignored? How do
we convince governments and individuals
to defend what they cannot see, and yet is so
closely tied to global safety and health? As an
artist, my work has focused on finding ways
to visually communicate what, being in front
of us, remains nonetheless unseen. My aim
is to build reciprocal relationships to promote
awareness that can benefit all parties.
�21
Means of Exchange
by Guigone Camus and Lisa Rave
When researching, writing or working
on, or even getting directly involved with
traditional and locally-rooted concepts like
the tapu as an artist, anthropologist, or as
an international non-profit organisation
or NGO, many questions arise. A concept
widely understood as sacred, areas made
taboo become places prohibited to any form
of interference or exploitation. How can the
tapu and areas prohibited to—nevertheless
ongoing—interferences from the “outside”
be understood in view of a continuation
of colonial practices in the Pacific? In
which way can interventions in the social
economic structures and cultural practices of
communities be read and consequences dealt
with beyond the immediately visible? Could the
communities that practise these traditions and
sometimes choose to share them with visitors
actually benefit from this exchange? Would
an international adaptation of such traditional
concepts be beneficial and what means of
exchange can we develop together?
Vernacular Mapping and Critical
Cartography
by Dr Kristy H. A. Kang
What assumptions, cultural and otherwise, do
we make in the process of mapping? Who and
what do we overlook? How can we understand
mapping from culturally specific and vernacular
registers? Cartography can be critical when
we imagine alternatives to mapmaking as an
expression of power and privilege. By engaging
in this process of critique, what new conceptual
metaphors and models could be imagined to
enrich our spatial understanding beyond the
territorial and into the oceanic?
Soundscape and Environmental Activism:
Canaries in the Coalmine, Larvae on the
Coral Reef
by Dr PerMagnus Lindborg
Research in the perception of the sonic
environment, or “soundscape” as defined by
R. Murray Schafer, has three historic roots:
music composition, psychoacoustics, and
activism. They often combine, as in the work
of Bernie Krause. Sound can inform us about the
general health of an environment. This applies
to aquatic ecosystems, where fish and mammal
vocalisations, in particular, are negatively
influenced by human-introduced noise.
�22
PERFORMATIVE INTERVENTIONS
ABSTRACTS
Discursive Brunch
70 x 7 The Meal Act XLI (41)
by Lucy + Jorge Orta
Sound Performance
I/E – The Solo Sessions
by Tarek Atoui
This discursive brunch draws from the
tradition of communal eating to create a
platform to discuss issues related to the ocean,
such as the entitlements of resources, food
security, and ownership of Oceanic practices,
materials, and images. Guided by the specially
designed tablecloth, the guests will continue
to examine the questions raised during the
Convening’s talanoa sessions. This meal is
developed in collaboration with restaurateur
Ken Loon of Singapore’s The Naked Finn,
who has locally sourced the ingredients, each
of which will be related back to the wider
conversation of Singapore’s food sources, its
environment, and infrastructure. Since their
first 70 x 7 The Meal in 2000, Lucy + Jorge
Orta have presented over 40 variations of
the project, having brought together tens of
thousands of people from all walks of life.
The I/E Project is an ongoing work consisting
of recordings at major ports and harbours
in the world. Since 2015, Atoui has recorded
the activities, waters, and surroundings at
Elefsina in Greece and the Mina Zayed port
in Abu Dhabi. For this performance, each of
these recordings will serve as a sound capsule
functioning like a multi-channel playback
machine as well as a small modular synthesiser.
Using specific custom-built instruments, the
artist will be playing with the sounds of these
locations and morphing them with other
electro-acoustic devices. The project
will be augmented with recordings from
Singapore’s waterfront and added to Atoui’s
solo presentation at NTU CCA Singapore
in March 2018 to create one of the main layers
of the exhibition.
�23
BIOGRAPHIES
Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/Singapore) is the
Founding Director of the NTU CCA Singapore,
and Professor of NTU ADM. Previously she
was Associate Professor in the Department of
Architecture at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology), Cambridge, where she also served
as Founding Director of the MIT Program
in Art, Culture, and Technology (2005-13).
For more than three decades, she has worked
as curator of exhibitions and presentations,
connecting contemporary art, film, video, and
sound through transdisciplinary formats. She
publishes regularly on artistic and curatorial
practice. Bauer is an expedition leader of
TBA21 The Current since 2015 exploring
the Pacific Archipelago and littorals that are
most impacted by climate change and human
interventions in their environments.
Markus Reymann (Germany/United
Kingdom) is the Director of TBA21–Academy.
He joined TBA21 in 2011 and subsequently
cofounded TBA21–Academy with TBA21
Foundation Chairwoman and Founder
Francesca von Habsburg. As a central
programming unit of TBA21, the Academy
provides a moving platform of cultural
production and interdisciplinary exchange.
Since 2011, Reymann initiated and conducted
numerous expeditions, each trip designed as
a collaboration with invited artists, scientists,
and thinkers eager to embark on oceanic
explorations. The Academy commissions
ambitious projects inspired by these unusual
encounters.
Stefanie Hessler (Germany/United Kingdom)
is the curator of TBA21–Academy. Recent
projects for TBA21–Academy include
Tidalectics at TBA21–Augarten, Vienna;
and Fishing for Islands co-curated with Chus
Martínez and Markus Reymann at Hamburger
Bahnhof, Berlin (2017). Hessler is the
co-founder of the art space Andquestionmark
in Stockholm (with Carsten Höller). Other
recent curated projects include Sugar and
Speed at the Museum of Modern Art in Recife,
Brazil (2017); Winter Event – antifreeze
at the Museum of Contemporary Art in
Santiago, Chile and Flora in Bogotá, Colombia
(2015/16); and the 8th Momentum Biennial in
Moss, Norway (2015). Hessler regularly writes
for art publications, such as ArtReview and
Mousse Magazine, and edits books, such as Life
Itself for the Moderna Museet. She edited the
compendium Tidalectics: Imagining an Oceanic
Worldview through Art and Science (published
by MIT Press in February 2018).
Atif Akin (Turkey/United States) is an
artist and designer, and Associate Professor
at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers
University in New Jersey. Akin’s work
examines science, nature, mobility, and politics
through an (a)historical and contemporary
lens. Through a series of activities made
up of research, documentation, and design,
his work considers transdisciplinary issues
through a techno-scientific lens, in aesthetic
and political contexts. In 2015, Akin received
the apexart Franchise Program award in
New York, organising the zine project and
exhibition Apricots from Damascus, hosted
by SALT, Istanbul. His ongoing long-term
research-driven project on nuclear mobility
and archaeology, Mutant Space, was presented
at the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial (2016).
Tepoto Sud morph Moruroa was exhibited
in Tidalectics, curated by Stefanie Hessler, at
TBA21–Augarten in Vienna.
Tarek Atoui (Lebanon/France) is an artist
and electroacoustic composer working within
the realm of sound performance. He studied
contemporary and electronic music at the
French National Conservatory of Reims. He
�24
engineers complex and inventive instruments
as well as arranges and curates interventions,
concerts, performances, and workshops. His
practice often develops from extensive research
into music history and instrumentation,
revolving around large-scale, collaborative
performances that explore new methods of
production. Atoui was co-artistic director of
the 2016 Bergen Assembly, and his work has
been presented worldwide, including at the
Tate Modern, London (2016); Marrakech
Biennale (2016); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Bois
de Boulogne (2015); Fondazione Prada, Ca’
Corner della Regina, Venice (2014); 8th Berlin
Biennial (2014); Within, Sharjah Biennial 11
(2013); 9th Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre
(2013); Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm (2013);
Serpentine Gallery, London (2012); documenta
13, Kassel (2012); Salzburg Sommerszene
Festival (2011); New Museum, New York (2010),
and Manarat Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi (2009).
Laura Anderson Barbata (Mexico/United
States) is an artist who has since 1992 worked
primarily in the social realm, initiating projects
in the Amazon of Venezuela, Trinidad and
Tobago, Mexico, Norway, and the United
States. From 2010–15, she was a Professor
at the Insituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. Her
project The Repatriation of Julia Pastrana,
initiated in 2004, resulted in the successful
removal of the body of Julia Pastrana from the
Schreiner Collection in Oslo to be repatriated
and buried in Sinaloa, Mexico, Pastrana’s
birth state. She is also known for her project
Transcommunality (2001–ongoing) working
with stilt walkers and artisans from Mexico,
New York, and the Caribbean. This project
has been presented at various venues, among
them The Museum of Modern Art, New York;
The Modern Museum Fort Worth Texas;
BRIC Art House Brooklyn; Rutgers University,
New Jersey; and the Museum of the City of
Mexico. She was recipient of the Anonymous
Was A Woman 2016 Award. In 2017,
Anderson Barbata, together with The Brooklyn
Jumbies, presented Ocean Blue(s) at NTU CCA
Singapore, as part of CITIES FOR PEOPLE, the
inaugural NTU CCA Ideas Fest.
Barney Broomfield (United Kingdom/
United States) is a Sundance award-winning
and Oscar-Shortlisted filmmaker and
cinematographer. As a graduate of the London
School of Economics, Broomfield’s career
began with National Geographic in the United
Kingdom which funded his first documentary
film after university, Welcome to the Real
World, a 12,000 mile motorbike journey from
Kolkata, India to London, England undergone
to raise money for an orphanage in India.
Since then Broomfield has travelled extensively
around the globe directing and shooting films
for the industry’s top broadcasters including
HBO, CNN, BBC, National Geographic,
Discovery Channel, MTV, Sundance,
Channel Four (UK), ITV, SKY, and PBS.
Dr Guigone Camus (France) holds a PhD
in Social Anthropology and Ethnology
(EHESS), and since 2002 has lectured at l’Ecole
du Louvre in Paris, l’Institut Catholique de
Paris (IRCP), and the University of French
Polynesia in Tahiti. Camus has worked on
the social organisation of Kiribati, which is
a small atoll country covering a large part
of the Central Pacific. During two missions
(2015 and 2017), she observed the I-Kiribati
symbolic representations of Nature, their
social organisation, and the kin ties between
their cosmology and genealogies. In 2014, she
published Tabiteuea Kiribati, a book dedicated
to Tabiteuea Island (Hazan). As a Scientific
Advisor of the Ocean and Climate Platform,
she is committed to putting light on issues
related to the consequences of global warming
�25
on the preservation of biodiversity, and the
livelihoods of the human societies living in
small island countries, addressing physical and
psychological security, food security, and
migration. She also works on the pragmatic and
emotional perception of climate change and on
the political and social parameters influencing
the protection of natural resources.
Dr Cynthia Chou (Singapore/United States)
is C. Maxwell and Elizabeth M. Stanley
Family Chair Professor of Asian Studies and
Professor of Anthropology at the University
of Iowa, United States. She received her PhD
in Social Anthropology at the University of
Cambridge, United Kingdom in 1994. Dr Chou
is internationally known for her pioneering
study of the life and lifestyles, as well as identity
and change, of the indigenous Malays in
Southeast Asia. She was awarded in 2011 the
highest Danish academic degree of dr phil by
the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, in
recognition of her work on the Orang Suku
Laut (sea nomads). Her publications include
The Orang Suku Laut of Riau, Indonesia:
The Inalienable Gift of Territory (2010) and
Indonesian Sea Nomads: Money, Magic, and Fear
of the Orang Suku Laut of Riau (2003).
Roko Josefa Cinavilakeba (Fiji) was the son
of the then Roko Sau, or the paramount chief
of Totoya in Lau. Roko Rusiate Sogotubu grew
up in Totoya before moving to the city for
further studies. After completing his tertiary
studies at the Fiji Institute of Technology,
now the Fiji National University, he worked
as architectural draftsman before joining the
Pacific Blue foundation team. Towards the
end of the same year, he was formally installed
to his traditional role as the paramount
chief of Totoya, one of the acknowledged
traditional leaders in the Lau Group. He is
also an executive member and trustee of the
Fiji Locally Managed Marine Area (FLMMA)
and the vice chairman of the Lau Provincial
Council.
Andrew Foran (Australia/Fiji) is Head of
the International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) Pacific Centre for Environmental Governance, and is also the IUCN
Regional Programme Coordinator (acting) for
Oceania. He has worked in the sustainability
field for over 15 years. Previously, Foran was
the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for
Sustainability Leadership in Australia, and has
also worked on sustainable supply chains and
green product development and marketing
with companies including BP, National
Australia Bank, Qantas, Boeing, and Toyota.
Before entering the environment sector, he
was the founder and general manager of a
successful aquaculture business supplying
markets in Australia and Asia, and has a Master
of Business Administration and a Graduate
Diploma in Environmental Management
and Planning. Foran currently volunteers as
treasurer for the Fiji Surf Association, and as
strategic advisor for the Pacific Environment
and Climate Exchange.
Newell Harry (Australia), of South African
and Mauritian descent, has for over a decade
drawn from an intimate web of recurring
travels and connections across Oceania and the
wider Asia-Pacific, to South Africa’s Western
Cape Province, where the artist’s extended
family continues to reside. From Pidgin and
Creole languages to modes of exchange in
the “gift economies” of the South Pacific,
Harry’s interests often culminate in culturally
“entangled” installations. Selected exhibitions
include Tidalectics, Thyssen-Bornemisza
Art Contemporary, Vienna (2017); Endless
Circulation: Tarrawarra Biennial, Victoria
(2016); the 56th Venice Biennale: All the
�26
Worlds Futures (2015); Suspended Histories,
Museum Van Loon, Amsterdam (2013); Rendez
Vous 11 & 12, Institut d’Art Contemporain,
Villebanne (2011), and South African National
Gallery, Cape Town (2012); Untitled (12th
Istanbul Biennial) (2011); the 17th Biennale
of Sydney: The Beauty of Distance, Songs of
Survival in a Precarious Age (2010); and the
Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Before
and After Science (2010). Harry was Artist-inResidence at NTU CCA Singapore in 2015.
Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Vietnam) graduated
in Fine Arts from the University of California,
Irvine (1999) and received his MFA from
The California Institute of the Arts (2004).
His work investigates the body as site and
as moment of resistance in public space,
exploring the impact of mass media. Nguyen
has exhibited at international exhibitions and
film festivals, having works in the collection
of the Queensland Art Gallery; Carre d’Art;
the Museum of Modern Art; and the Solomon
R. Guggenheim Museum. He is co-founder
and board member of Sàn Art, an artistinitiated exhibition and educational space in
Ho Chi Minh City. In 2006, he founded the
art collective The Propeller Group, which has
participated in numerous exhibitions including
the New Museum Triennial (2012); Los
Angeles Biennial (2012), New Orleans Triennial
(2014), and the Venice Biennale (2015).
Taholo Kami (Fiji) is serving the COP23
Presidency Secretariat as the Special Adviser
for Pacific Partnerships and International
Civil Society, where he is responsible for the
creation of effective Pacific partnerships and
the engagement of civil society. Previously,
he has completed 10 years as head of the
International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) Oceania office, where he
established a strong regional programme in
conservation, sustainable development,
and high-level policy frameworks.
Dr Kristy H. A. Kang (United States/
Singapore) is a media artist and scholar
whose work explores narratives of place and
geographies of cultural memory. She holds
a PhD in Media Arts and Practice from the
University of Southern California (USC). She is
Assistant Professor at NTU ADM, Singapore,
and was previously Associate Director of the
Spatial Analysis Laboratory at USC’s Sol Price
School of Public Policy in Los Angeles. Her
research interests combine urban and ethnic
studies, mapping, animation, and digital media
arts to visualise cultural histories of cities and
communities. Kang was a founding member
of the Labyrinth Project research initiative at
USC, serving as researcher, project director,
and designer on a range of collaborative
projects since 1997. These works have been
published and presented internationally
at conferences and institutions including
the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles;
the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe; the
Museum of Art at Seoul National University;
and the Jewish Museum, Berlin.
Dr Cresantia Frances Koya Vaka‘uta
(Fiji) is the Director of the Oceania Centre
for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies & Pacific
Heritage Hub, UNESCO Faculty of Arts,
Law and Education at The University of the
South Pacific, Fiji. She was previously a senior
lecturer in Education at The University of
the South Pacific. Her doctoral thesis explored
Pacific understandings of ESD through an
examination of Samoan and Tongan Heritage
Arts. Koya Vaka’uta’s research interests include
Pacific island education, Pacific Island Arts, art
as a social learning tool, Protest Poetry, Pacific
�27
Research and Evaluation, Pacific indigenous
research methodologies, and Education for
Sustainability in the islands. A poet and artist,
she is interested in the potential role that
the arts can play in formal and non-formal
education with reference to issues of resilience,
sustainability, and crisis in the Pacific islands.
Dr Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe (French
Polynesia) is a member of the Governance
and Insular Development Research Team
(GDI - University of French Polynesia) and the
Center of International Law (CDI - University
of Lyon III). His research interests include
environmental law, international law, and
oversea communities’ legal issues, particularly
for French Polynesia, and his specialty is
climate change legal issues. Lallemant-Moe
is teaching law at the University of French
Polynesia, where he is an alumnus. He also
graduated from the University of Western
Brittany (France) and the University of South
Pacific (Fiji). Lallemant-Moe is the assistant of
Maina Sage, Member of the French National
Assembly (French Parliament). He previously
worked several years for the Polynesian
Government and was a member of the High
Council of French Polynesia, a group of legal
experts who served as advisors to the President
of the country.
Dr PerMagnus Lindborg (Sweden/Singapore)
is a composer, sound artist, and researcher.
Lindborg studied piano and composition at
the Norwegian Music Academy in Oslo, music
computing at IRCAM in Paris, contemporary
musicology at Université de Paris Sorbonne,
and holds a PhD in sound perception and
design in multimodal environments from
the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in
Stockholm (2015). Since 2005, Lindborg
has taught at institutions in France and
Singapore, most recently at NTU ADM. He has
authored more than 100 media artworks and
compositions presented worldwide, notably at
Xuhui Art Museum, Shanghai (2017); Tonspur,
Vienna (2016); National Gallery Singapore
(2015); Onassis Centre, Athens (2014); World
Stage Design, Cardiff (2013); Moderna Museet,
Stockholm (2008); and Centre Pompidou, Paris
(2003). He has published 33 peer-reviewed
articles and papers in PLoS One, Leonardo,
Applied Acoustics, and Applied Sciences,
and book chapters for IRCAM-Delatour and
Springer-LNCS, as well as numerous conference
proceedings. He created the biannual Soundislands Festival (2013, 2015, and 2017).
Armin Linke (Italy/Germany) is a photographer and filmmaker who combines a
range of contemporary image-processing
technologies in order to blur the borders
between fiction and reality. He was Research
Affiliate at MIT Visual Arts Program
Cambridge, guest professor at the IUAV
Arts and Design University in Venice, and
professor for photography at the University
for Arts and Design Karlsruhe. Linke analyses
the formation, the gestaltung of our natural,
technological, and urban environment,
perceived as a diverse space of continuous
interaction. His photographs and films
function as tools to become aware of the
different design strategies. Concerned with
different possibilities of dealing with image
archives and their respective manifestations,
Linke works with his own archive, as well
as with other media archives, challenging
conventional practices, whereby the questions
of how photography and film are installed and
displayed become increasingly important. In
a collective approach with artists, designers,
architects, historians, and curators, narratives
are procured on the level of multiple discourses.
�28
Lucy + Jorge Orta’s (United Kingdom/
France, Argentina/France) collaborative
practice focuses on social and ecological issues,
employing a diversity of media to activate
long-term bodies of work, structured in series:
Refuge Wear / Body Architecture, portable
minimum habitats bridging architecture
and dress; HortiRecycling / 70 x 7 The Meal
interrogate the local and global food chain and
the ritual of community dining; OrtaWater
/ Clouds reflect on water scarcity and the
problems arising from pollution and corporate
control; Antarctica considers the effects of
climate change on migration; and Amazonia
explores interwoven ecosystems and their
value to our natural environment.
Maureen Penjueli (Fiji) is the Coordinator
of the Pacific Network on Globalisation
(PANG) based in Suva, Fiji. She has a vast
experience working with a number of key
regional organisations in the Pacific, including
Greenpeace and the Foundation of the Peoples
of the South Pacific International (FSPI).
PANG is the region’s alternative voice in
defending and promoting Pacific people’s right
to economic self-determination, mobilising and
advocating based on substantive research and
analysis to challenge neoliberal development
agendas in the region.
Valérie Portefaix (France/Hong Kong) is
Director of MAP Office, a multidisciplinary
platform based in Hong Kong since 1996,
co-founded with Laurent Gutierrez. The
relation between bodies and territories is at the
centre of its research-based artistic production.
With 20 years of multifaceted navigations,
publications, and exhibitions, MAP Office’s
practice has evolved across multiple fields and
disciplines, having recently developed a specific
focus on islands and other liquid territories as
a subject and object of study. Through these
investigations, and after more than a decade
of exploring the effects of globalisation and
urbanisation in Hong Kong and China, MAP
Office is investigating a new geography of
archipelagos that characterise the transient and
globalised environment of the Anthropocene
age. MAP Office’s last cross-disciplinary
research Our Ocean Guide was published in
2017 by Lightbox.
Filipa Ramos (Portugal/United Kingdom) is
a writer and editor, currently Editor-in-Chief
of art-agenda, commissioning and publishing
experimental and rigorous writing on art.
She is a lecturer in art and moving image at
the Experimental Film MA Programme of
Kingston University, and at the MRes Art:
Moving Image of Central Saint Martins/
University of the Arts, both in London, and
works with the Master Programme of the
Institut Kunst, Basel. She is co-founder and
co-curator of Vdrome, and was previously
Associate Editor of Manifesta Journal;
contributed to documenta 13 (2012) and
14 (2017). Interested in the way art, and
particularly time-based work, provides a site
of encounter for humans and nonhumans,
Ramos has written, lectured, and curated
exhibitions and film programmes on the topic,
having edited Animals (Whitechapel Gallery/
MIT Press, 2016). Ramos was a Writer-inResidence at NTU CCA Singapore in 2016. She
has been a guest curator at several institutions
and her writing has been published in several
magazines and catalogues.
Lisa Rave (United Kingdom/Germany) is
an artist, filmmaker, and photographer. In her
work, she often explores issues surrounding
postcolonialism, and history’s repeating
patterns in the complex interplay of culture,
�29
economy, and ecology, as well as natural
phenomena. Rave studied experimental
film at the University of the Arts Berlin and
photography at Bard College, New York. She
was a fellow artist at the Akademie Schloss
Solitude in Stuttgart in 2014. Some of her
recent exhibitions and screenings include
Lofoten International Art Festival (2017);
Arsenal Kino Berlin (2017); Glasmoog
Cologne (2017); Thyssen-Bornemisza
Art Contemporary–Augarten (2017);
Württembergischer Kunstverein (2016);
3rd Istanbul Design Biennial (2016); FLORA
ars+natura, Bogota (2015), Meulensteen Gallery,
New York (2014); Kunstverein Wiesbaden
(2013); Chisenhale Gallery, London (2012);
Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (2011); and
Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2011).
SUPERFLEX (Denmark) was founded
in 1993 by Jakob Fenger, Bjørnstjerne
Christiansen, and Rasmus Nielsen.
With a diverse and complex practice,
SUPERFLEX challenges the role of the
artist in contemporary society and explores
the nature of globalisation and systems of
power. SUPERFLEX has gained international
recognition for projects and solo exhibitions
around the world, including Kunsthalle Basel;
the Mori Museum, Tokyo; Van AbbeMuseum,
Eindhoven; South London Gallery; and the
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art,
Kanazawa. The group has participated in
international biennials such as the Gwangju
Biennale; Istanbul Biennial; São Paulo Biennial;
Shanghai Biennial; and in the Utopia Station
at the Venice Biennale. SUPERFLEX is
represented in several art institutions, such
as MoMA, New York; Hirshhorn Museum,
Washington; Louisiana Museum of Modern
Art, Copenhagen; The Hammer, Los Angeles;
Kunsthaus Zurich; Museum Boijmans Van
Beuningen, Rotterdam; and Colección Jumex,
Mexico City.
Joey Tau (Papua New Guinea/Fiji) is the
Media and Extractives Campaigner with the
Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG)
based in Suva, Fiji. Tau has a background in
media, having worked in mainstream media in
Papua New Guinea and the Pacific. PANG is
the region’s alternative voice in defending and
promoting Pacific people’s right to economic
self-determination, mobilising and advocating
based on substantive research and analysis to
challenge neoliberal development agendas in
the region.
Jegan Vincent de Paul (Sri Lanka, Canada/
Singapore) is a PhD candidate at the NTU
ADM and NTU CCA Singapore. His
dissertation considers the role of researchbased artistic production in creating new
understandings of contemporary geopolitical
events; his thesis critically examines China’s
Belt and Road Initiative and its impact on
the ethnic conflicts of Burma, Pakistan, and
Sri Lanka. Vincent de Paul has a Master of
Architecture from the University of Toronto
(2007) and completed his Master of Science in
Visual Studies at the MIT Visual Arts Program
(2009). He has worked as a researcher and
designer with artists and cultural organisations,
including Ai Weiwei (Beijing), LOT-EK (New
York), and the MIT Museum (Boston).
He was a research fellow and lecturer at the
MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology
(2011–12), where he researched the intersection of energy and society, and taught courses
on creative responses to conflict and crises.
�30
Saturday and Sunday,
3 and 4 February 2018
Film Programme: Liquid Traces—Visions
selected by writer Filipa Ramos together with The Current Fellows
What do we look at when we look at the sea? What shapes the visions of the oceans?
What are the sources of our personal and collective marine imaginaries, the references
for our impressions, desires, and fears?
During the past two years, a dispersed community of artists, thinkers, writers, and
researchers was summoned, assembled, and brought together by curator Ute Meta Bauer
on a set of three expeditions on board of the Dardanella, TBA21-Academy’s research
vessel, which was travelling across the Pacific Ocean.
These expeditions were deeply cinematic experiences. In itself the boat was simultaneously
a real and figurative site of projection: at once a privileged place from where to observe the
ocean, the life forms, transactions, and cultural expressions it hosted, and also a vessel that
embodied the tropes of the expedition, voyage, and exploration that were being lived and
performed within it.
Further pursuing the production and sourcing of images of the ocean and all that
surrounds it—its cultures, its infrastructures, the politics and cultures of extraction and
management, the observation of its social and natural landscapes—the selection of films of
Liquid Traces—Visions (a title borrowed from Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani’s film
Liquid Traces: The Left-to-Die Boat Case) followed the collective agency of Ute Meta Bauer’s
Dardanella expeditions. The films presented were chosen by the 12 participants of the
expeditions.
The selection of films has been arranged around two distinct programmes. The
first focuses on poetic, dreamlike experiments and approaches, and the second on
documentarist portraits of more concrete scenarios and realities. Together, they
interrogate the cinematic references that inform the common gazes of the expeditions
participants, their discourses, points of view, and encounters.
Selection made by participants to Ute Meta Bauer’s three expeditions to the South Pacific: Nabil
Ahmed, Atif Akin, Laura Anderson Barbata, Newell Harry, Stefanie Hessler, Dr Kristy H. A. Kang,
Dr PerMagnus Lindborg, Armin Linke, Filipa Ramos, Lisa Rave, and Jegan Vincent de Paul.
�31
Saturday, 3 February 2018
12.00 – 4.00pm | The Single Screen
Programme 1
Proteus, David Lebrun, video, 2004, 60 min
Proteus is an animated documentary film that
depicts a 19th-century understanding of the
sea with a particular emphasis on the life and
work of German biologist and naturalist Ernst
Haeckel (1834–1919). Haeckel was a promoter
of Darwinism in Germany who discovered,
described, drew, and named thousands of
new species, namely an extensive number of
underwater creatures.
The key to Haeckel’s vision was a tiny undersea
organism called the radiolaria, one of the
earliest forms of life. Haeckel discovered,
described, classified, and painted four thousand
species of these one-celled creatures. In their
intricate geometric skeletons, Haeckel saw all
the future possibilities of organic and created
form. Proteus explores the metamorphoses
of the radiolarian and celebrates their beauty
and seemingly infinite variety in animation
sequences based on Haeckel’s graphic work.
Proteus weaves a tapestry of poetry and myth,
biology and oceanography, scientific history
and spiritual biography.
Marsa Abu Galawa (Careless Reef Part 4),
Gerard Holthuis, 35mm film transferred to
digital file, 2004, 13 min
Marsa Abu Galawa (Careless Reef Part 4) is a
psychedelic, mind-altering, rhythmic sequence
of images of the underwater world shot in
the Red Sea and pacing at the soundtrack of
Egyptian shaabi singer Abdel Basset Hamouda.
The structure of the film is based on flicker
films, in which the whole unconscious experience of the flux of images is more important
than the single shots. Marsa Abu Galawa is the
fourth part of the “Careless Reef” series, four
short films made by Gerard Holthuis, which
deal with the underwater world.
Million Dollars Point, Camille Henrot, video,
2011, 5 min 35 sec
Courtesy the artist and kamel mennour, Paris.
Million Dollars Point is the name of a dive
site on Santo Island, Vanuatu—a lagoon that
became an underwater cemetery for hundreds
of tanks and canons abandoned by the North
American army after the Second World
War. The site was named after the amount
offered by the local islanders to buy out this
war debris. Million Dollars Point juxtaposes
the images of this submarine battlefield with
footage of a local music video showing a
French moustached man dancing and singing
on a Pacific beach, flanked by Polynesian girls
wearing typical costumes. The choreography of
the young women seems to respond the images
of engulfed weapons, they hide their faces as
a refusal to see, and they mimic waves, which
recall the borderline between the surface and
the sea bottom.
Limits to Growth, Nicholas Mangan, HD video,
2017, 8 min 55 sec
Limits to Growth begins by staging a
comparison of two virtual monetary currencies:
the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, and the Yapese
currency Rai. While bitcoins are virtual and
in a sense immaterial, Rai are made of stone
and are often very large and heavy. Bitcoins
are mined by computers solving complex
algorithms, often collectively, working
in a blockchain. In order to “mine” Bitcoins,
vast quantities of energy are consumed by
the computers processing the algorithms as
they labour to verify and record transactions.
Processor farms must labour continuously
to keep the network alive. Although Bitcoin’s
medium of exchange is virtual, it remains,
like Rai, bound to the physical world. (…)
My interest in Bitcoin was piqued by the
�32
use of terminology such as “mining” and
“workers.” Trawling through various online
forums, I found someone in Australia who
was actually mining bitcoin, despite the fact
that the country’s high electricity costs render
it unprofitable. I came across a discussion
taking place within a remote community in
Western Australia that was established by a
mining company to service an actual mine. As
is common practice, the company provided
free housing and electricity to workers, as well
as much needed air-conditioning in the hot
climate. In the online thread, a worker from
the mine suggested that a Bitcoin rig could
be set up at his company-funded housing in
order to take advantage of this free electricity
and cooling. This physical mine could
indirectly provide the climate for profitable
virtual mining in Australia. This situation of
a parasitical economy and how the potential
overlay of the physical and the dematerialised
might function in relation to resource
extraction was of particular interest. Limits to
Growth includes an underwater video of a Rai
stone lying on the bottom of the Miil Channel
off the northwest coast of Yap. The sound of
a human breathing through a scuba apparatus
is taken directly from the video.”
—Nicholas Mangan
Nauru – Notes from a Cretaceous World,
Nicholas Mangan, HD Video, 2010, 14 min 50 sec
Courtesy the artist; Sutton Gallery, Melbourne;
Hopkinson Mossman, Auckland; and LABOR,
Mexico City.
“I wanted to look at this moment in human
history within a much longer period of time.
I wanted to place human agency within
the contours of a deeper time frame and
an evolving ecosystem that doesn’t place
humans as the primary organism.”
—Nicholas Mangan
Nauru – Notes from a Cretaceous World is a
video essay that contrasts the ancient geological
history of the Pacific nation of Nauru with the
country’s more recent political and economic
situation. Historically, Nauru’s coral limestone
rocky landscape has been rich in phosphate—
a valuable mineral which, in Nauru, is the
product of a mixture of decomposed marine life
and guano deposits compressed over millions
of years. In the 1920s, the British Phosphate
Commission initiated industrial strip-mining
of Nauru’s ancient coral landscape, selling the
phosphate mineral off to Australia, the United
Kingdom, and New Zealand, where it was
processed into a superphosphate fertiliser used
to enrich agricultural soil. Over the coming
decades, the Nauruan government allowed
mining to occur at such intensity that, by 1977,
the tiny island nation of Nauru had become
the second-richest nation per capita after Saudi
Arabia. That year, as a sign of its wealth, Nauru
built the then-tallest sky scraper in Melbourne.
Called Nauru House, it was crudely dubbed
“Bird Shit Tower” by many Australians.
By the turn of the millennium, as phosphate
levels became depleted, the Nauruan
government began to default on numerous
major international loans and declared
bankruptcy. At this time, the Australian
government initiated its so-called Pacific
Solution (2001–07) policy, and later Operation
Sovereign Borders (2013–ongoing), in which
it paid the financially desperate Nauru to
house asylum seekers attempting to arrive
in Australia by boat.
Drawing Restraint 9, Matthew Barney, video,
2005, 135 min
Drawing Restraint 9 comprises the presented
feature-length film, alongside large-scale
sculptures, photographs, drawings, and books.
The “Drawing Restraint” series consists of
19 numbered components and related
materials. Some episodes are videos, others
sculptural installations or drawings.
Drawing Restraint 9 is a love story set in
Nisshin Maru, a Japanese whaling vessel
making its annual journey to Antarctica. The
histories and traditions of Shinto religion,
Japanese tea ceremony, whaling, and global
forms of fuel extraction are intertwined in this
�33
non-narrative, monumental epic. Two actions
unfold simultaneously on the vessel: one on
deck and one beneath it. The narrative on
deck involves the process of casting a 25-ton
petroleum jelly sculpture that rivals the scale
of a whale. Below deck, the two characters
participate as guests in a tea ceremony, where
they are formally engaged after arriving on the
ship as strangers. As the film progresses, the
guests go through an emotional and physical
transformation slowly transfiguring from land
mammals into sea mammals, as they fall in love.
The petroleum jelly sculpture simultaneously
passes through changing states, from warm
to cool, and from the architectural back to the
primordial. The dual narratives, the sculptural
and the romantic, come to reflect one another
until they merge into one.
AXIS – Anatomy of Space, Good Company
Arts / Daniel Belton, video, 2017, 6 min
“With the same evolutionary effect as was
followed by the ancient Greeks in their search
for beauty, AXIS offers a resonating, lyrical
space. Dancers are seen travelling through
apertures tensioned with the happening
of projected light. Their choreography
establishes a circuitry of luminosity. Like a
great celestial dynamo, the screen environment
transmits oscillating shafts of digital dance and
sound—illuminating song cycles in a cosmic
choreography of light. We are each made up of
photons. Photons are particles of light. Light is
inspiration. Every space has an “anatomy.”
AXIS creates a new search with the human
figure in space, as projected film and processed
sound performance combine. Nothing is
in stasis.”
—Good Company Arts
Note: This single-channel version of AXIS was
created from parts of the original full-length
work of 38 minutes made for 360º full-dome
cinema.
Sunday, 4 February 2018
12.00 – 6.30pm | The Single Screen
Programme 2
Trobriand Cricket: An Indigenous Response to
Colonialism, Gary Kildea and Jerry Leach, 16mm
film transferred to digital video, 1976, 54 min
Anthropologist and filmmaker Jean Rouch
described Trobriand Cricket as “a wonderful
film, perhaps one of the greatest anthropological films of recent time.”
(Film Quarterly, 1978).
A key reference of ethnographic cinema,
Trobriand Cricket depicts the transformations
introduced by the inhabitants of the Trobriand
Islands in Papua New Guinea to the British
version of cricket, a game that was introduced
to Trobriand by a British Methodist missionary
in the early 20th century as a way to replace
violent tribal warfare with Western sportsmanship. The film shows how the islanders
responded to a British colonial imposition by
appropriating and transforming the game into
an expression of tribal rivalry, mock warfare,
community interchange, eroticised dancing and
chanting, and unruly fun.
The Shark Callers of Kontu, Dennis O’Rourke,
16mm transferred to video, 1982, 54 min
From 1974 to 1979, Dennis O’Rourke lived
in Papua New Guinea, where he taught
documentary filmmaking. The Shark Callers
of Kontu depicts the ancient tradition of
‘sharkcalling’ in the village of Kontu, on the
west coast of New Ireland. The documentation
of Kontu inhabitants’ traditional way of shark
hunting, in which sharks are called and killed
by hand, is combined with a portrait of their
lives and environment, presented both from
still images commented by O’Rourke and
interviews with the local population. The film
explores the changes to cultural values and
traditional customs wrought by colonisation,
alcohol, commerce, and Christianity.
�34
The People’s Elect – Pouvanaa te Metua, MarieHélène Villierme, HDCam PAL, 2012, 90 min
In the late 1940s, the French Establishments
of Oceania (now French Polynesia), saw the
dawn of a local political era. In 1949, Pouvanaa
a Oopa (1895–1977) became the first Tahitian
to serve in the French Chamber of Deputies.
Pouvanaa was also the charismatic leader of
the country’s first political party, the RDPT
(Democratic Rally of the Tahitian People).
A supporter of the independence of Tahiti, he
strongly opposed the French colonial administration and the French nuclear testing in
the Tuamotu Archipelago during the 1960s.
Sentenced to prison and exile in metropolitan
France, Pouvanaa only returned to French
Polynesia in 1968. Combining archival
materials, found footage, newsreels, and
interviews, The People’s Elect offers a vivid
portrait of this important figure of French
Polynesian political life.
Liquid Traces: The Left-to-Die Boat Case,
Forensic Oceanography (Charles Heller and
Lorenzo Pezzani), video, 2014, 17 min
“Liquid Traces offers a synthesis of our
reconstruction of the events of what is known
as the “left-to-die boat” case, in which 72
passengers who left the Libyan coast heading
in the direction of the island of Lampedusa
on board a small rubber boat were left to drift
for 14 days in NATO’s maritime surveillance
area, despite several distress signals relaying
their location, as well as repeated interactions,
including at least one military helicopter visit
and an encounter with a military ship. As a
result, only nine people survived.
In producing this reconstruction, our research
has used against the grain the “sensorium of
the sea”—the multiple remote sensing devices
used to record and read the sea’s depth and
surface. Contrary to the vision of the sea as
a non-signifying space in which any event
immediately dissolves into moving currents,
with our investigation we demonstrated that
traces are indeed left in water, and that by
reading them carefully the sea itself can
be turned into a witness for interrogation.”
—Charles Heller and Lorenzo Pezzani
Neytal Diary, Ravi Agarwal, HD video,
2016, 38 min
Neytal Diary was shot over one year off the
coast of Tamilnadu in South India. It derives
from artist and environmental activist Ravi
Agarwal’s ongoing work with a fishing
community near the town of Pondicherry,
which seeks to examine the ecological
understandings and conflicts from the
perspective of its inhabitants. The texts of
the film are extracts from a diary (Ambient
Seas, published in 2016) kept by Agarwal over
the years, and contain his reflections on the
complex ecological, cultural, and political
underpinnings of the fishermen’s lives and
their absence from the dominant global debates
on the Anthropocene and climate change.
One Belt, One Road: Documentary – Episode
One: Common Fate, video, 2016, 55 min
One Belt, One Road: Documentary – Episode One:
Common Fate focuses on “One Belt, One Road”
or the “Belt and Road Initiative,” a development
strategy and framework proposed by Chinese
paramount leader Xi Jinping. This strategy
focuses on connectivity and cooperation
among countries and primarily between the
People’s Republic of China and the rest of
Eurasia, consisting of two main components:
the land-based “Silk Road Economic Belt” and
oceangoing “Maritime Silk Road.” The strategy
underlines China’s push to take a bigger role
in global affairs, and its need for priority
capacity cooperation in areas such as steel
manufacturing.
Matthew Barney: No Restraint,
Alison Chernick, video, 2006, 72 min
Matthew Barney: No Restraint documents
artist Matthew Barney and his then partner,
collaborator, and singer-songwriter Björk,
as they film Drawing Restraint 9.
�35
Thursday, 1 March 2018
7.30 – 9.00pm | The Single Screen
Friday, 2 March 2018
10.00am – 5.00pm | The Seminar Room
Talk: INTERPRT: Spatial Investigation
of Environmental Crimes
by artist Dr Nabil Ahmed
Workshop: Confronting Ecocide
by artist Dr Nabil Ahmed
INTERPRT is an interdisciplinary project
on environmental justice in Oceania at
the intersection of spatial practice, international law, and artistic research. The
Pacific ring—a geological force field rising
from the ocean floor—reorganises a fluid,
geological imaginary of the region as a
global commons. At this mineral frontier,
environmental violence is spatially diffused
and temporally protracted, requiring new
methods of detection and reconstruction.
This talk will present investigations on
environmental crimes and new forums for
ecocide law.
Participants of the workshop are
encouraged to attend the public talk by
Nabil Ahmed on Thursday, 1 March 2018.
Current international laws are inadequate
to protect the oceans and the planet.
A law against ecocide and the principle
of universal jurisdiction are the missing
factors that can address this problem.
Criminal accountability for environmental
and climate-related crimes also addresses
wider issues of climate justice beyond
economic remedies. The workshop,
convened by INTERPRT, brings together
leading practitioners from the field to
examine emerging legal concepts and cases
around ecocide, universal jurisdiction,
and nature as a legal subject in a Pacific
region context.
Further Programmes
on the occasion of The Oceanic
9 December 2017 – 4 March 2018
The Oceanic focuses on large-scale human interventions in the oceanic ecospheres. The
12 contributors to the exhibition are the fellows who participated in the first expedition
cycle of TBA21–Academy The Current. Engaging with the long cultural histories of Pacific
Ocean archipelagos and the environmental conditions they face today, the featured works
and projects range from multi-screen projections with deep-ocean footage to an aquarium
with live jellyfish, and from costumes inspired by local dances in Papua New Guinea to
3D animations of mutating atolls.
�36
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
TBA21–Academy would like to acknowledge and thank the many individuals who have
generously lent their expertise and guidance throughout the past three years of the first
cycle of The Current.
Expedition Leader Ute Meta Bauer as well as Leong Min Yu Samantha, Magdalena
Magiera, and the rest of the team at NTU CCA Singapore. Thanks are also due to
Damian Christinger and Cesar Garcia for their contributions.
Bruno Barrillot; Mamie Blue; Marc Collins; Neil Davies and Hinano Teavai-Murphy at
the UC Berkeley Gump South Pacific Research Station in Moorea; Pascal Erhel Hatuuku;
Maimiti Hunter; Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe; Bran Quinquis; Roland Oldham;
Léonne Tauhiro; Sarah Vaki; Romain Vivier; and particularly Marie-Hélène Villierme
in French Polynesia.
Andrew Foran; Cresantia Frances Koya Vaka‘uta; Soli Middleby; Katy, Lynda, and Rob
Miller of the Vatuvara Foundation; Charlotte Ramasima; Peter Sipeli; Lagi Tuibaba;
Joey Tau and Maureen Penjueli of PANG; Elisapeci Tamanisau of the Ministry of iTaukei
Affairs; and Josefa Cinavilakeba (Roko Sau) in Fiji.
The crew of the Dardanella: Alejandro Aburto, Carol Ballinas, Yann Fuetren, Gilles
Herant, Ryan Lombard, Brady MacDonald, Nicole Marshall, Pippa Palmer, Terry Pickard,
Piot Rachalewski, and Therese Satherly. Barney Broomfield, Lauren Matic, and Clemens
Prankl for the documentation of the journeys. Nigel Douglas, Christelle and Rodolphe
Holler, Craig De Witt, Miano Huukena, Bona Kaimuko, and Humu Kaimuko for their
guidance during our voyages.
Kalani English, David Gruber, Patrick Heimbach, Carol Ivory, Taholo Kami, Susana
Lei’ataua, Lelei Tui Samoa LeLaulu, Sandor Mulsow, Josef Penninger, Davor Vidas,
and Linz Wilbur for the continuous support and stimulation.
Laura Creed, Georg Eder, Jens Radke, and Marlene Rigler, who supported the
Academy during its foundational phase.
And last but not least to all of those who organised, contributed to, and supported
the Convenings in Kingston, Jamaica; Kochi, India; and Singapore.
�37
THE CURRENT
CONVENING #3
A collaboration between NTU CCA Singapore
and TBA21–Academy
NTU CCA SINGAPORE
TBA21–ACADEMY
Professor Ute Meta Bauer
Khim Ong
Magdalena Magiera
Samantha Leong
Cheong Kah Kit
Ana Sophie Salazar
Syaheedah Iskandar
Markus Reymann
Stefanie Hessler
Kat Davis
Paul Feigelfeld
Barbara Hörhan
James White
Allegra Shorto
DESIGN COLLATERALS
mono.studio
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Magdalen Chua
The images used throughout this brochure
were taken from the first cycle of The
Current expeditions. The designer was
given the freedom to select from pool of
images collectively complied during the
expeditions. He made a selection based
on content and visuality rather than the
context and significance of the images.
It is with the hope that such a collection
of collective images and its presentation
invites reflection on the questions and
challenges surrounding image production,
representation, context, and ownership.
In support of
Performative Interventions
70 x 7 The Meal Act XLI (41)
I/E – The Solo Sessions
With the additional support of
�38
THYSSEN-BORNEMISZA ART CONTEMPORARY
Founded in 2002 by Francesca von Habsburg in Vienna, Thyssen-Bornemisza
Art Contemporary (TBA21) represents the fourth generation of the Thyssen
family’s commitment to the arts. TBA21’s unique collection is the result of
its ongoing commitment to commissioning and disseminating multidisciplinary
art projects that defy traditional categorisation, including large-scale installations,
sound compositions, endurance performances, and contemporary architecture.
Since the foundation believes that art has the capacity to be a transformational
force, it explores new modes of presentation that are intended to provoke
and inspire change.
TBA21–ACADEMY
TBA21–Academy is the exploratory soul of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art
Contemporary, and an itinerant site of cultural production and transdisciplinary
research. Conceived by Markus Reymann as a moving platform on the oceans,
it brings together artists, researchers, and other thinkers and practitioners from
various fields concerned with today’s most urgent ecological, social, and economic
issues. Through its expeditions on sea and land, the Academy seeks to reinvent
the culture of exploration in the 21st century, while inciting knowledge creation,
new modes of collaboration, and the co-production of solutions for the pressing
environmental challenges of today.
TBA21–Academy
Second Home
68-80 Hanbury Street
London E1 5JL
United Kingdom
tba21.org/academy
Email: office@tba21.org
�39
TBA21 STAFF
NTU CCA SINGAPORE STAFF
Francesca von Habsburg, Founder and
Chairwoman
Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director,
and Professor, NTU ADM
TBA21–Academy
Exhibition & Residencies
Markus Reymann, Director
Stefanie Hessler, Curator
Kat Davis, Assistant Director
Paul Feigelfeld, Data & Research Architect
Maria Montero Sierra, Production Manager
James White, Executive Assistant
Allegra Shorto, Curatorial Assistant
Khim Ong, Deputy Director,
Curatorial Programmes
Dr Anna Lovecchio, Curator, Residencies
Magdalena Magiera, Curator,
Outreach & Education
Ana Sophie Salazar, Assistant Curator,
Exhibitions
Syaheedah Iskandar, Curatorial Assistant,
Outreach & Education
Lynda Tay, Curatorial Assistant, Residencies
Ng Soon Kiat, Assistant Manager, Production
Isrudy Shaik, Executive, Production
Chua Yong Kee, Trainee, Production
Jamie Koh, Trainee, Exhibitions
Joey Sim, Trainee, Residencies
Prunella Ong, Trainee, Outreach & Education
TBA21 Programming
Daniela Zyman, Chief Curator
Boris Ondreička, Curator
Frederike Sperling, Assistant Curator
Beatrice Forchini, Curatorial Assistant
Simone Sentall, Head of Collection
Corina Korab, Registrar
Collection & Exhibitions
Andrea Hofinger, Registrar
Collection & Loans
Ulrike Janetzki, Archive
Eva Ebersberger, Head of Publications
Resnicow and Associates,
International Press
Research & Education
Sophie Goltz, Deputy Director,
Research & Academic Programmes,
and Assistant Professor, NTU ADM
Cheong Kah Kit, Manager, Research
Anca Rujoiu, Manager, Publications
Samantha Leong, Executive, Conference,
Workshops & Archive
Ho Mun Yee, Trainee, Research
Operations & Strategic Development
Philip Francis, Deputy Director,
Operations & Strategic Development
Jasmaine Cheong, Assistant Director,
Operations & HR
Shirley Low, Head, Development
Yao Jing Wei, Manager, Finance
Sylvia Tsai, Manager, Communications
Angie Ang, Special Projects Assistant
Louis Tan, Executive, Operations
Samuel Lee, Trainee, Communications
�40
NTU CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY ART SINGAPORE
Located in Gillman Barracks, the NTU CCA Singapore is a national research centre of
Nanyang Technological University, supported by a grant from the Economic Development
Board. The Centre is unique in its threefold constellation of research & academic
programmes, international exhibitions, and residencies, positioning itself as a space for
critical discourse and diverse forms of knowledge production. The Centre focuses on
Spaces of the Curatorial in Singapore, Southeast Asia, and beyond, as well as engaging
in multi-layered research topics. Since its inauguration in October 2013, the NTU CCA
Singapore has developed into an influential platform encompassing research-based artistic
practices of international scope, curatorial education, and public programmes to delve
into the complexities of the contemporary art field.
CLIMATES. HABITATS. ENVIRONMENTS.
NTU CCA SINGAPORE VISITOR INFORMATION
Exhibition Hours
Tuesday – Sunday, 12.00 – 7.00pm
Friday, 12.00 – 9.00pm
Closed on Mondays
Open on Public Holidays
(except on Mondays)
Free admission to all programmes
ntu.ccasingapore.org
facebook.com/ntu.ccasingapore
Instagram: @ntu_ccasingapore
Twitter: @ntuccasingapore
Email: ntuccaevents@ntu.edu.sg
Exhibitions
Block 43 Malan Road,
Gillman Barracks,
Singapore 109443
+65 6339 6503
Residencies Studios
Blocks 37 and 38, Malan Road
Singapore 109452 and 109441
Research Centre and Office
Block 6 Lock Road, #01-09/10,
Singapore 108934
+65 6460 0300
© NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore and TBA21–Academy.
Printed January 2018 by First Printers.
CLIMATES. HABITATS. ENVIRONMENTS. is NTU CCA Singapore’s overarching
research topic which informs and connects the Centre’s various activities over a period
of three years. Changes in the environment influence weather patterns and these climatic
shifts impact habitats, and vice versa. Precarious conditions of habitats are forcing
migration of humans and other species at a critical level. The consequences of human
intervention are felt on a global scale, affecting geo-political, social, and cultural systems.
The Centre intends to discuss and understand these realities through art and culture in
dialogue with other fields of knowledge.
�Hawaii
Depleted uranium
Military sites: Pohakuloa Training Center
and Schofield Barraks
Scattered 744 ammunition shots
recognized by the US Army in 2005 anf 2007
(more than 2000 shots known from other sources)
6938
Fractu
re Zo
ne
North West Pacific Ocean
Technological waste
(8239 GBq)
Depth: >3000 m
1068 containers
or
Syrvey
6950
Hawaii
Technological waste
(3.33 Gbq)
39 containers
Depth: 3456 m
6470
2836
8129
2480
6031
6566
7333
Cook Is
Compla
populati
by Chris
Fangata
atmosph
6501
7662
1750
6491
Samoa
Radioactive waste
8053
3
7415
USA
Amchitka: 3 underground tests
Recognized radioactive leaks
Significant Contamination
"Wildlife refuge"
Remediation 2001 to 2025
604
Johnston atoll
12 atmospheric test
12
6947
1370
8631
6536
North Mariana
Radioactive waste
7151
6283
6727
Guam
Radioactive waste
8167
6926
207
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nc
136
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Ale
6445
Nautilus
Deep Se
6607
6857
242
Rongelap
Waste content: Plutonium,
Cesium-137 from the "Bravo" test of 1
March 1954
Contaminated soils stored on an island
Litigation between the people of
Rongelap who refuses to return to its
atoll and the American authorities.
ril
Ku
7153
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6049
nch
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2018
1406
6588
6614
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1958
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Population : 52,993
Bikini atoll: 21 atmospheric tests / 1
underwater tests
Failed decontamination.
Atoll unsutable for human habitation
Population currently displaced on
the Kili atoll
Enewetak atoll: 42 atmospheric tests / 2
underwater tests
Partial rehabilitation
Resettlement of the population since 1980
6587
Enewetak
Radioactive waste contained in
concrete dome
Inhabited atoll
Restrictions on local agricultural
productions
44
4935
Bikini
Contaminated military
ships and vehicles
abandoned in the lagoon
6941
6583
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an
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Panguna Mine
Tre
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Seafloor massive sulfide (SMS)
Cu, Au, Ag, Zn
Site: Solawara 1
2019
Cu
Ashio Mine
Depth: 1800m- 2800m
Radioactive waste
3031 conteneurs
(15078,9 GBq)
Nautilus Minerals
Deep Sea Mining Area
Isu- Ogasawara Trench
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na
ria
n
Tre
ch
Okinawa
Nuclear weapon of a rugged
American aircraft
South Korea
Radioactive waste
Depth: 2192 m
115 containers
Au
Woodlark Mine
Sasebe
Contaminated refrigerating liquid from a
US submarine "Swordfish"
Cu
Ok Tedi Mine
As
Toroku Mine
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9555
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Population: 127 million
2 atmospheric attacks on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945
Cu, Au
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Au, Cu
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Au,Cu, Ag
Padcal Mine
Cu
Marcopper Placer
Dome Mine
Ni
Zambales Mine
Au, Cu, Fe, Ni
Marcventure
Ni
Shenzhou Mine
Ni
Mine
San Roque
Fe, Ni
Mine
Mrl Agata Mine
Fe
Ni
McArthur Metalic
San Roque
Mine
Mine
Ni
Pulot Sofronio Mine
Ni
Mindoro Mine
Au
Mt.Canatuan Mine
Fe, rare metals, Ni
Toronto Narra Mine
Ni
Ni
Pujada- Hallmark Mine
Cu, Au
Fe
Glencre Xsrata Tampakan
PT Mikgro Metal Perdana Mine
Mine
�Part of Singapore
Art Week 2018
Block 43 Malan Road
Singapore 109443
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Resources
Programme Resource
Collateral and other print or digital materials pertaining to residency programmes. Examples include residency brochures, postcards, etc.
Short Description
Through discursive events including talanoa discussions, case studies, workshops, as well as performative events, Convening #3 shares with a wider public the research and challenges generated through the format of such expeditions.
Programme Series
None
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Current Convening #3 Programme Guides
Description
An account of the resource
The Current Convening #3 Tabu / Tapu – Who Owns the Ocean? marks the culmination of TBA21–Academy The Current’s first cycle of expeditions, bringing together The Current Fellows; thought leaders from diverse disciplines; local agencies and activist NGOs. Through discursive events including talanoa discussions, case studies, workshops, provocations, as well as performative events, Convening #3 shares with a wider public the research and challenges generated through the format of such expeditions. It focuses on the modalities of exchange, addresses environmental urgencies, raises questions regarding responsibilities and ownership, and discusses whether rights of nature can be equal to human rights. Environmental researchers, conservationists, anthropologists, and policymakers will share a platform that invites active and creative participation on how we can understand and effect the development to international law, policies, culture, and environmental education. Coinciding with NTU CCA Singapore’s current exhibition The Oceanic, featuring contributions by TBA21–Academy The Current Fellows from the first cycle of expeditions (2015–17), Convening #3 marks the culmination of inquiries on the vessel Dardanella to the Pacific archipelagos of Trobriand Islands in Papua New Guinea; the Tuamotus in French Polynesia; and the Lau Island Group in Fiji.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018-01-25
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Atif Akin
Laura Anderson Barbata
Guigone Camus
Newell Harry
Kristy H. A. Kang
PerMagnus Lindborg
Armin Linke
Filipa Ramos
Lisa Rave
Jegan Vincent de Paul
Tarek Atoui
Barney Broomfield
Cynthia Chou
Andrew Foran
Taholo KamiCresantia (Frances) Koya Vaka’uta
Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe
Sandor Mulsow
Rasmus Nielsen
Lucy Orta
Maureen Penjueli
Roko Sau
Joey Tau
Markus Reymann
Stefanie Hessler
Ute Meta Bauer
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Southeast Asia
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/57163/archive/files/9745a82008a94f6a71429a890e9457a4.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=t%7EcPN6FYyQ9-3LQ2BJ3f31VOKjTvmO85M2YkFqPJ9u3D1q%7EvU2RY%7EqMkW2KjekI%7EblodL4f-NEa2W550PYUoWOtWOyy1C3y3c%7EG1n5dcbCmziCJrmiE7w92bH1bmFJJJ6s1XT8wlpbTwcNviQYRgjMMTKeBRg66V5bD%7EhQLbxE5L-Uk6ePMU3y27okz4CLzr-ruGSJ53U0Kg%7EExlUG8HsRLcEdHQXlKVfY5FkI%7EdJyFUbO57yB9BHi-IO-HOhDBoVO2oziewM5n2WJAWwDm5YwJxGb-tzdgsE6JwoW5bKcXWC288HbMHW8A0P%7EF58zwsJDIX-KGTZM5q0QTDCKpgLg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
4fab0410440bd06529fc6e190d9686bf
PDF Text
Text
on the occasion of
the opening of the
Kochi-Muziris Biennale
Fort Kochi, Kerala, India
TBA21–Academy media links
tba21.org/convening2kochi
facebook.com/TBA21
#tba21 #convening2kochi
@tba_21
Partners
December 13–15, 2016
TBA21–Academy
Köstlergasse 1
1060 Vienna, Austria
Media
Partner
Convening #2
Thyssen-Bornemisza
Art Contemporary
The Current
z
Ba
Vasco da Gama Chu rch
Kochi-Muziris Biennale– Aspinwall
ch
Bea
atm
Mah
Cochin Club
dhi
an
aG
Vasco da Gama Plaz a
Cochin Club
Vasco da Gama Plaza
Spice Market
Main Site
Kochi-Muziris Biennale
Convening #2 Locations
a
Please find all locations here:
aG
Cover photo:
Drone Shot, Atif Akin, 2016
atm
Fragrant Nature Hotel
Bazaar Rd, Mattancherry,
Fort Kochi, Kerala 682001
Ma
h
Kochi-Muziris Biennale
Aspinwall
River Rd, Fort Kochi,
Kerala 682001
ch
Spice Market
near Jeevamatha Church
Jew Town Rd, Jew Town,
Kappalandimukku,
Mattancherry, Kochi,
Kerala 682002
ea
Vasco da Gama Plaza
Church Rd, Fort Kochi,
Kerala 682001
iB
Cochin Club
7, St. Francis Church Road,
Opp Parade Ground,
Fort Kochi, Kerala 682001
Kochi-Muziris Biennale
kochimuzirisbiennale.org
d.
nd
h
convened by TBA21 The Current
expedition leaders
Ute Meta Bauer and Cesar Garcia
and TBA21–Academy curator
Stefanie Hessler
TBA21–Academy
tba21.org/convening2kochi
facebook.com/TBA21
#tba21 #convening2kochi
@tba_21
rR
Fragrant Nature Hotel
on the occasion of the opening of
the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016
Fort Kochi, Kerala, India
aa
Spice Market
follow Bazaar Rd., 20 min walk
Funding
Partner
Convening #2
December 13–15, 2016
�Workshop
Landscapes Open in
the Empty Self
Dawn, prabhatam, hitiraa mahana
Nuclear Pacific
by Nabil Ahmed
with Ravi Agarwal, Ute Meta Bauer,
Zuleikha Chaudhari, Stefanie Hessler,
Amar Kanwar, KHOJ (Sitara Chowfla,
Radha Mehandru, and Pooja Sood),
Davor Vidas, Linz Wilbur
by Sharmistha Mohanty
Vasco da Gama Plaza
8.30–9.45am
Attentional exercise
7–8pm
Protocol of the Sea
Watch, Action of the
Crow’s Nest
Cochin Club
Marketplace
[Cartography 4]
“Ambiguous Objects”
and the University
Museum
Workshop
Vasco da Gama Plaza
8–10pm
10.30am–12.30pm
Unpredictable Oceans
and the Monstrosity of
the Sea
Guided visit of the installation
and sound piece
10.30am–12.30pm
Structured conversation
The Ocean as Habitat:
The rights of nature
and the international
Law of the sea
Cochin Club
2–5pm
Workshop
moderated by Ute Meta Bauer
with Ravi Agarwal, Nabil Ahmed,
D. Graham Burnett, TJ Demos, Jegan
Vincent de Paul, Markus Reymann,
Davor Vidas
“Ambiguous Objects”
and the University
Museum
Cochin Club
ഉച്ചയ്ക്ക
by Clémentine Deliss
സന്ധ
5–6.30pm
Introduction
Into The Current
moderated by Daniela Zyman
with Ute Meta Bauer, Cesar Garcia,
Francesca von Habsburg, Stefanie
Hessler, Markus Reymann
Cochin Club
The Capitalocene
Pacific
Midday, uccaykk, avatea
2–5pm
Cochin Club
Workshop
“Ambiguous Objects”
and the University
Museum
6–6.30pm
Keynote
The Law of the Sea —
through time and place
by Clémentine Deliss
Closed workshop,
various sites in Fort Kochi
by Davor Vidas
Cochin Club
2–5pm
6.30–7pm
Workshop
Prose reading
Rising Sea Levels
Reading a Wave
by Francesca von Habsburg
by Ho Rui An
Closed workshop,
deep-sea vessel by CMLRE
Vasco da Gama Plaza
3–4pm
Performative talk
2–5pm
Workshop for children
Guided visit of the installation
and sound piece
by Joan Jonas
with Filipa Ramos
Cochin Club
2–5pm
The Document’s
Expanded Field
by Jamie Y. Shi
Cochin Club
2–5pm
Cochin Club
Oceans–
sketches and notes
Fish Tails and Fish
Tales
Midday, uccaykk, avatea
by Jamie Y. Shi
by TJ Demos
Marketplace
[Cartography 4]
Vasco da Gama Plaza
by Christopher Myers
Short films
Gianini with Ishu Patel
Wutharr, Saltwater
Dreams by Karrabing Film
Collective
Poetry reading
The Tagore Letters
by Aveek Sen
Vasco da Gama Plaza
7–8pm
Sound performance
Drifting
by Jana Winderen
Vasco da Gama Plaza
8–10pm
Short films
Elementary Maps No. 3
by Anna Bella Geiger
Occidente by Ana Vaz
The Disappearance of
the Aïtus by Pauline Julier
Cargo by Laura Waddington
Speeches—Chapter 1:
Mother Tongue
by Bouchra Khalili
Brouillard—Passage 14
by Alexandre Larose
by Sylvia Schedelbauer
originally selected for the Dhaka Art
Summit program Passages
by Shanay Jhaveri
Vasco da Gama Plaza
December
13 –15
ALL DAY
Film shoot
The Episodic
by The Propeller Group
Various sites in Fort Kochi
ALL DAY
Exhibition of books
From the (Kula) Ring to
the Belt (& Road)
by Jegan Vincent de Paul
Cochin Club
ALL DAY
Installation and sound piece
Marketplace
[Cartography 4]
by Christopher Myers
Spice Market near
Jeevamatha Church
Spice Market near
Jeevamatha Church
8–10pm
Swimmy by Leo Lionni & Giulio
6.30–7pm
Sea of Vapors
The Document’s
Expanded Field
7–8pm
Workshop
Dusk, sandhya, maruapö
ഉച്ചയ്ക്ക
Keynote
Breakfast area of Fragrant
Nature Hotel
by Nabil Ahmed
with Ravi Agarwal, Ute Meta Bauer,
Zuleikha Chaudhari, Stefanie Hessler,
Amar Kanwar, KHOJ (Sitara Chowfla,
Radha Mehandru, and Pooja Sood),
Davor Vidas, Linz Wilbur
Spice Market near
Jeevamatha Church
5–5.30pm
by ESTAR(SER)
Nuclear Pacific
Cochin Club
Workshop
8.30–9.45am
Protocol of the Sea
Watch, Action of the
Crow’s Nest
Workshop
by Christopher Myers
Dusk, sandhya, maruapö
Attentional exercise
2–5pm
Marketplace
[Cartography 4]
Dawn, prabhatam, hitiraa mahana
Spice Market near
Jeevamatha Church
സന്ധ
പ്രഭാതം
ഉച്ചയ്ക്ക
December 14
Cochin Club
Guided visit of the installation
and sound piece
moderated by Stefanie Hessler
with Nabil Ahmed, Ute Meta Bauer,
Georg Eder, Amar Kanwar, Charles Lim,
Markus Reymann, Davor Vidas
by Christopher Myers
by Jamie Y. Shi
3–4pm
The Ocean as
Treasure Trove:
Deep-sea mining —
the next gold rush?
Marketplace
[Cartography 4]
Vasco da Gama Plaza
Midday, uccaykk, avatea
Closed workshop,
various sites in Fort Kochi
Structured conversation
3–4pm
selected by the Dharamshala
International Film Festival
introduced by Ritu Sarin &
Tenzing Sonam
Cochin Club
The Document’s
Expanded Field
10.30am–12.30pm
by Gianfranco Rosi
moderated by Ute Meta Bauer
with Tanya Abraham, Natasha Ginwala,
Ho Rui An, Joan Jonas, Filipa Ramos,
Vivek Vilasini, Daniela Zyman
Workshop
Breakfast area of Fragrant
Nature Hotel
Closed workshop,
various sites in Fort Kochi
Fire at Sea
Structured conversation
by ESTAR(SER)
by Clémentine Deliss
Film
8.30–9.45am
Protocol of the Sea
Watch, Action of the
Crow’s Nest
2–5pm
by Christopher Myers
Breakfast area of Fragrant
Nature Hotel
Dawn, prabhatam, hitiraa mahana
Attentional exercise
Perfomative talk
by ESTAR(SER)
2–5pm
December 15
2–5pm
Poetry reading
പ്രഭാതം
6.30–7pm
സന്ധ
പ്രഭാതം
December 13
Dusk, sandhya, maruapö
5–6.30pm
Europium by Lisa Rave
Toilets Not Temples
Performative talk
by Will Benedict & David Leonard
by Anthony Acciavatti &
D. Graham Burnett
selected and introduced by
Filipa Ramos
Vasco da Gama Plaza
WATER MACHINES
Cochin Club
Please find detailed information about
the program inside.
Program
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Resources
Programme Resource
Collateral and other print or digital materials pertaining to residency programmes. Examples include residency brochures, postcards, etc.
Short Description
The conference consists of three days of structured conversations, workshops, performances, talks, and screenings convened by The Current Expedition leaders Ute Meta Bauer and Cesar Garcia and TBA21-Academy curator Stefanie Hessler.
Programme Series
None
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Current Convening #2 Poster
Description
An account of the resource
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore is pleased to be the funding partner of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary–Academy (TBA21) for <i>The Current Convening #2</i> in numerous locations on the occasion of the opening of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016.<br /><br /><i>The Current</i> is an exploratory fellowship program based in the Pacific. Working collaboratively across disciplines, the program merges the diverse approaches of deeply committed practitioners, collectively conceptualizing ways to address climate change and environmental violence to the oceans. Expeditions aboard the Dardanella research vessel are followed by <i>Convenings</i> in which the investigations of the Expedition leaders and participants can be shared with an audience. <i>The Convening #2</i> is profoundly dedicated to the oceans, taking poetic approaches to currents and flows of water across cultures. Please join us for three days of structured conversations, workshops, performances, talks, and screenings convened by<i> The Current</i> Expedition leaders Ute Meta Bauer and Cesar Garcia and TBA21-Academy curator Stefanie Hessler. Organized by Markus Reymann.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-12-13/2016-12-15
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Francesca von Habsburg
Daniela Zyman
Markus Reyman
Stefanie Hessler
Ute Meta Bauer
Cesar Garcia
Joan Jonas
Amar Kanwar
Davor Vidas
Natasha Ginwala
Ravi Agarwal
Nabil Ahmed
Filipa Ramos
Christopher Myers
The Propeller Group
Jana Winderen
Jamie Y. Shi
Sharmistha Mohanty
Ritu Sharin
Tenzing Sonam
Jegan Vincent de Paul
Vivek Vilasini
TJ Demos
Ho Rui An
Charles Lim
Anthony Acciavatti
D. Graham Burnett
Aveek Sen
Shanay Jhaveri
Clémentine Deliss
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Postcard
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Southeast Asia
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/57163/archive/files/fc94dae21d6f9c65d6bf5e4278bb8eb0.pdf?Expires=1712793600&Signature=NCQRgwQbdD3FhW7YmKEhZf6rc4FF2cilQPbIkoc84AbHUAu0Hsmg10fKbpnWNr-CGk4QHNDta3rwqnrjjKhk%7ENrqUJXxxrrPOmG-uGuvcL3YsGp%7Eo2pnn-SRmU8OgmXKtv5h9G0mcL9kRuBfFdu2gdLkFwYyn607Iju8vQB4hxIR-x4QjItc5oa9I8Icu4Vu1zPyzO22Qhymx3WL28g-mjNoaKYkwr0hJSoU29fDvRpAmpJZ170iar5k93JRgN6GMCcDPEBOR5%7EGZ9po3ido9HGsEQIvsiJg4qC8ZJxabUr8FDjJ5p%7EduGTxapNyabgBAHM8lz6m8PGqLsT1qa5CsQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
569394fbdc6f6c2a4e697f9a312d3527
PDF Text
Text
on the occasion of
the opening of the
Kochi-Muziris Biennale
Fort Kochi, Kerala, India
TBA21–Academy media links
tba21.org/convening2kochi
facebook.com/TBA21
#tba21 #convening2kochi
@tba_21
Partners
December 13–15, 2016
TBA21–Academy
Köstlergasse 1
1060 Vienna, Austria
Media
Partner
Convening #2
Thyssen-Bornemisza
Art Contemporary
The Current
B
.
Cochin Club
Vasco da Gama Plaz a
Mah
a
atm
Gan
dhi
Bea
ch
Vasco da Gama Chu rch
Kochi-Muziris Biennale– Aspinwall
Main Site
Kochi-Muziris Biennale
Spice Market
Vasco da Gama Plaza
Cochin Club
a
Convening #2 Locations
tm
Please find all locations here:
ha
Cover photo:
Drone Shot, Atif Akin, 2016
Ma
Fragrant Nature Hotel
Bazaar Rd, Mattancherry,
Fort Kochi, Kerala 682001
ch
Kochi-Muziris Biennale
Aspinwall
River Rd, Fort Kochi,
Kerala 682001
ea
Spice Market
near Jeevamatha Church
Jew Town Rd, Jew Town,
Kappalandimukku,
Mattancherry, Kochi,
Kerala 682002
iB
Vasco da Gama Plaza
Church Rd, Fort Kochi,
Kerala 682001
dh
Cochin Club
7, St. Francis Church Road,
Opp Parade Ground,
Fort Kochi, Kerala 682001
Kochi-Muziris Biennale
kochimuzirisbiennale.org
Rd
Ga
n
convened by TBA21 The Current
expedition leaders
Ute Meta Bauer and Cesar Garcia
and TBA21–Academy curator
Stefanie Hessler
TBA21–Academy
tba21.org/convening2kochi
facebook.com/TBA21
#tba21 #convening2kochi
@tba_21
ar
Fragrant Nature Hotel
on the occasion of the opening of
the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016
Fort Kochi, Kerala, India
a
az
Spice Market
follow Bazaar Rd., 20 min walk
Funding
Partner
Convening #2
December 13–15, 2016
�Workshop
Landscapes Open in
the Empty Self
Dawn, prabhatam, hitiraa mahana
Nuclear Pacific
by Nabil Ahmed
with Ravi Agarwal, Ute Meta Bauer,
Zuleikha Chaudhari, Stefanie Hessler,
Amar Kanwar, KHOJ (Sitara Chowfla,
Radha Mehandru, and Pooja Sood),
Davor Vidas, Linz Wilbur
by Sharmistha Mohanty
Vasco da Gama Plaza
8.30 –9.45 am
7–8 pm
Protocol of the Sea
Watch, Action of the
Crow’s Nest
Cochin Club
Marketplace
[Cartography 4]
“Ambiguous Objects”
and the University
Museum
Workshop
Vasco da Gama Plaza
8–10 pm
10.30 am–12.30 pm
Unpredictable Oceans
and the Monstrosity of
the Sea
Guided visit of the installation
and sound piece
Cochin Club
Nuclear Pacific
by ESTAR(SER)
Breakfast area of Fragrant
Nature Hotel
by Nabil Ahmed
with Ravi Agarwal, Ute Meta Bauer,
Zuleikha Chaudhari, Stefanie Hessler,
Amar Kanwar, KHOJ (Sitara Chowfla,
Radha Mehandru, and Pooja Sood),
Davor Vidas, Linz Wilbur
Workshop
“Ambiguous Objects”
and the University
Museum
Closed workshop,
various sites in Fort Kochi
by Jamie Y. Shi
Cochin Club
by TJ Demos
Cochin Club
ഉച്ചയ്ക്ക
2–5 pm
Workshop for children
Fish Tails and Fish
Tales
with Filipa Ramos
Cochin Club
by Aveek Sen
Vasco da Gama Plaza
7–8 pm
Sound performance
Drifting
by Jana Winderen
Vasco da Gama Plaza
8–10 pm
Short films
Elementary Maps No. 3
by Anna Bella Geiger
Occidente by Ana Vaz
The Disappearance of
the Aïtus by Pauline Julier
Cargo by Laura Waddington
Brouillard—Passage 14
by Alexandre Larose
Sea of Vapors
by Sylvia Schedelbauer
originally selected for the Dhaka Art
Summit program Passages
by Shanay Jhaveri
Vasco da Gama Plaza
December
13 –15
Keynote
by Clémentine Deliss
Closed workshop,
various sites in Fort Kochi
Cochin Club
Exhibition of books
by Jegan Vincent de Paul
Closed workshop,
deep-sea vessel by CMLRE
Vasco da Gama Plaza
7–8 pm
3–4 pm
Guided visit of the installation
and sound piece
Oceans–
sketches and notes
Marketplace
[Cartography 4]
by Joan Jonas
Vasco da Gama Plaza
Cochin Club
ALL DAY
Installation and sound piece
Marketplace
[Cartography 4]
by Christopher Myers
Spice Market near
Jeevamatha Church
by Christopher Myers
Spice Market near
Jeevamatha Church
8–10 pm
Short films
Collective
ALL DAY
by Francesca von Habsburg
by Ho Rui An
Workshop
Various sites in Fort Kochi
From the (Kula) Ring to
the Belt (& Road)
Rising Sea Levels
Reading a Wave
2–5 pm
by The Propeller Group
Workshop
Prose reading
Wutharr, Saltwater
Dreams by Karrabing Film
The Episodic
2–5 pm
6.30 –7 pm
Swimmy by Leo Lionni & Giulio
Film shoot
“Ambiguous Objects”
and the University
Museum
6–6.30 pm
Gianini with Ishu Patel
ALL DAY
Workshop
Performative talk
Midday, uccaykk, avatea
The Tagore Letters
2–5 pm
Cochin Club
by Davor Vidas
moderated by Ute Meta Bauer
with Ravi Agarwal, Nabil Ahmed,
D. Graham Burnett, TJ Demos, Jegan
Vincent de Paul, Markus Reymann,
Davor Vidas
by Clémentine Deliss
ഉച്ചയ്ക്ക
The Capitalocene
Pacific
Structured conversation
2–5 pm
Poetry reading
2–5 pm
The Document’s
Expanded Field
Keynote
The Law of the Sea —
through time and place
The Ocean as Habitat:
The rights of nature
and the international
Law of the sea
Midday, uccaykk, avatea
6.30 –7 pm
Workshop
10.30 am–12.30 pm
Cochin Club
Dusk, sandhya, maruapö
8.30 –9.45 am
Protocol of the Sea
Watch, Action of the
Crow’s Nest
Workshop
Dusk, sandhya, maruapö
Cochin Club
5–5.30 pm
Attentional exercise
2–5 pm
Spice Market near
Jeevamatha Church
Dawn, prabhatam, hitiraa mahana
Spice Market near
Jeevamatha Church
സന്ധ്യ
പ്രഭാതം
ഉച്ചയ്ക്ക
December 14
by Jamie Y. Shi
by Christopher Myers
moderated by Stefanie Hessler
with Nabil Ahmed, Ute Meta Bauer,
Georg Eder, Amar Kanwar, Charles Lim,
Markus Reymann, Davor Vidas
by Christopher Myers
2–5 pm
Marketplace
[Cartography 4]
The Ocean as
Treasure Trove:
Deep-sea mining —
the next gold rush?
Marketplace
[Cartography 4]
Vasco da Gama Plaza
Midday, uccaykk, avatea
Guided visit of the installation
and sound piece
Structured conversation
3–4 pm
selected by the Dharamshala
International Film Festival
introduced by Ritu Sarin &
Tenzing Sonam
Cochin Club
3–4 pm
10.30 am–12.30 pm
by Gianfranco Rosi
moderated by Ute Meta Bauer
with Tanya Abraham, Natasha Ginwala,
Ho Rui An, Joan Jonas, Filipa Ramos,
Vivek Vilasini, Daniela Zyman
The Document’s
Expanded Field
Breakfast area of Fragrant
Nature Hotel
Closed workshop,
various sites in Fort Kochi
Fire at Sea
Structured conversation
by ESTAR(SER)
by Clémentine Deliss
Film
8.30 –9.45 am
Protocol of the Sea
Watch, Action of the
Crow’s Nest
2–5 pm
by Christopher Myers
Breakfast area of Fragrant
Nature Hotel
Dawn, prabhatam, hitiraa mahana
Attentional exercise
Perfomative talk
by ESTAR(SER)
Workshop
പ്രഭാതം
Poetry reading
December 15
2–5 pm
സന്ധ്യ
പ്രഭാതം
6.30 –7 pm
Attentional exercise
സന്ധ്യ
പ്രഭാതം
December 13
Dusk, sandhya, maruapö
5–6.30 pm
5–6.30 pm
The Document’s
Expanded Field
Performative talk
Introduction
Europium by Lisa Rave
Toilets Not Temples
by Jamie Y. Shi
by Will Benedict & David Leonard
by Anthony Acciavatti &
D. Graham Burnett
Into The Current
moderated by Daniela Zyman
with Ute Meta Bauer, Cesar Garcia,
Francesca von Habsburg, Stefanie
Hessler, Markus Reymann
Cochin Club
Cochin Club
selected and introduced by
Filipa Ramos
Vasco da Gama Plaza
WATER MACHINES
Cochin Club
Please find detailed information
about the program inside.
Program
�
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733de1529d975385163b74762446a49d
PDF Text
Text
Dates
Participants
December 13–15, 2016
8.30 am–10 pm
Tanya Abraham
Anthony Acciavatti
Ravi Agarwal
Nabil Ahmed
Ute Meta Bauer
D. Graham Burnett
Zuleikha Chaudhari
Sitara Chowfla
Clémentine Deliss
TJ Demos
Georg Eder
Senator J. Kalani English
ESTAR(SER)
Cesar Garcia
Natasha Ginwala
Francesca von Habsburg
Stefanie Hessler
Ho Rui An
Shanay Jhaveri
Joan Jonas
Amar Kanwar
Lelei Tui Samoa LeLaulu
Charles Lim
Matt Lucero
Radha Mehandru
Sharmistha Mohanty
Christopher Myers
Tuan Andrew Nguyen
Jegan Vincent de Paul
Filipa Ramos
Markus Reymann
Ritu Sarin
Aveek Sen
Jamie Y. Shi
Tenzing Sonam
Pooja Sood
Matthew Strother
Phunam Thuc Ha
Davor Vidas
Vivek Vilasini
Linz Wilbur
Jana Winderen
Daniela Zyman
Venue Locations
Cochin Club
Vasco da Gama Plaza
Spice Market near
Jeevamatha Church
Various sites in Fort Kochi
Venue Partner
Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016
Categories
Exhibition of books
Film screenings
Film shoot
Guided visits
Installation and sound piece
Keynotes
Performances
Poetry readings
Structured conversations
Talks
Workshops
�The
Current
The Current is the exploratory soul of
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary. An
experimental fellowship program based in the Pacific,
The Current was born out of a deep concern for
the oceans and an even deeper curiosity about and
love for their interconnected ecosystems, staggering
biodiversity, and the cultural diversity of people who
live on their shores. Covering nearly 71 percent of
the earth’s surface, the oceans provide a habitat for
99 percent of life on our planet. They are home to
both the largest animal and the mightiest living reef
structure on our planet, the Great Barrier Reef. The
reef can be seen from the moon, an environment we
know more about than we know about the oceans. The
oceans are our life support system, providing us with
every other breath we take.
The oceans are being severely exploited and polluted.
They are used as a dump site for things that we want
to make disappear. But the ocean has an unmatched
ability to regenerate. Previously unimaginable
organisms living on chemical energy have been
discovered to reside in deep-sea hydrothermal vents.
Yet many of these vents are rich in rare earth metals
essential for electronic consumer products and have
become targets of a new industry with predictably
devastating effects: deep-sea mining.
The events of recent weeks in international
politics have underlined the urgency to act and to
communicate the global challenges of our time
far beyond the silos of our disciplines. The sea has
been a source of inspiration for human culture for
centuries, but due to the state it is in, and politicians’
lack of vision, it is imperative that we shape a different
narrative. The Current Convening #2 attempts just
that: to foster collaborations between international
practitioners of different disciplines, to imagine
together with an engaged audience positive visions for
the future, and to formulate strategies to put these into
action. We no longer have the luxury of ignorance and
procrastination. It is in this spirit that we invite you to
actively participate in this program, which is designed
to spark your curiosity, inspire, and entertain you.
Markus Reymann, director, TBA21–Academy
�Convening #2
TBA21–Academy presents The Current Convening #2
on the occasion of the opening of the Kochi-Muziris
Biennale 2016.
Convening #2 is a three-day program profoundly
dedicated to the oceans. It aims to reexamine and
unfold questions arising from the ethics of exploration,
the rights of nature and the international law of the
sea, processes of image and knowledge making,
collaborative modes of exchange, as well as sharing
poetic approaches to currents and flows of water
across cultures. We invite you to participate in this
engaging program of structured conversations,
workshops, performances, talks, and screenings
convened by The Current expedition leaders Ute Meta
Bauer and Cesar Garcia and TBA21–Academy curator
Stefanie Hessler.
The Convening takes the form of an archipelago of
processes sited throughout Fort Kochi. The Cochin
Club functions as a central hub encouraging unique
moments of daily encounter among The Current
Fellows, local participants, and visiting guests.
Expanding beyond the hub, the Convening is nested
in the city’s urban spaces, in the central Vasco da
Gama Plaza, in the spice market, in its museums, and
on the shores of the sea. Kochi’s maritime history and
narratives shaped by trade, migration, and travel at sea,
alongside contemporary concerns such as dredging
and labor conditions, resonate in today’s cultural
consciousness in the city and form the discursive
background for the Convening.
�Daily
Structure
Following the biorhythms of different organisms and
environments, located in the zones of indeterminacy
between night and day, dawn and dusk, shade and
light, the Convening is organized according to three
different times of day:
Dawn
Malayalam: sandhya പ്രഭാതം, Tahitian: hitiraa mahana
ATTENTIONAL EXERCISES
Each morning, research associates of the collective
ESTAR(SER) www.estarser.net lead interested
participants in an exercise of sustained attention to the
water forms in and around Kochi.
STRUCTURED CONVERSATIONS
Occurring every morning in the Cochin Club, the
structured conversations offer spaces of encounter,
debate, and exchange.
Midday
Malayalam: uccaykk ഉച്ചയ്ക്ക, Tahitian: avatea
്
FELLOWS PROJECTS
Occurring at various sites and throughout the duration
of the Convening, the Fellows projects are “works
in progress” contributions by the participants in the
expeditions.
TEMPORARY ACADEMY
A major goal of The Current is to generate new models
for collective learning and knowledge dissemination.
The Temporary Academy encompasses an exhibition
of books and a series of workshops.
Dusk
Malayalam: prabhatam സന്ധ്യ, Tahitian: maruapö
HUB NIGHTS
Each evening, the Cochin Club is activated with
�keynote talks, readings, and other interventions from
a host of contributing voices. Organized thematically
and drawing on a cross-section of interests,
these gatherings aim to experiment with forms of
presentation that allow for expanded engagement with
the oceans.
PLAZA CONFLUENCES
Poetry readings, performances, and film screenings at
the Vasco da Gama Plaza in Fort Kochi engage with
the oceans from a variety of perspectives.
About
TBA21
Founded in 2002 by Francesca von Habsburg in Vienna,
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (TBA21)
represents the fourth generation of the Thyssen family’s
commitments to the arts. After more than fourteen
years of collecting, commissioning projects, and
engaged exhibition practice, TBA21 has established
a highly respected collection of more than seven
hundred contemporary artworks in the field of new
media, including film, video, light, sound and mixedmedia installations, sculpture, painting, photography,
and performance. TBA21’s unique collection is the
result of its ongoing commitment to commissioning
and disseminating numerous art projects, including
multimedia installations, sound compositions, endurance
performances, and contemporary architecture. This
has led to its pioneering reputation in the art world.
The foundation sustains a far-reaching regional and
international orientation through collaborations with
other cultural partners around the world and explores
modes of presentation that are intended to provoke and
broaden the way viewers perceive and experience art. In
2015 Francesca von Habsburg decided to dedicate the
foundation’s ongoing program to becoming an agent of
change by focusing on the complexities and urgencies
of the “Anthropocene era” as well as the pressing
challenges posed by climate change, with a special
focus on marine ecosystems.
�Itinerary
December
13 –15
DEC 13 –15
ALL DAY
Film shoot
Various sites in
Fort Kochi
Please check
www.tba21.org/
convening2kochi
for updates
DEC 13 –15
ALL DAY
Exhibition of books
Cochin Club
The Episodic
by The Propeller Group
The Propeller Group is a cross-disciplinary structure
for creating ambitious art projects, headquartered in
Ho Chi Minh City. The Episodic is The Propeller Group’s
ongoing project within The Current. Conceived as a
social media organism that occupies multiple online
platforms, The Episodic presents a series of connected
moments in the form of short videos and images that
weave interconnected narratives about the ocean and
the histories of exploration. The Episodic aims to create
a structure for content that can connect participants
in The Current with communities encountered through
travel, audiences of the Convenings, and other
makers and cultural figures. In The Episodic, everyone
involved is a producer and a curator at once. During
the Convening, The Propeller Group stages a series
of improvisational and responsive shoots that will
eventually create content for The Episodic.
From the (Kula) Ring
to the Belt (& Road)
by Jegan Vincent de Paul
The Current Fellow Jegan Vincent de Paul presents
a selection of books that are part of a collection
of materials and ongoing research that he has
�undertaken to examine (un)official perspectives on
Chinese state-led infrastructure construction across
the Indian Ocean littoral, attempting to reveal the
political fallout of the routes and its general social,
cultural, and economic effects.
DEC 13 –15
ALL DAY
Installation and
sound piece
Spice Market near
Jeevamatha Church
Marketplace
[Cartography 4]
by Christopher Myers
While international capital and information technologies
circulate around the globe at dizzying speeds,
there are other forms of globalization that predate
these technological conduits. In local marketplaces
throughout the world, exchange systems that have
lasted for centuries continue to connect communities,
cementing relations between far-flung geographies in
the intimacy of goods bought for family dinners and in
the age-old rituals of negotiation and haggling that are
familiar everywhere from Papua New Guinea to New
York City street corners.
Marketplace [Cartography 4] is an installation and
sound piece by Christopher Myers that utilizes the
discarded materials and evidence of these ancient
and contemporary exchanges in order to highlight
the overall unity in the rituals of trade and to rethink
globalization from the vernacular and the cultural,
rather than through formal and capital relations.
�December
13
പ്രഭാതം
DEC 13
8.30–9.45 am
Attentional exercise
Breakfast area of
Fragrant Nature
Hotel
DEC 13
10.30 am–12.30 pm
Structured
conversation
Cochin Club
Dawn, prabhatam, hitiraa mahana
Protocol of the Sea
Watch, Action of the
Crow’s Nest
by ESTAR(SER)
The amphibious Irish-American-Polynesian naturalistexplorer known as “M. I. Return Maycomb” (1764–
1818?) traced a marginal and meandering course at
the peripheries of sea-knowledge and self-craft on the
watershed of modernity. Was he associated with the
Order of the Third Bird? New evidence, in the form of
the Protocol of the Sea Watch, suggests that he was.
This “attentional exercise” appears to derive from
the habitus of nineteenth-century sailors, who spent
years daily regarding the surface of the sea from their
perches aloft, scanning for signs of shoals, whales, and
weather. Each morning of The Current Convening #2,
interested individuals are invited to join visiting research
associates of the collective ESTAR(SER) to experiment
with a reconstruction of the Protocol of the Sea Watch.
Unpredictable Oceans
and the Monstrosity of
the Sea
moderated by Ute Meta Bauer
with Tanya Abraham, Natasha Ginwala, Ho Rui An, Joan
Jonas, Filipa Ramos, Vivek Vilasini, and Daniela Zyman
This conversation catalyzes narratives of mythological
and cultural encounters with the sea, inspired by
primordial, monstrous, and chaotic associations.
�Artists, philanthropists, practitioners, and writers
come together to share their different perspectives
and forms of engagement with the oceans as moving,
compelling, and precarious entities. The Current
expedition leader Ute Meta Bauer moderates this
conversation about the seas as unpredictable spaces
that are constantly in flux, whose unstable perimeters
are presently migrating due to climate change
and shifts in oceanic traditions, giving rise to new
challenges and evoking new imaginaries.
ഉച്ചയ്ക്ക
DEC 13
2–5 pm
Workshop
Cochin Club
Midday, uccaykk, avatea
The Document’s
Expanded Field
by Jamie Y. Shi
Writer Jamie Y. Shi explores the publication as
a site to document long-term, process-based
projects beyond the image or video form. Thinking
about experimental writing as a method, Shi works
with five local emerging writers to collect distinct
types of discursive elements from the Convening—
transcripts from conversations, interviews with project
participants, improvisational poetry, and scripts—to
be included in a publication that will index the various
depths, relationships, and intensities that form The
Current. After the Convening, Shi will assemble a
collective library of resources meant to exist on a
website that will provide a communal reading list
of works informing the practices of The Current
participants and collaborators.
�DEC 13
2–5 pm
Workshop
Cochin Club
Nuclear Pacific:
A temporary working group on the
tribunal for French nuclear weapons
testing in Moruroa and Fangataufa
(1966–96)
by Nabil Ahmed
with Ravi Agarwal, Nabil Ahmed, Ute Meta Bauer,
Zuleikha Chaudhari, Stefanie Hessler, Amar Kanwar,
KHOJ (Sitara Chowfla, Radha Mehandru, and Pooja
Sood), Davor Vidas, and Linz Wilbur
The Inter-Pacific Ring Tribunal (INTERPRT) is an
interdisciplinary project initiated by The Current Fellow
Nabil Ahmed for an alternative commission of inquiry to
investigate patterns of environmental violence and their
impact on sovereignty in the Pacific region regarding
land-based mining, deep-sea mining, and nuclear
weapons testing. Unfolding the Pacific ring as a spatial
diagram, the project tactically deploys architecture to
evidence spatial realities of mineral extraction as well
as spatially diffused and temporally protracted forms
of environmental violence. Following The Current’s
recent expedition to French Polynesia in July 2016, this
workshop constitutes a temporary antinuclear working
group for the Pacific. With India’s membership in the
“nuclear club” in perspective, the group seeks to test
the conditions for a future tribunal to emerge—one that
aims to hold those responsible materially accountable
for the devastating nuclear weapons tests that were
conducted on and around the atolls of Moruroa and
Fangataufa between 1966 and 1996, as well as the
tests’ contemporary planetary impacts.
DEC 13
2–5 pm
Workshop
Closed workshop,
various sites in Fort
Kochi
“Ambiguous Objects”
and the University
Museum
by Clémentine Deliss
The workshop invites museum professionals, academics,
and those interested in museum collections to take
�with a public
interface on
December 15,
2–5 pm, at the
Cochin Club
DEC 13
3–4 pm
Guided visit of the
installation and
sound piece
Spice Market near
Jeevamatha Church
part in a three-day transdisciplinary, experimental
exercise around “ambiguous objects.” In the first of
three sessions, the workshop investigates a historical
museum collection in Kochi in search of artifacts that
blur the distinctions between nature and culture and
sea and land, constituting “enigmatic debris” (“épaves
énigmatiques,” Paul Valéry, 1921). During the second
session, participants identify and acquire, where
possible, unfamiliar artifacts from a local secondhand
market that for them evoke the poetic uncertainty
of meanings in the twenty-first century. The final and
third session includes a discussion of the “ambiguous
objects” acquired by each of the participants and an
open exchange with the public. Through this inquiry,
the workshop explores the potential for the remediation
of historical artifacts using the format of a “museumuniversity,” a site of dialogical experimentation and
research centered on museum collections.
Marketplace
[Cartography 4]
by Christopher Myers
Please find detailed information about the installation
and sound piece in the ALL DAY program at the
beginning of the itinerary.
5–6
Intro
Int
സന്ധ്യ
Dusk, sandhya, maruapö
The evening starts off with an introduction to The
Current and questions related to the ethics of visiting
when embarking on expeditions, forms and tactics
of structuring the gaze, and the eye of the camera.
At the heart of this evening are a poetry reading by
the celebrated author Sharmistha Mohanty and a
performance by the artist and illustrator Christopher
Myers, tapping into interrogations of broader histories
of methods in visual ethnography, mapping, and
knowledge and meaning making.
mod
with
von
Reym
C
�DEC 13
5–6.30 pm
Introduction
Cochin Club
DEC 13
6.30–7 pm
Poetry reading
Vasco da Gama
Plaza
DEC 13
7–8 pm
Performative talk
Vasco da Gama
Plaza
Into The Current
moderated by Daniela Zyman
with Ute Meta Bauer, Cesar Garcia, Francesca von
Habsburg, Stefanie Hessler, and Markus Reymann
Organized as a presentation by the founder of TBA21,
Francesca von Habsburg, and the director of
TBA21–Academy, Markus Reymann, “Into The Current”
brings into conversation the expedition leaders Ute
Meta Bauer and Cesar Garcia and TBA21-Academy
curator Stefanie Hessler. The conversation homes in on
cross-disciplinary encounters and new research-based
working modes within the framework of knowledge
transfer and exchange of The Current. Panelists
introduce the program of Convening #2, look back at
the previous expeditions, and discuss the potential
of The Current for collectively creating visions for the
deep future, enhanced though the intervention of an
artistic imagination.
Landscapes Open in
the Empty Self
by Sharmistha Mohanty
Marketplace
[Cartography 4]
by Christopher Myers
Christopher Myers comes from a long line of
storytellers. His performative talk traces new and
vernacular forms of globalization in sound, media, and
culture, thinking about how urban music, film, dance,
images, and marketplaces transcend the local and
provide new models for transnational communications.
�DEC 13
8–10 pm
Film
Vasco da Gama
Plaza
Fire at Sea
Gianfranco Rosi, 2016, 114 min.
Selected by the Dharamshala International Film Festival
introduced by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam
Situated 150 miles south of Sicily, Lampedusa has
made headlines as the first port of call for hundreds
of thousands of African and Middle Eastern refugees
hoping to make a new life in Europe. After spending
months living on the island and engaging with its
inhabitants, Rosi accumulated an extraordinary array of
footage, portraying the history, culture, and daily lives
of the islanders. Focusing on twelve-year-old Samuele
as he explores the land and attempts to gain mastery
of the sea, the film slowly builds a breathtakingly
naturalistic portrait of the Lampedusan people and the
events that surround them.
�December
14
പ്രഭാതം
DEC 14
8.30–9.45 am
Attentional exercise
Breakfast area of
Fragrant Nature
Hotel
DEC 14
10.30 am – 12.30 pm
Structured
conversation
Cochin Club
Dawn, prabhatam, hitiraa mahana
Protocol of the Sea
Watch, Action of the
Crow’s Nest
by ESTAR(SER)
Every morning, interested individuals are invited to
join visiting research associates of the collective
ESTAR(SER) to experiment with a reconstruction of the
Protocol of the Sea Watch.
The Ocean as Habitat:
The rights of nature
and the international
law of the sea
moderated by Ute Meta Bauer
with Ravi Agarwal, Nabil Ahmed, D. Graham Burnett,
TJ Demos, Jegan Vincent de Paul, Markus Reymann,
and Davor Vidas
Climate change, pollution, and other habitat-altering
agents are endangering the “common heritage of
humankind.” The ocean as a global waste bin is hardly
addressed as a result of insufficient international
regulations of the sea. The constantly changing
parameters and unpredictable developments of
the oceans prompt a need to rethink and rewrite
the obsolete international law of the sea that was
conceived under the relative stability of the Holocene
epoch. The conversation puts forward interdisciplinary
�perspectives from the fields of art, ecology, law, and
policy, recognizing the earth and its ecosystems as
living beings with inalienable rights to exist, persist,
maintain, and regenerate their vital cycles.
ഉച്ചയ്ക്ക
DEC 14
2–5 pm
Workshop for
children
Cochin Club
To sign up for the
workshop, please email
kochiworkshops@tba21.org
Midday, uccaykk, avatea
Fish Tails and Fish Tales
by Filipa Ramos
The workshop is for children aged 5–11. Together
we’ll write one and many stories, thinking about
how tales are told, inventing new ways of combining
memory with discovery and imagination, and
discussing the ways in which we share experiences,
visions, and emotions with others.
The starting point for the workshop is a set of
images that were taken during The Current’s recent
expedition to the Tuamotu Archipelago, in French
Polynesia: pictures of fish, of crabs, of birds, but
also of desert islands, of ecological disasters, and of
people working and thinking together. How do images
lead to stories? And how do stories convey images?
In this workshop we’ll explore the stories that images
tell and the images that stories summon.
DEC 14
2–5 pm
Workshop
Cochin Club
To sign up for the
workshop, please email
kochiworkshops@tba21.org
The Document’s
Expanded Field
by Jamie Y. Shi
Please find detailed information in the program of
December 13, 2–5 pm.
�DEC 14
2–5 pm
Workshop
Cochin Club
Nuclear Pacific:
A temporary working group on the
tribunal for French nuclear weapons
testing in Moruroa and Fangataufa
(1966–96)
Please find detailed information in the program of
December 13, 2–5 pm.
DEC 14
2–5 pm
Workshop
Closed workshop,
various sites in Fort
Kochi,
with a public interface
on December 15,
2–5 pm, at the
Cochin Club
DEC 14
3–4 pm
Guided visit of the
installation and
sound piece
Spice Market near
Jeevamatha Church
സന്ധ്യ
“Ambiguous Objects”
and the University
Museum
by Clémentine Deliss
Please find detailed information in the program of
December 13, 2–5 pm.
Marketplace
[Cartography 4]
by Christopher Myers
Please find detailed information about the installation
and sound piece in the ALL DAY program at the
beginning of the itinerary.
Dusk, sandhya, maruapö
The evening focuses on the rights of nature, ecological
sustainability, and issues at stake in the law of the
sea. The evening begins with keynotes by TJ Demos,
author of Decolonizing Nature: Contemporary Art and
the Politics of Ecology, and Davor Vidas, director of the
Law of the Sea Program at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute
�in Oslo, followed by a performative talk by the visual
artist and pioneer of video and performance art Joan
Jonas, who reflects on the poetic and spiritual aspects
of nature in the face of climate change.
DEC 14
5–5.30 pm
Keynote
Cochin Club
DEC 14
6–6.30 pm
Keynote
Cochin Club
The Capitalocene
Pacific
by TJ Demos
The Capitalocene proposes an alternative terminology
to the more familiar Anthropocene, designating the
geologic age of the present as founded over centuries
of capitalism-in-nature and nature-in-capitalism,
according to the theorist of world-systems ecology
Jason Moore. Drawing on his forthcoming book Against
the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment
Today, TJ Demos investigates the Capitalocene Pacific
as a site of conflict, one positioned between, on the
one hand, ongoing industrialization and militarization
and, on the other, negative geologic impacts (ocean
acidification, rising sea levels, and mass species
extinctions) and artistic-activist interventions directed
against environmental destruction and catastrophic
climate change—a conflict that will only intensify under
the US presidency of Donald Trump.
The Law of the Sea—
through time and place
by Davor Vidas
There are many ways of looking at the development
of the law of the sea. Let us go on a journey. On a
Sunday in September 1298, we start in the “Great
Sea” (as the Bible calls the Mediterranean): here we
visit a semienclosed sea found within a semienclosed
sea. We then hoist sails and are out on the oceans:
it is the late fifteenth century, the time of European
overseas “discoveries”—and in 1500 we stop at a
place important for the transoceanic spice trade. One
hundred years later: in one strait on an early morning
�in February 1602, we witness something that will lead
to emergence of the law of the sea as a branch of
international law. We then travel onward in time to
an island—it is December 1982, and the end result of
developments so far—UNCLOS—is signed here. Finally,
we arrive at the present day and cast our glance
toward the polar regions: what is going on there—and
what is the outlook?
DEC 14
6.30–7 pm
Prose reading
Reading a Wave
by Ho Rui An
Vasco da Gama
Plaza
DEC 14
7–8 pm
Performative talk
Oceans –
sketches and notes
Vasco da Gama
Plaza
by Joan Jonas
Joan Jonas’s talk conceived for this Convening draws
from a wellspring of materials, literature, mythology,
and the artist’s collections of sketches and notes on
the sea, exploring “the ocean as a poetic, totemic, and
natural entity, as a life source and home to a universe
of beings.” Video footage of underwater scenes—
from Jean Painlevé’s black-and-white reels of sea
creatures to shots of aquariums—intersect poetically
and associatively with excerpts from Herman Melville’s
Moby Dick, Sy Montgomery’s Soul of an Octopus, and
Italo Calvino’s The Aquatic Uncle. The oceans are an
ongoing thematic touchstone in Jonas’s recent works,
such as her project for the United States Pavilion of
the 56th Venice Biennale, They Come to Us without a
Word (2015), a multilayered ambient work addressing
the spiritual aspects of nature through video, drawings,
objects, and sound.
�DEC 14
8–10 pm
Short films
Selected and introduced by Filipa Ramos
Vasco da Gama
Plaza
Leo Lionni and Giulio Gianini, with Ishu Patel, 1966, 6 min.
Swimmy
Swimmy is the story of a little black fish who survived
a school of fish that was eaten by a large tuna. Alone
and scared, different from all the other small red fish,
Swimmy goes from hiding in the seaweed to making
many friends and finding a way that will save them all
from the big fish that terrify them.
Wutharr, Saltwater
Dreams
Karrabing Film Collective, 2016, 29 min.
A delirious, dreamlike film, Wutharr, Saltwater Dreams
is the most experimental of Karrabing Film Collective’s
works to date. Departing from a hypothetical situation
of crisis in the Aboriginal filmmakers’ daily lives, the film
explores how the group addresses it through collective
problem-solving gestures and how the legacy of
colonialism, as well as the imposition of Christian moral
codes and settler-colonial rule of law, condition and
affect ancestral land use and traditional cultures.
Europium
Lisa Rave, 2014, 21 min.
Using various levels of imagery, the essay film Europium
draws connections between Papua New Guinea’s
colonial past and fetish cult, the planned high-tech
excavation of raw materials, and everyday consumer
goods. The film weaves its individual images and
narrative around the rare earth element europium.
Named after the European continent, the material will
be culled from the Bismarck Sea to ensure brilliant
color images on smartphone displays and other flat
screens.
�Toilets Not Temples
Will Benedict & David Leonard, 2014, 26 min.
Toilets Not Temples combines different styles of
narrative–such as live interviews, newsreel, sci-fi genre,
and music video–to portray specific current situations
that concern the production and distribution of food,
from fish farms in Norway to onion plantations in India,
addressing issues of global distribution, agriculture,
environmental collapse, marketing, and trade.
December
15
പ്രഭാതം
DEC 15
8.30–9.45 am
Attentional exercise
Breakfast area of
Fragrant Nature
Hotel
Dawn, prabhatam, hitiraa mahana
Protocol of the Sea
Watch, Action of the
Crow’s Nest
by ESTAR(SER)
Every morning, interested individuals are invited to
join visiting research associates of the collective
ESTAR(SER) to experiment with a reconstruction of the
Protocol of the Sea Watch.
�DEC 15
10.30 am–12.30 pm
Structured
conversation
Cochin Club
The Ocean as
Treasure Trove:
Deep-sea mining—
the next gold rush?
moderated by Stefanie Hessler
with Nabil Ahmed, Ute Meta Bauer, Georg Eder, Amar
Kanwar, Charles Lim, Markus Reymann, and Davor Vidas
Deep-sea mining is a new extractive activity that has
been recognized as an emerging threat to the oceans.
Seabed mining targets polymetallic nodules that are
used in the production of batteries and alloys, and
there are strong indications that this might well be
the next gold rush. Its effects will most likely impact
ecosystems from the microbial level to the structural
constitution of the seabed in a way that we are not
remotely able to anticipate. TBA21-Academy was
present during the 5th Deep-Sea Mining Summit in
London in April 2016 and organized a conference titled
“Design of the Seabed” at the 3rd Istanbul Design
Biennial in November 2016. Departing from these
previous engagements, agents and practitioners from
the fields of art, ecology, law, and science bring greater
visibility to the potentially immense effects on the
future of the oceans and humankind.
ഉച്ചയ്ക്ക
DEC 14
2–5 pm
Workshop
Cochin Club
To sign up for the
workshop, please email
kochiworkshops@tba21.org
Midday, uccaykk, avatea
The Document’s
Expanded Field
by Jamie Y. Shi
Please find detailed information in the program of
December 13, 2–5 pm.
�DEC 14
2–5 pm
Workshop
Closed workshop,
various sites in Fort
Kochi,
with a public interface
on December 15,
2–5 pm, at the
Cochin Club
DEC 15
2–5 pm
Workshop
Closed workshop,
deep-sea vessel by
CMLRE, Kochi, a
research institute
under the Ministry
of Earth Sciences,
Government
of India with a
mandate to study
the marine living
resources
This is a closed workshop,
to find out more,
please email
kochiworkshops@tba21.org
“Ambiguous Objects”
and the University
Museum
by Clémentine Deliss
Please find detailed information in the program of
December 13, 2–5 pm.
Rising Sea Levels
by Francesca von Habsburg
with Ravi Agarwal, Senator J. Kalani English, Francesca
von Habsburg, Lelei Tui Samoa LeLaulu, Davor Vidas,
and Linz Wilbur
Climate change is warming the atmosphere, glaciers
are melting, and sea levels are rising—with surging
waters threatening coastal societies from Venice to
the Pacific. As inhabitants struggle to find methods
of mitigation, migration may be the only solution:
entire countries could disappear altogether over the
next few decades. And so too will ancient dances,
traditional cultures, and spiritual sites. Aside from
economic and geopolitical issues, the case of lost
habitat raises a number of important questions about
cultural, linguistic, and spiritual heritage. Taking as
its site the city of Kochi, which is thought to lie close
to the ancient port city of Muziris, this workshop
considers speculative, bold, ethical, creative, and legal
possibilities to combat the effects of climate change. It
asks whether there may be a plan A to counter forced
migration and, if so, what it might be.
�DEC 15
3–4 pm
Guided visit of the
installation and
sound piece
Spice Market near
Jeevamatha Church
സന്ധ്യ
Marketplace
[Cartography 4]
by Christopher Myers
Please find detailed information about the installation
and sound piece in the ALL DAY program at the
beginning of the itinerary.
Dusk, sandhya, maruapö
The evening is dedicated to flows, passages, and
movements, from the rivers to the sea, to everchanging currents, and to sonic ecological change.
A performative talk by Anthony Acciavatti, architect,
cartographer, and professor at Columbia University,
and D. Graham Burnett, renowned writer, historian
of science, and professor at Princeton University, is
followed by a poetic and associative intervention by
the curator Aveek Sen, circling around waterways
and how these interweave with personal biographies,
memories, and wider ecological concerns. A sound
performance by the artist and former TBA21–Academy
Fellow Jana Winderen turns our attention toward the
sonic dimension of the oceans, making audible water
currents and ecological change occurring in coral reefs.
DEC 15
5–6.30 pm
Performative talk
Cochin Club
WATER MACHINES
by Anthony Acciavatti and D. Graham Burnett
Wallace Stevens’s “Sea Surface Full of Clouds” (1924)
is a poem in five sections, each of which returns to a
single ambiguous scene: the blossoms of water vapor
in a blue sky reflected in the heaving masses of water
below. Across the poem, the sea and the sky function
as mutual mirrors, which produce scintillating inversions
that shake language loose from its moorings and leave
the human adrift upon the “perplexed machine / of
�ocean.” Departing from this image, Anthony Acciavatti
and D. Graham Burnett will sequence through a series
of water systems (hydrographic cycles, oceanographic
structures, monsoon metrics, submarine optics),
unfolding the poetics of techno-rationalizing regimes of
aquatic knowledge.
DEC 15
6.30–7 pm
Poetry reading
Vasco da Gama
Plaza
DEC 15
7–8 pm
Sound performance
Vasco da Gama
Plaza
The Tagore Letters
by Aveek Sen
Between 1887 and 1895 Rabindranath Tagore wrote
a series of letters to his young niece, Indira, from the
banks of a network of rivers in undivided Bengal. In
them the river itself, with its endless flow and the
myriad forms of human and animal life along its
banks, animates the poet’s consciousness: the drift
of his mind, his empathy, his memory, his gaze, his
reading, his letters, essays, stories, songs, and poems,
compulsively written throughout that leisurely time on
the water. Many years later, in 1912, the year before
he was awarded the Nobel Prize, Tagore published
selections from these letters as Chhinnapatra
(Scattered Letters). He based his text on his niece’s
transcriptions of these letters but sequenced them
himself as a work in its own right.
Drifting
by Jana Winderen
Drifting is a sound performance by Jana Winderen
commissioned for Convening #2. From the North
Atlantic Current to the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific
washing onto the shores of Panama, Winderen is
surveying the soundscapes of drifts that fluctuate
according to the temperature, pressure, and salinity
of water and are shaped by invisible landscapes
hidden beneath the waves. Telling stories of currents,
movement, and migration, these sound tracings are
also indicators for the health of ecosystems and the
manifold inhabitants of the seas, from cetaceans to
plankton, as well as mammals, fish, and crustaceans
feeding from these drifting microscopic organisms.
�DEC 15
8–10 pm
Short films
Originally selected for the Dhaka Art Summit program
Passages by Shanay Jhaveri, assistant curator of South
Asian art, Department of Modern and Contemporary
Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Vasco da Gama
Plaza
Elementary Maps No. 3
Anna Bella Geiger, 1976, 10 min.
The visual poem alludes to the stereotypes and myths
attributed to cultures from Latin America through the
relationship between the anthropomorphic character
of the South Cone’s topography and semantic games,
between the formal and the metaphorical.
Occidente
Ana Vaz, 2014, 15 min.
A film-poem of an ecology of signs that speak of a
colonial history repeating itself. Subalterns become
masters, antiques become reproducible dinner sets,
exotic birds become luxury currency, exploration
becomes extreme-sport-tourism, monuments become
geo-data.
The Disappearance of
the Aïtus
Pauline Julier, 2014, 35 min.
A poetic essay about Tuvalu, a micro-state in the
South Pacific that is threatened by rising sea levels.
An analogy between the vanishing of the country itself
and of its inhabitants’ imaginaries. A metaphoric fable
about the electrical modernization of the country. And
scientific information about waves and stories.
�Cargo
Laura Waddington, 2001, 29 min.
Cargo is a lyrical voyage on the Mediterranean
depicted in a series of extended moments. Combining
diaristic text with painterly visuals, Laura Waddington
recounts a dialogue between a mute woman and the
forgotten men who work on a cargo ship. We are drawn
into a nomadic journey at the frontier of European
consciousness, a reflection on what it means to be a
citizen without country, to drift without destination.
Brouillard—Passage 14
Alexandre Larose, 2014, 10 min.
In this film made in his family’s backyard in Lac-SaintCharles, Canada, Alexandre Larose superimposes
walking trajectories shot along a man-made path
leading to a lake. The result is an extremely layered
one-take 35mm film, creating an impression of the
filmmaker’s rich memories of this special place by the
lake, reminiscent of its waters themselves.
Sea of Vapors
Sylvia Schedelbauer, 2014, 15 min.
Sylvia Schedelbauer’s films negotiate the space
between broader historical narratives and personal,
psychological realms through poetic manipulations
of archival footage. Sea of Vapors is a stroboscopic
cascade of evocative images, cut frame by frame
to flow into an allegory of the lunar cycle conflating
landscapes and the human body.
�July 2016 | Tuamotus – French Polynesia | Hydrophone | by Markus Reymann
July 2016 | Tuamotus – French Polynesia | Tree | by Ute Meta Bauer
�July 2016 | Tuamotus – French Polynesia | Diver | by Francesca von Habsburg
October 2015 | The Kula Ring – Papua New Guinea | by Jegan Vincent de Paul
�October 2015 | The Kula Ring – Papua New Guinea | by Francesca von Habsburg
October 2015 | The Kula Ring – Papua New Guinea | Dardanella | by Francesca von Habsburg
�Participants
Zuleikha Chaudhari IN
Artist, theater director, and
lighting designer based in New
Delhi and Mumbai, India
Sitara Chowfla IN
Curator and program manager
at KHOJ International Artists’
Association in New Delhi, India,
since September 2013
Tanya Abraham IN
Journalist, author, and arts
administrator, works for national
and international publications
and is the creative director and
curator of Kashi Art Gallery and
founder of The Art Outreach
Society, Fort Kochi, India
Anthony Acciavatti US
Architect, historian, and
cartographer, founding editor of
Manifest: A Journal of American
Architecture and Urbanism,
professor at Columbia University
Ravi Agarwal IN
Clémentine Deliss UK/DE
Independent curator, publisher, and researcher, Fellow of Institute of Advanced Study, Berlin,
curator of Dilijan Arts Observatory, former director of Weltkulturen
Museum, publisher of Metronome
and Metronome Press
TJ Demos US
Professor in the Department
of the History of Art and Visual
Culture, University of California,
Santa Cruz, and Founder and
Director of its Center for
Creative Ecologies
Artist, environmental activist,
writer, and curator; founder of
the environmental NGO Toxics
Link, New Delhi, India
Georg Eder AT
Project manager at TBA21,
planning and organizing
The Current
Nabil Ahmed UK
Senator J. Kalani
English US
Researcher, writer, and educator
working on environmental
conflict and forensic architecture
Ute Meta Bauer DE/SG
Founding director of NTU CCA
Singapore and professor at
the School of Art, Design and
Media (ADM) at the Nanyang
Technological University (NTU),
expedition leader, The Current
D. Graham Burnett US
Works at the intersection
of historical inquiry and
artistic practice, focusing on
experimental approaches
to hermeneutic activities
traditionally associated with the
research humanities. He’s an
editor at Cabinet and teaches at
Princeton
Represents the 7th Senatorial
District of Hana, East & Upcountry
Maui, Molokai, Lanai, and Kahoolawe and is currently the Majority Leader of the Hawai’i Senate
ESTAR(SER) US
ESTAR(SER) is an established
body of private, independent
scholars who work collectively to
recover, scrutinize, and (where
relevant) draw attention to the
historicity of the Order of the
Third Bird. www.estarser.net
Cesar Garcia MX/US
Founding director and chief curator
of The Mistake Room, Los Angeles;
former associate director and senior
curator of LA><ART (2007–12),
expedition leader, The Current
Natasha Ginwala IN/DE
Curator, researcher, and writer.
Curatorial adviser for documenta
14 as well as curator of Contour
Biennale 8, entitled Polyphonic
Worlds: Justice as Medium
(2017)
Francesca von
Habsburg CH/AT
Philanthropist, founder, and
chairwoman of TBA21 in Vienna
since 2002, commissioner
The Current
Stefanie Hessler DE/SE
Curator of TBA21–Academy
and writer from Germany,
cofounder of the art
space Andquestionmark in
Stockholm, curator of several
exhibitions around the world,
from Chile to Sweden
Rui An Ho SG
Artist and writer working in the
intersections of contemporary
art, cinema, performance, and
theory
Shanay Jhaveri IN/US
Assistant curator for South Asian
modern and contemporary art at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York
Joan Jonas US
World-renowned multimedia
artist who has exhibited
around the world, including in
Documenta and the Biennale
of Sydney, as well as in a solo
exhibition at the Museum of
Modern Art, New York
Amar Kanwar IN
Filmmaker and artist, recipient of
several awards, including Golden Gate at the San Francisco
Film Festival (1999); the Edward
Munch Award for Contemporary
Art, Norway (2005); and the
Leonore Annenberg Prize for Art
and Social Change (2014)
�Lelei Tui Samoa
LeLaulu US
Special adviser to the World
Bank for oceans, member
of the Advisory Council of
the International Finance
Corporation (IFC), a director of
the Caribbean Media Exchange
on Sustainable Tourism, and
chairman of the Earth Council
Alliance, Apia, Samoa
Charles Lim SG
Award-winning filmmaker
and world-renowned artist,
founder of the art collective
TSUNAMII.NET, founder of
Bobbing Buoy Films
Matt Lucero US/VN
Graduated from the California
Institute of the Arts in 2003 and
is an artist and member of The
Propeller Group since 2009
Radha Mehandru IN
Filmmaker and a member of the
KHOJ curatorial and program
team who focuses on the organization’s community-based projects and outreach
Sharmistha Mohanty IN
Author of three prose works,
Book One, New Life, and Five
Movements in Praise. She is also
the founder and editor of the
literature journal Almost Island
Christopher Myers US
Widely acclaimed for his work
with literature for young people,
and is also an accomplished fine
artist who has lectured and
exhibited internationally
Tuan Andrew Nguyen VN
Cofounder of the Propeller Group
and cofounder of Sàn Art, an
artist-initiated exhibition space
and educational program in Saigon, Vietnam. Has works in the
collections of the Queensland Art
Gallery; Carré d’Art; the Museum
of Modern Art, New York; and the
Guggenheim Museum
Jegan Vincent de
Paul LK/SG
Worked as researcher and
designer in various capacities
around the world: from Ai
Weiwei to LOT-EK architecture
firm, research fellow at MIT
Program in Art, Culture and
Technology, cofounder of
Counter, cofounder and writer
for critical.org
Filipa Ramos PT/UK
Writer and editor based in
London, where she works as
editor-in-chief of art-agenda.
Her research focuses on the
historical and contemporary
intersections of humans and
other animals in art and cinema
Markus Reymann DE/AT
Director of TBA21-Academy
and The Current, initiator of
numerous expeditions aboard
the Dardanella, a moving
platform of cultural production
and interdisciplinary exchange
within TBA21
Ritu Sarin IN
Filmmaker, artist, cofounder and
codirector of the Dharamshala
International Film Festival
Aveek Sen IN
Writer on art, literature, music,
and society, associate editor at
The Telegraph, Calcutta
Jamie Y. Shi US
Editor-at-large at MISPRINT and
special projects manager at the
Mistake Room, Los Angeles;
curatorial assistant at Shanghai
Project
Tenzing Sonam IN
Filmmaker, artist, cofounder and
codirector of the Dharamshala
International Film Festival
Pooja Sood IN
Independent curator and
art management consultant,
founding member and director
of KHOJ International Artists’
Association
Matthew Strother US
Writer, reader, and occasional
performer. He received a BA from
Yale in English and an M.A. from the
New School for Social Research in
Liberal Studies. He is a member of
the speculative historiographical
collective ESTAR(SER)
Phunam Thuc Ha VN
Specialist in filmmaking and
antiquities, has restored antique
sculptures as well as produced
feature films; cofounder of The
Propeller Group
Davor Vidas HR/NO
Research professor, director of
the Law of the Sea Programme,
Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway
Vivek Vilasini IN
Multimedia artist, trained in
sculptural practices from
traditional craftsman, works
recently shown at MOCA,
Shanghai, CCCB, Barcelona,
Chicago Art Fair, Newark
Museum, in the Sharjah Biennale
and in the show Indian Highway
at Astrup Fearnley Museum of
Modern Art, Oslo, Norway
Linz Wilbur US
Independent researcher and
affiliate at the Hawaii Research
Center for Futures Studies,
Honolulu, USA
Jana Winderen NO
Multichannel artist, researcher of
hidden depths with technology
and audio
Daniela Zyman AT
Chief curator of TBA21 in
Vienna, co-commissioner
The Current
�Organizers
Founder & chairwoman
TBA21, commissioner
The Current
Francesca von
Habsburg
Chief curator, TBA21,
co-commissioner
The Current
Daniela Zyman
Executive, Conference,
Workshops & Archive, NTU
Centre for Contemporary Art
Singapore
Samantha Leong
Min Yu
Curator, Outreach & Education,
NTU Centre for Contemporary
Art Singapore
Magdalena Magiera
Programming
Chief curator, TBA21,
co-commissioner
The Current
Daniela Zyman
Curator, TBA21
Boris Ondreička
Assistant curator, TBA21
Cory Scozzari
Director, TBA21–Academy
Assistant curator, TBA21
Markus Reymann
Frederike Sperling
TBA21 The Current expedition
leader, founding director,
NTU Centre for Contemporary
Art Singapore
Head of Publications
Eva Ebersberger
Collection
Ute Meta Bauer
TBA21 The Current expedition
leader; founding director and
chief curator of the Mistake
Room, Los Angeles
Cesar Garcia
Curator, TBA21–Academy
Stefanie Hessler
Project manager,
TBA21–Academy
Georg Eder
Production assistant,
TBA21–Academy
Isabella Cavalletti
Production assistant,
TBA21–Academy
Head of Collection
Simone Sentall
Colophon TBA21
Founder & chairwoman
TBA21, commissioner
The Current
Registrar Collection &
Exhibitions
Elizabeth Stevens
Francesca von
Habsburg
Registrar Collection &
Exhibitions
Trustees
Media
Udo Kittelmann
Istvan Nagy
TBA21–Academy
Director, TBA21–Academy
Andrea Hofinger
Head of Media
Sophie Bayerlein
Project Manager Media
Elodie Grethen
Markus Reymann
Development
Natasa Venturi
Curator, TBA21–Academy
Project manager
Producer, What About Art?
Stefanie Hessler
Susanne Janetzki
Project manager,
TBA21–Academy
Project manager
Eve Lemesle
Producer, What About Art?
Afrah Shafiq
Georg Eder
Azra Demir Ramovic
Financing & Administration
Karin Berger
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Resources
Programme Resource
Collateral and other print or digital materials pertaining to residency programmes. Examples include residency brochures, postcards, etc.
Short Description
The conference consists of three days of structured conversations, workshops, performances, talks, and screenings convened by The Current Expedition leaders Ute Meta Bauer and Cesar Garcia and TBA21-Academy curator Stefanie Hessler.
Programme Series
None
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
The Current Convening #2 Conference Guides
Description
An account of the resource
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore is pleased to be the funding partner of Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary–Academy (TBA21) for <i>The Current Convening #2</i> in numerous locations on the occasion of the opening of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016.<br /><br /><i>The Current</i> is an exploratory fellowship program based in the Pacific. Working collaboratively across disciplines, the program merges the diverse approaches of deeply committed practitioners, collectively conceptualizing ways to address climate change and environmental violence to the oceans. Expeditions aboard the Dardanella research vessel are followed by <i>Convenings</i> in which the investigations of the Expedition leaders and participants can be shared with an audience. <i>The Convening #2</i> is profoundly dedicated to the oceans, taking poetic approaches to currents and flows of water across cultures. Please join us for three days of structured conversations, workshops, performances, talks, and screenings convened by<i> The Current</i> Expedition leaders Ute Meta Bauer and Cesar Garcia and TBA21-Academy curator Stefanie Hessler. Organized by Markus Reymann.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2016-12-13/2016-12-15
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Francesca von Habsburg
Daniela Zyman
Markus Reyman
Stefanie Hessler
Ute Meta Bauer
Cesar Garcia
Joan Jonas
Amar Kanwar
Davor Vidas
Natasha Ginwala
Ravi Agarwal
Nabil Ahmed
Filipa Ramos
Christopher Myers
The Propeller Group
Jana Winderen
Jamie Y. Shi
Sharmistha Mohanty
Ritu Sharin
Tenzing Sonam
Jegan Vincent de Paul
Vivek Vilasini
TJ Demos
Ho Rui An
Charles Lim
Anthony Acciavatti
D. Graham Burnett
Aveek Sen
Shanay Jhaveri
Clémentine Deliss
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Southeast Asia
-
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EXHIBITION
9 December 2017
— 4 March 2018
�EXHIBITION
9 December 2017
— 4 March 2018
Cover — Nabil Ahmed,
Tailing island, West Papua,
2016, documentation.
Courtesy the artist.
Inner cover — INTERPRT,
Unfolded Pacific Ring,
2016–ongoing, detail.
Courtesy Nabil Ahmed.
The Oceanic
Produced by NTU CCA Singapore
in collaboration with TBA21–Academy The Current
�The Oceanic
A voyage into the geopolitical and
biophysical of the Pacific
The Oceanic focuses on large-scale human interventions
in oceanic ecospheres featuring contributions by 12 artists,
filmmakers, composers, and researchers who engage with both
the long cultural histories of Pacific Ocean archipelagos and
their current conditions. Initiated by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art
Contemporary–Academy (TBA21–Academy), The Current
is an ongoing research initiative into pressing environmental,
economic, and socio-political concerns, for which I had the
privilege to serve as expedition leader of its first cycle
(2015–17). The featured contributors in The Oceanic are
The Current Fellows who joined three expeditions on TBA21–
Academy’s vessel Dardanella to Papua New Guinea (2015),
French Polynesia (2016), and Fiji (2017).
Fijian Lau Islands was joined by anthropologist Guigone
Camus, artists Lisa Rave, and Kristy H. A. Kang, and Roko
Josefa Cinavilkeba, high chief of the Yasayasamoala Island
group. Participating in all three expeditions was Armin Linke,
who not only witnessed these journeys through his cameras,
but also questioned the role of image production in such
unique yet loaded encounters.
Stemming from this cycle of expeditions, the exhibition
addresses various ecological urgencies affecting the ocean and
its littorals as a habitat for humans, fauna, and flora, as well
as particular aspects of sea governance. Questions addressed
in the show include: Who are the regulators of global oceans?
Why should communities who only contribute one per cent of
the global carbon footprint be among the first ones to be fatally
affected by the rise of sea levels caused by global warming? Is
the economic benefit of land- and seabed mining shared with
the impacted communities? What are the long-term effects of
such industries? Who owns the ocean?
With The Oceanic, the NTU CCA Singapore presents work that
resulted from these journeys into the complex waters of the
Pacific. Each expedition had a guiding theme which informed the
activities of the two-week-long trips. The expedition to Milne
Bay Province in Papua New Guinea, with artists Laura Anderson
Barbata, Tue Greenfort, Newell Harry, and Jegan Vincent
de Paul, engaged the history of the Kula Ring, a ceremonial
exchange system practised in the Trobriand Islands. For the
second expedition, titled Tuamotus, the Tahitian name for
distant islands, referring to an archipelago in French Polynesia,
we invited artists Nabil Ahmed, Atif Akin, PerMagnus Lindborg,
and writer Filipa Ramos to reflect on the idea of distance and
how geographical and also cultural remoteness permits human
activities below the radar, including a vast number of nuclear
tests. On the third and last expedition of this cycle, the focus
was on the tradition of the Tabu / Tapu, practised throughout
centuries in Fiji, where a community chief demarcates something
as “sacred” or “forbidden.” This continued the enquiry of
the prior expedition on the Polynesian rāhui—a traditional
rule system that in recent times became significant for marine
conservation and resource management. The journey to the
Situated on the Pacific Ring of Fire, Papua New Guinea’s
geography is diverse and, in places, extremely rugged.
Eruptions are frequent, earthquakes are relatively common,
sometimes accompanied by tsunamis. It is one of the world’s
least explored countries, containing over five per cent of the
world’s biodiversity in less than one per cent of the world’s
total land area. Endowed with rich natural resources, including
mineral and renewable resources, the country’s main revenue
comes from their extraction, attracting developmental projects
which are often environmentally destructive. Conservation
work is a challenge, further hindered by its geography and the
difficulty of developing infrastructures. The effects of climate
change are becoming visible on the coastlines: rising sea level
is displacing people in low lying islands and coral bleaching,
an effect of high temperatures and increased carbon dioxide
in oceans, are observed, but also their acidification as a result
of land mining. Culturally, Papua New Guinea is regarded as
one of the most diverse countries, with over 800 languages and
with the majority of the population still living in traditional
2
A voyage into the geopolitical and biophysical of the pacific
The Oceanic
Papua New Guinea – the Kula Ring
3
�communities. There are hundreds of ethnic groups indigenous to
Papua New Guinea, such as the Papuans and the Austronesians.
These strong customary societies and clans are explicitly
acknowledged within the nation’s constitutional framework.
Almost all land area in Papua New Guinea is owned by
indigenous communities and administered in accordance with
their customs. Customary property cannot be devised by will,
but only inherited according to the custom of the deceased.
economic institutions within the Trobriand society, the Kula
Ring being one of them. This system of exchange involves
annual inter-island visits between trading partners who exchange
highly valued shell ornaments like necklaces (soulava) and
armbands (mwali).
Newell Harry, (Untitled) Anagrams and Objects for RU & RU, 2015. Courtesy the artist.
Newell Harry, (Untitled) Nimoa and Me: Kiriwina Notes, 2015–16, detail. Courtesy the artist.
In Milne Bay Province, there are over 600 islands, of which only
about 160 are inhabited. Culturally, the region is sometimes
referred to as The Massim, societies characterised by matrilineal
descent, elaborate mortuary sequences, and complex systems of
ritual exchange including the Kula Ring. Local culture differs
remarkably between island groups and even between close lying
islands. Linking the hundreds of Massim clans and tribes, with
their unique customs and cultures, of the Louisiades, Trobriand,
Amphett, Woodlark, and the d’Entrecasteaux Islands, is the Kula
Ring. This complex system was first identified and studied by
the Polish-British ethnographer Bronislaw Malinowski between
1915 and 1918, who identified several unique and fascinating
4
The Oceanic
On the expedition to Milne Bay Province, The Current Fellows
applied the notion of the “collective body” to the experience
of a new environment, to share findings and to exchange
knowledge. In their examination of the local tradition of the
Kula Ring, the Fellows explored the negotiation of modalities
of exchange between communities and cultures, as well as
between cultures and the environment. An act of exchange
that can serve as a means of acknowledgment, agreement, or
peacekeeping among groups of people. Inspired by this tradition,
artist Newell Harry documents this practice in his black-andwhite photo series (Untitled) Nimoa and Me: Kiriwina Notes
(2015–16). A fascination with cultural exchange, trade, and
exploration has always been implicit in Harry’s practice. An
important aspect of his work is to revisit fragments from earlier
engagements, archives, and travels, and re-combining them
into “anti-narratives,” such as the anagram prints in (Untitled)
Anagrams and Objects for RU & RU (2015). Rooted in items of
itinerancy (notebooks, drawings, photographs, and journals),
Harry’s works engage with deeply situated cultures, histories,
communities, and individuals.
A voyage into the geopolitical and biophysical of the pacific
5
�Laura Anderson Barbata, Costumes from performance Ocean Calling, 2017. Courtesy the artist.
Likewise incorporating items by artisans from Milne Bay
Province, Laura Anderson Barbata produced striking costumes
for the performative piece Ocean Calling (2017), created as
part of TBA21–Academy’s intervention on World Ocean Day
2017 at the plaza in front of the United Nations Headquarters
in New York. A storied performance that combines spoken
word, dance, improvisation, stilt dancing, ritual, procession,
costuming, and music, Ocean Calling is inspired by all forms
of aqua-organisms as well as communities that have lived in
close relationship to the sea. The work “charts the physical and
emotional relationship to life in our ocean and the urgent need
for collective transformation,” and highlights the importance
of the Declaration signed by Pacific Island Countries and
Territories to significantly improve ocean governance, drafted
during the Pacific Regional Platform for Partnerships and
Action on Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14)
meeting, which took place in 2017 in Suva, Fiji.
Fascinated by the dynamics in the natural world, Tue Greenfort’s
work often evolves around ecology and its history, including
the environment, social relations, and human subjectivity.
His installation Tamoya Ohboya (2017), the Latin name for
a box jellyfish species, includes an aquarium with live jellyfish,
a 500-million-year-old aquatic organism. Referencing ways in
which jellyfish have migrated into new geographical waters due
6
The Oceanic
to the warming of ocean temperatures, the work explores
the technology needed to replicate the required conditions
to sustain these life forms.
The interest in exposing the technology behind human
infrastructures is also present in Armin Linke’s video
installation OCEANS. Dialogues between ocean floor and
water column (2017).
Tue Greenfort, Tamoya Ohboya, 2017. Courtesy the artist.
A voyage into the geopolitical and biophysical of the pacific
7
�Having participated in all three expeditions, Linke raises
critical questions about the way we are designing the future
of our planet, while addressing the deep sea, seabed mining,
sustainability, and ocean regulations. In collaboration with
the video archives of GEOMAR (Helmholtz Centre for Ocean
Research Kiel) and MARUM (Center for Marine Environmental
Sciences, University of Bremen), and commissioned by TBA21–
Academy, Linke edited film footage from several scientific
expeditions, where a high-tech underwater Remote Sensing
Vehicle (ROV) was used, often at a depth deeper than 5,000
meters. The operational images edited in a four-screen immersive
composition present the ROV footage as a choreography,
where the robotic arms are like extensions of the pilots and
the body of the scientists in a suspended and distant space.
Accompanying scientists, representatives of leading research
institutions, and local actors on their research trips and in their
laboratories, Linke observes their procedures and shows the
interconnections that affect all of their activities. This connects
to his long-term filmic project on the “Anthropocene,” its
protagonists, and its sites.
Armin Linke, OCEANS. Dialogues between ocean floor and water column,
2017, film still. Courtesy the artist.
Jegan Vincent de Paul, Luadi Bay (left) and Milne Bay (right), Papua New Guinea,
2015, documentation. Courtesy the artist.
Jegan Vincent de Paul’s research into China’s One Belt, One
Road Initiative led him to look into the “Southern Pacific
Line,” a little discussed corridor of the Belt and Road, first
announced by China’s CCTV television network in April 2015.
Extending from the South China Sea towards Papua New
Guinea into the broader South Pacific, China’s resource-oriented
interest in the region is immense, with Papua New Guinea
being the largest trading partner and recipient of Chinese
funding and construction across multiple industries, including
agriculture, forestry, fishery, and infrastructure. Vincent de
Paul’s contribution includes a collection of official and unofficial
documents and analysis of China’s 21st century political,
economic, and diplomatic relations to Papua New Guinea and
the South Pacific. These are juxtaposed with texts by various
human rights and environmental organisations that expose
the often illegal and exploitive practices of resource extraction
industries in this region.
French Polynesia – Tuamotus, Distant Islands
Physically experiencing “Tuamotus, Distant Islands,” the
expedition from Tahiti and Moorea to atolls of the Tuamotus
group, we considered remoteness from distant angles. What
does it mean to do an expedition to explore on site, in a group?
Do we see, hear, understand more as a collective body? But
also, what role did the distance to France play in the decision
to execute 193 nuclear tests between 1966 and 1996 in this
region, in spite of global protests?
8
The Oceanic
A voyage into the geopolitical and biophysical of the pacific
9
�transposition between creation and degeneration, the project
confounds science and fiction and participates in the creation of
new myths in the face of changing ecological conditions.
Atif Akin, Tepoto Sud morph Moruroa, 2017, still from animation. Courtesy the artist.
The atolls Mururoa and Fangataufa were the sites for these
193 nuclear tests, despite being declared a biosphere reserve by
UNESCO in 1977. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the
first atomic weapons test on Mururoa, then a French colony in
Polynesia, this expedition discussed the still neglected long-term
and devastating impact of nuclear experiments in the Pacific on
the populations and the environment. During the expedition,
Atif Akin proposed to interview an uninhabited atoll. His project
Tepoto Sud morph Moruroa (2017) reflects on the creation of
new mythologies analogical to radioactive deformations of code
and matter resulting from the nuclear tests that took place in
this island archipelago. The work consists of a poster presenting
his research next to computer generated 3D renderings of the
atolls Moruroa and Tepoto Sud in the Tuamotus archipelago
continuously morphing into one another, the first of which
was subjected to nuclear tests and the latter was visited by the
artist during the expedition. The atmospheric and subterranean
nuclear explosions on Moruroa left radioactive residue in
water and on land, affecting the local population and numerous
animal and plant species. Using an equation developed by
mathematician Felix Klein in the late 19th century to model
ocean swells and waves, Akin transforms the animation in a
way analogous to how radiation mutates matter. By placing
the digitised geological structures in constant correlational
Addressing the exploitation of finite resources, Nabil Ahmed
collaborates with researchers Carlo Grignani, Olga Lucko,
Damaso Randulfe, and Linz Wilbur to call for an Inter-Pacific
Ring Tribunal (INTERPRT) (2016–ongoing), an investigation into
environmental justice in the Pacific region. An ambitious project
that sets itself at the intersection of spatial practice, international
law, and artistic research, its conception is inspired by a fluid,
geological imaginary of the Pacific region as a global commons,
with the indigenous people of Oceania as its guardians. The
investigations in West Papua and French Polynesia take the idea
of a tribunal as forum, exposing the shortfalls of existing legal
norms and opting for a format that mixes performative events
and hearings. Rigorously appraising the effects of environmental
destruction and impunity, it fosters open collaboration between
practitioners, artists, scientists, activists, and lawyers, in an
attempt to “inhabit an alternative space of political community
that demands public truth, justice, and accountability.”
10
A voyage into the geopolitical and biophysical of the pacific
The Oceanic
Atif Akin, Tepoto Sud morph Moruroa, 2017, still from animation. Courtesy the artist.
11
�5908
2546
2639
1524
5913
3
30
1272
Fiji and Lau Islands – Tabu / Tapu
6716
Midway
Technological waste
(518GBq)
Depth: 5487 m
7 containers
North West Pacific Ocean
Technological waste
(8239 GBq)
Depth: >3000 m
1068 containers
6310
5058
6917
6640
Polymetallic Nodules
Clarion- Clippertone Zone
Exploration area
6443
Zone
9621
1 165
ure Zone
Molokai Fract
Clarion
1401
5359
Mendocino Fracture Zone
Marray
1
Fracture
2723
1750
Zone
n Fracture
USA
Amchitka: 3 underground tests
Recognized radioactive leaks
Significant Contamination
"Wildlife refuge"
Remediation 2001 to 2025
7415
8238
North Mariana
Radioactive waste
2179
5638
Au
Fandora Mine
San Diego
5529
Technological
waste (5254 GBq)
Depth: 1800m- 3600m
7529 containers
6727
Guam
Radioactive waste
8167
2410
1370
6536
6283
207
ch
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Au, Cu
Imperial Metals Mine
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New Prosperity
Mine
Cu, Au
Pebble Mine
7370
Johnston atoll
12 atmospheric test
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6947
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6491
604
7151
6377
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7662
3918
1 187
5509
93
7333
8053
Faralion
Technological waste and
"special" nuclear materials
(536 500 GBq)
923
Depth: 900m- 1700m
47 500 containers
Clipperto
Hawaii
Technological waste
(3.33 Gbq)
39 containers
Depth: 3456 m
6470
2480
Fracture
2975
The third expedition engages with the Fijian traditional
concept of tabu, where a Chief or leader of a community denotes
something as “holy,” “sacred,” “forbidden,” or “demanding
of respect,” detaching and protecting a place, an object, etc.,
from the “common.” In Fijian communities, the concept of tabu
extends to their social, cultural, and environmental traditions.
Throughout the Pacific, the creation of tabu areas has been
3
practised for a long period of time, including temporarily
closing off areas to fishing as a mark of respect for the death
of an important community member, to protect sacred sites,
to affirm a village’s rights to a fishing ground, or as part
of traditional ceremonies. While tabu has not always been
motivated solely by environmental reasons, in the current
global climate situation, the practise of tabu has become highly
significant in marine conservation and resource management.
This is also outlined by Tamatoa Bambridge, scientist and
researcher at the Centre de Recherche Insulaire et Observatoire
de l’Environnement (CRIOBE), Moorea, French Polynesia, in
several papers and the anthology The Rahui: Legal pluralism
in Polynesian traditional management of resources and
territories (ANU Press, 2016). The concepts of rāhui and tabu
have the potential of protecting oceanic habitats as an effective
alternative to the contemporary legal frameworks, with Hugo
Grotius’ Mare Liberum (1609) still being the basis for the United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
8129
Zone
REPUBLIC OF KIRIBATI
Population: 112,423
Pacific Ocean US: 1 atmospheric test
Christmas Island US: 24 atmospheric tests /
UK: 6 atmospheric tests
Partial evacuation of local inhabitants
1/3 stayed on site.
Environmental rehabilitation works153
1
commissioned by the Republic of Kiribati
since 2004.
Malden Island UK: 3 atmospheric tests
Unsuitable for human habitation.
Wildlife sanctuary.
6950
2836
1 152
3578
Hawaii
Depleted uranium
Military sites: Pohakuloa Training Center
and Schofield Barraks
Scattered 744 ammunition shots
recognized by the US Army in 2005 anf 2007
(more than 2000 shots known from other sources)
6938
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Syrve
Christmas and Malden islands
Potentially radioactive waste
Missing information on the management of
potentially radioactive technological waste
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Au, Cu
Cananea Mine
Polymetallic Nodules
Clarion- Clippertone Zone
Exploration area
INTERPRT, Unfolded Pacific Ring, 2016–ongoing, detail. Courtesy Nabil Ahmed.
Au, Ag
Dolores Mine
As a counter point, Tuamotus Triptych (2017) by PerMagnus
Lindborg is an audio composition evoking the soundscapes of
three remote locations in the Tuamotus archipelago. Consisting
of underwater recordings from a coral reef, fragments of people,
voices, and instruments, this listening journey touches on another
aspect in exploring notions of distant places: the fantasies they
evoke. What are the desires and projections arising from distant
places, which drew, among others, Paul Gauguin to live in Tahiti,
where he practised his unique painting style? And what does this
mean for our own gaze when visiting the Tuamotus?
1670
Au
Paredones Amarillos Mine
6038
5886
6242
157
1574
5720
6049
Au, Ag, Zn
Guanajuato Mine
5357
2018
1406
6588
6614
1958
6909
6261
22
MARSHALL ISLANDS
Population : 52,993
Bikini atoll: 21 atmospheric tests / 1
underwater tests
Failed decontamination.
Atoll unsutable for human habitation
Population currently displaced on
the Kili atoll
Enewetak atoll: 42 atmospheric tests / 2
underwater tests
Partial rehabilitation
Resettlement of the population since 1980
6587
44
Enewetak
Radioactive waste
concrete dome
Inhabited atoll
Restrictions on loca
productions
Bikini
Contaminated milit
ships and vehicles
abandoned in the l
6941
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an
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nc
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1402
Cu, Ag, Zn, Pb
Grupo Mine
s Ridge
Coco
Au, Ag, Pb, Zn
El Escobal Mine
Au
Cerro Blanco Mine
Au, Ag
Bela Vista
Ridge
Au, Cu, Ag Zn, Ni
Bribri Mine
egie
Carn
nch
U
Bayovar Mine
e
Au, Ag, Cu, Zn
Tambogrande Mine
ma Mine
12
Au
Cogema Mine
5615
Au
Suarez Mine
Au
Dagua Mine
Au, Ag, Cu, Pb, Zn
Curipamba Mine
Au
Sona Mine
Au, Cu
Cerro Quema
Mine
Ba
Chicomuselo Mine
Sb, W
San Ildefonso Mine
Au
Au Los Chocoyos Mine
La Puya Mine
Au, Ag
El Dorado Mine
Au
Crusitas Mine
Cu
Comarca Mine
Au, Ag, Cu
Petaquilla Mine
South Korea
Radioactive waste
Depth: 2192 m
115 containers
h
Cu, Ag, Au, Pb, Zn
Huehuetenango Mine
Okinawa
Nuclear weapon of a rugged
American aircraft
nc
Writer Filipa Ramos focused on our relationship to the animal
world and what it means to share the same space—the ocean—
with an amazing array of other beings. The experience of
these encounters can shape our understanding in a completely
different way than when observing the animal world merely on
film. Together with other The Current Fellows, she compiled
a film programme that will be screened in February.
Tre
Ag, Au
Capulalpam Mine
Ag
Miner Plata Real Mine
Isu- Ogasawara Trench
na
Au, Ag
San Jose del Progresso Mine
Cu
Ashio Mine
Depth: 1800m- 2800m
Radioactive waste
3031 conteneurs
(15078,9 GBq)
ria
Ma
Au
Cocula Mine
The question here is in which way can humanity create for itself
a set of rules and societal agreements that respects the ocean as a
shared habitat and resource? While international climate change
agreements such as the Paris Agreement (2016) are significant
in effecting change, it is necessary for humanity to be cognisant
of the different circumstances and governance of indigenous
communities, and of equal importance for all of us, to consider
2
the rights of other species and ecosystems. We are certain that
with a greater integration of local and traditional knowledge
into global laws and governance, humanity can achieve greater
success in recognising the rights of humans and nature, and
in doing so mend our relationship with the environment in a
holistic manner.
Sasebe
Contaminated refrigerating liquid from a
US submarine "Swordfish"
As
Toroku Mine
9555
JAPAN
Population: 127 million
2 atmospheric attacks on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1945
7792
8190
Au
Farallones Mine
Fe
Salsedo Mine
The Oceanic
Au, Cu, U
Dojura Mine
Ni
Cerro Matos Mine
Au
Tamesis Mine
Au, Cu
A voyage into the geopolitical and biophysical of the pacific
Didipio Mine
Au,Cu, Ag
Cu
Marcopper Placer
Dome Mine
Au, Cu, Fe, Ni
Marcventure
Ni
Shenzhou Mine
Ni
Mine
San Roque
Fe, Ni
Mine
Mrl Agata Mine
Fe
Ni
McArthur Metalic
San Roque
Mine
Mine
13
Ni
Pujad
Cu, Au
Glencre Xsrata
Mine
Au
Mt.Canatuan Mine
�Guigone Camus, Tauma village (left) and Kabuna village (right), South of Tabiteuea
North, Kiribati, 2015, documentation. Courtesy the author.
Kristy H. A. Kang’s ongoing reflection on her experience in
Fiji will unfold through an iterative installation and research
process exploring vernacular forms of mapping cultural memory
and spatial narrative. Together with Guigone Camus and Lisa
Rave, she will activate The Lab at the Centre as a platform for
ongoing debate and discussions. Kang investigates the Masi,
a barkcloth still made traditionally by the women of Fiji from
mulberry and decorated with symbolic designs using vegetable
and mineral dyes, that is used as a ceremonial cloth for special
festivities. Kang compares these cultural techniques such as
weaving with digital forms, tracing how the former influence
and inform the latter.
Collective Body, Knowledge, Exchange
Lisa Rave’s film Europium (2014) reconsiders the value of
raw materials in cultures and economic systems. Interweaving
images and text, the film investigates europium, a rare mineral,
used for its fluorescence to both validate European banknotes
and to ensure colour brilliance in flat-screen commodities,
that has become one of the allures of deep-sea mining—the
new gold rush spreading across the global oceans. The film starts
with the story of the currency of Tabu, traditional shell money
used in East New Britain by the Tolai community of Papua New
Guinea, and traces how this natural form gained monetary value
and was later forged by European colonisers. The contemporary
extraction of the rare element alludes to historic exploitation
and underscores the human and ecological violence inherent
in the extraction and transformation of a raw material into
monetary value.
What is the surplus of sharing and experiencing a new place/
time as a group, rather than as an individual, and what space
is produced through such collectivity? What constitutes
contemporary modes of exchange between communities and
cultures as well as between cultures and the environment?
Anthropologist Guigone Camus’ research into the social
organisation of Kiribati, a small atoll country covering a large
part of the Central Pacific, is committed to highlighting issues
related to the global warming consequences on the preservation
of biodiversity, and on the livelihoods of the human societies
who are living in small island countries. Her work observes how
I-Kiribati Islanders both pragmatically and emotionally respond
to terrestrial and marine environment’s deterioration and how
political and social parameters influence the protection of
marine resources.
Lisa Rave, Europium, 2014, film still. Courtesy the artist.
14
The Oceanic
A voyage into the geopolitical and biophysical of the pacific
15
�What constitutes knowledge, where is it embedded, how is
it transmitted and what determines its ownership? Exploration
of the notions of the collective body, knowledge, and exchange
began with the first expedition and underscores the process
and experience of all The Current expeditions, as well as
permeates many of the works and projects presented in the
exhibition. Within the main space of The Oceanic, a series of
documentation and interviews edited by Linke and Rave are
also shown, interspersed with the exhibited works on view,
highlighting the open-endedness that unfolds once one departs
on such journeys. The Lab space will be set up as an area for
talanoa, a system for communal conversations wherein a safe
space is created for expressing differences and opinions: its
meaning derived from two different yet related meanings in the
languages of Austronesian-speaking people: “tala” meaning
talking or telling stories and “noa” meaning “zero or without
concealment.” Pacific islanders have throughout their histories
used the talanoa process to build understanding and cooperation.
The Lab space will not only contain research material by Camus,
Kang, and Rave, but also materials from other The Current
Fellows and participants of the expeditions, including notes,
sketches, photographs, collected objects, and other experiences
accumulated during the journeys to Papua New Guinea, French
Polynesia, and Fiji. Expanding on the investigations in the
presented works and materials, a series of related films will be
compiled by the Fellows, featuring other artists engaging in the
raised subjects. A series of public programmes will bring these
inquiries closer to Singapore, through (de)Tours and workshops,
examining the ecological, social, and economic situations in the
region, which is also part of Austronesia.
The Current and CLIMATES. HABITATS. ENVIRONMENTS.
16
A voyage into the geopolitical and biophysical of the pacific
The Oceanic
The Oceanic sums up the three The Current expeditions to
the Pacific archipelagos and the diverse outcomes, generated
by The Current Fellows, informed by a direct contact with
oceanic locations and their specificities. The majority of the
world’s population is aware of the critical condition of the
Earth, including but not limited to the impact of climate change,
economic globalisation, and environmental hazards. Despite
a heightened consciousness, humanity has been reluctant to
address these urgencies and the irrevocable consequences
faced by all life on this planet. Since the ages of industrial and
technological revolutions, Western civilisation especially has
increasingly distanced itself from the environment and related
concerns. While some leaders of the so-called developed world
assume to have the luxury of denying climate change, there
are many communities and habitats that have to face the stark
reality of environmental changes that threaten their source
of income and the place they call home, on a daily basis.
Pacific Island societies have an intimate relationship with the
environment—land and ocean are inseparable for them—given
the importance of marine habitats and resources for their
communities. It is in light of these concerns that it is timely to
ask questions and explore possibilities of collective agency.
The Oceanic marks the start of NTU CCA Singapore’s
new overarching research topic CLIMATES. HABITATS.
ENVIRONMENTS., which will inform and connect the Centre’s
various activities—ranging from research to residencies and
exhibitions—for the upcoming years. Following Allan Sekula’s
Fish Story, to be continued (2015) and Charles Lim Yi Yong’s
SEA STATE (2016), The Oceanic is the third exhibition by the
Centre featuring long-term, critical enquiries by artists about
the radical changes for communities whose livelihoods are
inseparable from the sea, the precarious labour at sea, and the
irreversible impact of technologically driven human interventions
on one of the Earth’s most precious resources, the oceans.
17
�18
The Oceanic
A voyage into the geopolitical and biophysical of the pacific
Philippe Rekacewicz, visionscarto.net research, created in 2005 for the IPCC, updated in 2011 and 2015.
Main mangrove zones
Densely populated coastal zones
In memoriam of The Current contributors of the first cycle, priest and activist
Bruno Barrillot (1940–2017), who devoted his life to fight with the people of
French Polynesia for the recognition of the devastating impact of the nuclear
experiments by the French Military; and the composer and electronic musician
Mika Vainio (1963–2017), whose secret love was Ska and Rocksteady.
Tropical cyclone regions
Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore, and
Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Coastal/zones vulnerable to
rising sea levels and floods
Ute Meta Bauer
Danger comes from the sea
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Francesca von
Habsburg, TBA21 Founding Chairwoman; Markus Reymann,
TBA21–Academy Director; and Stefanie Hessler, TBA21–
Academy Curator; and the dedicated team of the Foundation;
as well as to all The Current Fellows for embarking on this
collective experiment. Without the dedicated crew of the
Dardanella and its fearless Captain Piot Rachalewski,
filmmaker Barney Broomfield, and the knowledge of diving
experts Craig DeWitt, Rodolphe Holler, and Nigel Douglas,
we would not have been able to have this unique experience.
Davor Vidas, Sandor Mulsow, Patrick Heimbach, Cesar Garcia,
and Tamatoa Bambridge provided us with their research,
guidance, and feedback. Last but not least, we deeply owe all
the communities and many individuals who generously hosted
us and shared their knowledge, including Bran Quinquis,
Taholo Kami, and so many others.
19
�Interviews
Davor Vidas (5)
International Law of the Sea
Fridtjof Nansen Institute Oslo
Oslo, Norway
November 2014
The Single Screen
Bruno Barrillot (1)
Conference to commemorate the 50th
anniversary of the first French nuclear
weapons test in French Polynesia
Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia
1 July 2016
Robert (3)
On the future of offshore drilling
School in Boga Boga village
Milne Bay Province,
Papua New Guinea
October 2015
Sandor Mulsow (4)
International Seabed Authority
Kingston, Jamaica
14 March 2016
Roman Vivier
(2)
The current condition of Moruroa
and the use of the rāhui
Church in Fakarava, French Polynesia
9 July 2016
Hervé Raimana
Lallemant-Moe (6)
The rāhui and environmental
regulations
University of French Polynesia
Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia
14 July 2016
Interviews conducted by The Current Fellows and team
Camera and Sound: Armin Linke
Editing: Lisa Rave
Tabu: A Story of the South Seas, F. W. Murnau
1931, 90 min
Realised in collaboration with Robert J. Flaherty and filmed
in French Polynesia, Tabu tells the story of two lovers in the
Bora Bora island of French Polynesia. A messenger from the
chief declares the young woman as the chosen maid, meaning
that she becomes “tabu” and can’t be touched by any man. The
couple runs away to a westernised island, but is not capable of
escaping their fate. Murnau’s last film is considered one of the
first instances of a docufiction.
The Love Life of an Octopus, Jean Painlevé
1967, 13 min
A striking close-up observation of octopuses in the sea, the film
documents these animals mating during springtime, for days
in a row. After the female releases strings of fertilised eggs, she
guards them for a month, ensuring water circulation for oxygen
and hygienic purposes. In a time lapse, we see how the eggs
develop and the baby octopuses are born.
Tabu was screened on the Dardanella during the expedition in Fiji/ Lau Group.
The Love Life of an Octopus was screened on the Dardanella during the expedition
to the Tuamotus, French Polynesia.
Numbers in parentheses refer to placement in Exhibition Plan (page 43)
20
The Oceanic
21
�Contributors
Nabil Ahmed
Nabil Ahmed (Bangladesh/United Kingdom)
holds a PhD in Research Architecture from
Goldsmiths, University of London, and is a
senior lecturer at the Cass School of Architecture
at London Metropolitan University. As an artist
and researcher, Ahmed looks at environmental
violence and new forums for environmental
justice through spatial analysis, writing, and
interdisciplinary projects. Since 2013, he has
been investigating the impact of mining, land
grabs, and self-determination in West Papua.
He is the founder of Inter-Pacific Ring Tribunal
(INTERPRT), a long-term project on ecocide in
Oceania and the Pacific region, commissioned
by TBA21–Academy. He has participated in the
two-year Anthropocene Project at the Haus der
Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin (2013–14);
the 2016 Oslo Architecture Triennial; the 3rd
Istanbul Design Biennial (2016); and numerous
other exhibitions. More recently he has published
in art, science, and architecture publications such
as Third Text, Scientific Reports, Forensis: The
Architecture of Public Truth (Sternberg, 2014),
Volume, and South magazine (Documenta 14).
Atif Akin
Atif Akin (Turkey/United States) is an artist
and designer, and Associate Professor at Mason
Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in
New Jersey. Akin’s work examines science, nature,
mobility, and politics through an (a)historical and
contemporary lens. Through a series of activities
made up of research, documentation, and design,
his work considers transdisciplinary issues through
a techno-scientific perspective, in aesthetic and
political contexts. In 2015, Akin received the
apexart Franchise Program award in New York,
organising the zine project and exhibition Apricots
from Damascus, hosted by SALT, Istanbul. His
ongoing long-term research-driven project on
nuclear mobility and archaeology, Mutant Space,
was presented at the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial
22
The Oceanic
(2016). Tepoto Sud morph Moruroa was exhibited
in the exhibition Tidalectics, curated by Stefanie
Hessler, at TBA21–Augarten in Vienna.
Laura Anderson Barbata
Laura Anderson Barbata (Mexico/United States)
is an artist who has since 1992 worked primarily
in the social realm, initiating projects in the
Amazon of Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago,
Mexico, Norway, and the United States. From
2010–15, she was a Professor at the Instituto
Nacional de Bellas Artes. Her project The
Repatriation of Julia Pastrana, initiated in 2004,
resulted in the successful removal of the body
of Julia Pastrana from the Schreiner Collection
in Oslo to be repatriated and buried in Sinaloa,
Mexico, Pastrana’s birth state. She is also known
for her project Transcommunality (2001–ongoing)
working with stilt walkers and artisans from
Mexico, New York, and the Caribbean. This
project has been presented at various venues,
among them The Museum of Modern Art, New
York; The Modern Museum Fort Worth Texas;
BRIC Art House Brooklyn; Rutgers University,
New Jersey; and the Museum of the City of
Mexico. She was recipient of the Anonymous
Was A Woman 2016 Award. In 2017, Anderson
Barbata, together with The Brooklyn Jumbies,
presented Ocean Blue(s) at NTU CCA Singapore,
as part of CITIES FOR PEOPLE , the inaugural NTU
CCA Ideas Fest.
Guigone Camus
(France) holds a PhD in Social Anthropology
and Ethnology (EHESS), and since 2002 has
lectured at l’Ecole du Louvre in Paris, l’Institut
Catholique de Paris, and the University of French
Polynesia in Tahiti. Camus has worked on the
social organisation of Kiribati, which is a small
atoll country covering a large part of the Central
Pacific. During two missions (2011 and 2015) she
observed the I-Kiribati symbolic representations
of Nature, their social organisation and the
kin ties between their cosmology and genealogies.
In 2014, she published Tabiteuea Kiribati, a
book dedicated to Tabiteuea Island (Hazan). As
a Scientific Advisor of the Ocean and Climate
Platform, she is committed in putting light on
issues related to the consequences of global
warming on the preservation of biodiversity,
and the livelihoods of the human societies living
in small island countries, addressing physical
and psychological security, food security, and
migration. She also works on the pragmatical and
emotional perception of climate change and on
the political and social parameters influencing the
protection of natural resources.
Tue Greenfort
Tue Greenfort’s (Denmark/Germany)
interdisciplinary practice deals with issues such
as the public and private realms, nature, and
culture. Interweaving these subjects with the
language of contemporary art, the artist formulates
critiques of current economical and scientific
production practices. Fascinated by the dynamics
in the natural world, Greenfort’s work often
evolves around ecology and its history, including
the environment, social relations, and human
subjectivity. As a participant in documenta(13)
in Kassel (2012), Greenfort was co-curator of an
archive on multi-species co-evolution, The Worldly
House. He has had solo presentations at Den Frie
Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen (2017);
Berlinische Galerie (2012); South London Gallery
(2011); Kunstverein Braunschweig (2008); and
contributors
Secession, Vienna (2007). He has participated
in numerous international exhibition including
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna
(2017); Kunstverein Hannover (2011); Royal
Academy of Arts, London (2009); the Fondazione
Morra Greco, Naples (2008); Skulptur Projekte
Münster (2007); and Witte de With, Rotterdam
(2006). Among his publications the most
comprehensive, Linear Deflection, was published
by Walther König in 2009.
Newell Harry
Newell Harry (Australia), of South African and
Mauritian descent, has for over a decade drawn
from an intimate web of recurring travels and
connections across Oceania and the wider AsiaPacific, to South Africa’s Western Cape Province,
where the artist’s extended family continues
to reside. From Pidgin and Creole languages
to modes of exchange in the “gift economies”
of the South Pacific, Harry’s interests often
culminate in culturally “entangled” installations.
Selected exhibitions include Tidalectics, ThyssenBornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna (2017);
Endless Circulation: Tarrawarra Biennial, Victoria
(2016); The 56th Venice Biennale: All the Worlds
Futures (2015); Suspended Histories, Museum
Van Loon, Amsterdam (2013); Rendez Vous 11
& 12, Institut d’Art Contemporain, Villebanne
(2011) and South African National Gallery, Cape
Town (2012); Untitled (12th Istanbul Biennial)
(2011); The 17th Biennale of Sydney: The Beauty
of Distance, Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age
(2010); and The Adelaide Biennial of Australian
Art: Before and After Science (2010).
23
�Kristy H. A. Kang
Kristy H. A. Kang (United States/Singapore) is
a media artist and scholar whose work explores
narratives of place and geographies of cultural
memory. She holds a PhD in Media Arts and
Practice from USC. She is Assistant Professor at
the School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore, and was
previously Associate Director of the Spatial
Analysis Laboratory at the University of Southern
California (USC) Sol Price School of Public Policy
in Los Angeles. Her research interests combine
urban and ethnic studies, mapping, animation,
and digital media arts to visualise cultural
histories of cities and communities. Kang was a
founding member of the Labyrinth Project research
initiative, serving as researcher, project director,
and designer on a range of collaborative projects
since 1997. These works have been published
and presented internationally at conferences and
institutions including the Getty Research Institute,
Los Angeles; the Center for Art and Media
Karlsruhe; the Museum of Art at Seoul National
University; and the Jewish Museum, Berlin.
PerMagnus Lindborg
PerMagnus Lindborg (Sweden/Singapore) is a
composer, sound artist, and researcher. Lindborg
studied piano and composition at the Norwegian
Music Academy in Oslo, music computing at
IRCAM in Paris, contemporary musicology at
Université de Paris Sorbonne, and holds a PhD
in sound perception and design in multimodal
environments from the KTH Royal Institute of
Technology in Stockholm (2015). Since 2005,
Lindborg has taught at institutions in France
and Singapore, most recently at NTU ADM. He
has authored more than 100 media artworks and
compositions presented worldwide, notably at
Xuhui Art Museum, Shanghai (2017); Tonspur,
Vienna (2016); National Gallery Singapore
(2015); Onassis Centre, Athens (2014); World
Stage Design, Cardiff (2013); Moderna Museet,
Stockholm (2008); and Centre Pompidou, Paris
(2003). He has published 33 peer-reviewed articles
and papers in PLoS One, Leonardo, Applied
Acoustics, and Applied Sciences, and book
chapters for IRCAM-Delatour and Springer-LNCS,
as well as numerous conference proceedings.
He created the biannual Soundislands Festival
(2013, 2015, and 2017).
24
The Oceanic
Armin Linke
Armin Linke (Italy/Germany) is a photographer
and filmmaker who combines a range of
contemporary image-processing technologies in
order to blur the borders between fiction and
reality. He was Research Affiliate at MIT Visual
Arts Program Cambridge, guest professor at
the IUAV Arts and Design University in Venice,
and professor for photography at the University
for Arts and Design Karlsruhe. Linke analyses
the formation, the Gestaltung of our natural,
technological, and urban environment, perceived
as a diverse space of continuous interaction. His
photographs and films function as tools to become
aware of the different design strategies. Concerned
with different possibilities of dealing with image
archives and their respective manifestations, Linke
works with his own archive, as well as with other
media archives, challenging conventional practices,
whereby the questions of how photography
and film are installed and displayed become
increasingly important. In a collective approach
with artists, designers, architects, historians and
curators, narratives are procured on the level of
multiple discourses.
Lisa Rave
Lisa Rave (United Kingdom/Germany) is an
artist, filmmaker, and photographer. In her
work, she often explores issues surrounding
postcolonialism, and history’s repeating patterns
in the complex interplay of culture, economy,
and ecology, as well as natural phenomena. Rave
studied experimental film at the University of the
Arts Berlin and photography at Bard College,
New York. She was a fellow artist at the Akademie
Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart in 2014. Some of
her recent exhibitions and screenings include
Lofoten International Art Festival (2017); Arsenal
Kino Berlin (2017); Glasmoog Cologne (2017);
Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary–Augarten
(2017); Württembergischer Kunstverein (2016);
3rd Istanbul Design Biennial (2016); FLORA
ars+natura, Bogota (2015); Meulensteen Gallery,
New York (2014); Kunstverein Wiesbaden (2013);
Chisenhale Gallery, London (2012); Neuer Berliner
Kunstverein (2011); and Haus der Kulturen der
Welt, Berlin (2011).
Jegan Vincent de Paul
Jegan Vincent de Paul (Sri Lanka/Canada)
is a PhD candidate at NTU adm and NTU CCA
Singapore. His dissertation considers the role
of research-based artistic production in creating
new understandings of contemporary geopolitical
events; his thesis critically examines China’s Belt
and Road Initiative and its impact on the ethnic
conflicts of Burma, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
Vincent de Paul has a Master of Architecture
from the University of Toronto (2007) and
completed his Master of Science in Visual Studies
at the MIT Visual Arts Program, Cambridge
(2009). He has worked as a researcher and
designer with artists and cultural organisations,
including Ai Weiwei (Beijing), LOT-EK (New
York), and the MIT Museum (Boston). He was a
research fellow and lecturer at the MIT Program in
Art, Culture and Technology (2011–12), where he
researched the intersection of energy and society,
and taught courses on creative responses to
conflict and crises.
Filipa Ramos
Filipa Ramos (Portugal/United Kingdom) is
a writer and editor, currently Editor in Chief
of art-agenda, commissioning and publishing
experimental and rigorous writing on art. She
is a lecturer in art and moving image at the
Experimental Film MA Programme of Kingston
University, and at the MRes Art:Moving Image of
Central Saint Martins/University of the Arts, both
in London, and works with the Master Programme
of the Institut Kunst, Basel. She is co-founder
and co-curator of Vdrome, and was previously
Associate Editor of Manifesta Journal, contributed
to documenta 13 (2012) and 14 (2017). Interested
in the way art, and particularly time-based work,
provides a site of encounter for humans and
nonhumans, Ramos has written, lectured, and
curated exhibitions and film programmes on
the topic, having edited Animals (Whitechapel
Gallery/MIT Press, 2016). Ramos was a Writer-inResidence at NTU CCA Singapore in 2016. She has
been a guest curator at several institutions and her
writing has been published in several magazines
and catalogues.
TBA21–Academy The Current
TBA21–Academy is conceived as an itinerant
site of cultural production and interdisciplinary
research, bringing together thinkers from
various fields concerned with today’s most urgent
ecological, social, and economic issues. The
Current is an exploratory fellowship programme
based in the Pacific that aims to literally take
creative practice out of the studio, science out of
the lab, and all participants out of their comfort
zones. Imagining new ways of thinking about
and engaging with the oceans and their broader
historical, economic, geopolitical, social, and
cultural processes, The Current aims to inspire
unconventional solutions for an ecologically and
economically sustainable planet. The Current’s
Expeditions aboard the Dardanella research vessel
are organised in three-year cycles and guided by
invited Expedition leaders.
Francesca von Habsburg, TBA21 Chairwoman
and Founder
Markus Reymann, TBA21–Academy Director
Stefanie Hessler, TBA21–Academy Curator
contributors
25
�Public Programmes
Wednesday
6 December 2017
7.30 — 9.00pm
Monday
15 January 2018
7.30 — 9.00pm
Behind-the-Scenes with contributing artist
Newell Harry; Markus Reymann, TBA21–Academy
Director; and Professor Ute Meta Bauer, Curator
of The Oceanic
In this (de)Tour, renowned cartographer Philippe Rekacewicz
will speak about the impact of climate change and environmental
migration using maps as the main tool for analysing ocean,
environment, and urban phenomena. He will also share his research
process and recent projects in experimental cartography. A map can
be both a representation of factual data as well as a political object
that is in continuous dialogue with real and projected conditions.
As a carefully designed visual image, it is at the intersection of
cartography, art, and politics.
The speakers will share their experience of the first cycle of research
trips to the Pacific Ocean archipelagos as part of TBA21–Academy
The Current, giving background into how this exhibition project
evolved out of these journeys. The insights into the expeditions give
context to the works in the show, while the broader vision of The
Current will also be presented and discussed.
Friday
15 December 2017
7.30 — 8.30pm
Exhibition (de)Tour: Impact of Climate Change
on Human Communities – flood, drought, heat:
who will suffer really?
by geographer and cartographer Philippe Rekacewicz
Rekacewicz is in Singapore under the auspices of University of
Helsinki Department of Anthropology, visionscarto.net, and
Singapore-ETH Centre Future Cities Lab.
Tour of The Oceanic with contributing artist
PerMagnus Lindborg and Professor Ute Meta Bauer
The audience will meet the curator of The Oceanic, Professor
Ute Meta Bauer, in an open Q&A session in conversation with
contributing sound artist and composer PerMagnus Lindborg.
The tour includes a “sound walk” through the exhibition guided
by the artist.
All programmes are free and take place at Block 43 Malan Road, Gillman Barracks.
For enquiries, please email ntuccaevents@ntu.edu.sg.
Newell Harry (Australia)
Please refer to page 23
Markus Reymann (Germany/
United Kingdom) is the Director
of TBA21–Academy. He joined
TBA21 in 2011 and subsequently
cofounded TBA21–Academy with
TBA21 Foundation Chairwoman
and Founder Francesca
von Habsburg. As a central
programming unit of TBA21,
the Academy provides a moving
26
The Oceanic
platform of cultural production
and interdisciplinary exchange.
Since 2011, Reymann
initiated and conducted
numerous expeditions, each
trip designed as a collaboration
with invited artists, scientists,
and thinkers eager to embark
on oceanic explorations.
The Academy commissions
ambitious projects inspired
by these unusual encounters.
Ute Meta Bauer (Germany/
Singapore) is the Founding
Director of the NTU CCA
Singapore, and Professor at
NTU ADM. For more than
three decades, she has worked
as curator of exhibitions and
presentations, connecting
contemporary art, film,
video, and sound through
transdisciplinary formats. She
publishes regularly on artistic
and curatorial practice.
PerMagnus Lindborg (Sweden/
Singapore)
Please refer to page 24
Philippe Rekacewicz (France/
Norway) is a geographer,
cartographer, and information
designer. He studied geography
at University of Paris la
Sorbonne, was a permanent
collaborator for Le Monde
diplomatique in Paris
(1988–2014), and the head of
Programmes
the cartographic unit of the
United Nations Environment
Programme in Norway (1996–
2007). Currently, he works
as a geographer cartographer
for art museums, geopolitical
institutes, and international
organisations, is co-coordinator
of visionscarto.net, and an
Associate Researcher in the
Department of Anthropology,
University of Helsinki. Engaging
with geopolitics and geostrategy,
Rekacewicz focuses on migration,
statelessness, war, and the
manipulation of the cartographic
vision by economic powers.
27
�Saturday & Sunday
3 & 4 February 2018
1.00 — 7.00pm
Film programme: The Oceanic
selected by The Current Fellows
During the past three years, a dispersed community of thinkers,
artists, writers and researchers was summoned, assembled, and
brought together on various expeditions on board of the Dardanella,
a research vessel travelling across various locations in the Pacific
Ocean. These expeditions were deeply cinematic experiences. In
itself the boat was both a real and figurative site of projection: at
once a privileged place from where to observe the ocean, the life
forms, transactions, and infrastructures it hosts, and at the same
time a vessel that embodied the tropes of the expedition, voyage,
and exploration that were continuously being performed and
redefined within it.
Further pursuing the production and sourcing of images of the
sea and all that surrounds it, this selection of films followed the
collective agency of The Current project. The films presented were
chosen by the 12 Fellows participating of the three expeditions, and
reflect their personal and collective interests, sources of imaginary,
references, and dreamscapes. Offering a large variety of styles, gazes,
chronologies, lengths, and prisms, this film selection also presents a
small sample of the sort of cinematic visions that have been created,
throughout the history of cinema, about the sea and its agents.
Thursday
1 March 2018
7.30 — 9.00pm
INTERPRT is an interdisciplinary project on environmental justice
in Oceania at the intersection of spatial practice, international
law and artistic research. The Pacific ring—a geological force
field rising from the ocean floor—reorganises a fluid, geological
imaginary of the region as a global commons. At this mineral
frontier, environmental violence is spatially diffused and temporally
protracted, requiring new methods of detection and reconstruction.
This talk will present investigations on environmental crimes and
new forums for ecocide law.
Friday
2 March 2018
7.30 — 9.00pm
— Filipa Ramos, The Current Fellow 2016
Friday
9 February 2018
7.30 — 9.00pm
Filipa Ramos (Portugal/
United Kingdom)
Please refer to page 24
28
The Oceanic
Talk: INTERPRT : Spatial investigation of
environmental crimes by contributing artist
Nabil Ahmed
Exhibition (de)Tour with artist Robert Zhao Renhui
For the launch of Final Report of the Christmas Island Expert
Working Group in The Lab (page 34), Robert Zhao Renhui,
founder of The Institute of Critical Zoologists, discusses the scope
of his two-year long investigation as well as the research process
and methodological approach developed as he ventured into the
fractured ecosystem of Christmas Island. Merging scientific
observation and artistic speculation, Zhao frames the absurdity
of the real and weaves multiple narratives that address the uneasy
relationship between humans and the natural environment.
Exhibition (de)Tour with artist James Jack
Exploring the ways in which artistic practices reflect on social and
ecological phenomena, James Jack will reference one of his projects,
Play with Nature, Played by Nature (2013), an exhibition and
series of conversations that looked at creative practices as a way to
reinvigorate our consciousness of cycles occurring in the aftermath
of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami off the Pacific coast of Tohoku,
Japan. Jack will also share his artistic research process of Sea Birth
(2017), a project that takes as a starting point the spirits in the sea
off the Okinawa coast for a re-imagination of the links between
fragments from a turbulent past.
James Jack (United States/
Singapore) is Assistant Professor
of Visual Art at Yale-NUS
College. He holds a PhD from
Tokyo University of the Arts,
and was a postdoctoral fellow at
Kyushu University in Fukuoka.
Directly relating to places and
ecology, he has developed
socially engaged works for
the Setouchi International Art
Festival; Honolulu Museum
of Art; Busan Biennale Sea
Art Festival; Institute of
Contemporary Art Singapore;
and the Echigo-Tsumari
Triennial. Solo exhibitions
include TMT Art Projects,
Fukuoka; TAMA Gallery,
New York; and the Portland
All programmes are free and take place at Block 43 Malan Road, Gillman Barracks.
For enquiries, please email ntuccaevents@ntu.edu.sg.
Art Center. Jack was Artistin-Residence at NTU CCA
Singapore in 2015. He formed
the collective World Dirt
Association, and has published
writings in various art catalogues
and magazines.
Programmes
Nabil Ahmed (Bangladesh/
United Kingdom)
Please refer to page 22
Robert Zhao Renhui (Singapore)
Please refer to page 35
29
�Education Programmes
For tertiary students
Friday
2 March 2018
10.00am — 5.00pm
For teachers
Workshop: Confronting Ecocide
by contributing artist Nabil Ahmed
Participants of the workshop are encouraged to attend the public
talk by Nabil Ahmed on Thursday, 1 March 2018. For details, please
refer to page 29.
Current international laws are inadequate to protect the oceans
and the planet. A law against ecocide and the principle of universal
jurisdiction are the missing factors that can address this problem.
Criminal accountability for environmental and climate-related
crimes also addresses wider issues of climate justice beyond
economic remedies. The workshop, convened by INTERPRT brings
together leading practitioners from the field to examine emerging
legal concepts and cases around ecocide, universal jurisdiction,
and nature as a legal subject in a Pacific region context.
Saturday 1
9 December 2017
10.00am — 1.00pm
——
Friday 2
12 January 2018
3.00 — 5.00pm
Workshop for Teachers and Educators
by educator and artist Kelly Reedy
Focusing on the artists and works included in the exhibition The
Oceanic, the workshop engages with artistic practices and prepares
educators for visits with their students by providing educational tools
as entry points to the exhibition, and assisting in identifying aspects
of the exhibition that might be relevant to their classes. It suggests
techniques for exploring both the visual arts and other areas of daily
encounters.
1 With the presence of contributing artist Newell Harry and
Markus Reymann, TBA21–Academy Director
2 With the presence of contributing artists Kristy H. A. Kang and
PerMagnus Lindborg
All workshops are free and require registration. To register or schedule an exhibition tour,
please email ntuccaeducation@ntu.edu.sg. Unless otherwise stated, the programmes take place in
The Seminar Room, Block 43 Malan Road, Gillman Barracks.
Nabil Ahmed (Bangladesh/
United Kingdom)
Please refer to page 22
30
The Oceanic
Kelly Reedy (United States/
Singapore) has worked in
Singapore for over 18 years as
an artist and educator. She holds
a BFA in Fine Art (University
of Wisconsin, 1985), MA in
Education (Hunter College,
1991), MA in Art Therapy
(LASALLE College of the Arts,
2017). She has exhibited her
artworks internationally in Paris,
Chicago, and Berlin, as well as
locally at Jendela Visual Arts
Programmes
Space, Esplanade, Singapore
Tyler Print Institute, and
Alliance Française. Reedy has
developed educational resources
for the National Gallery
Singapore and trained teachers
at the National Institute of
Education, specialising in visual
arts education in museums
and galleries.
Markus Reymann (Germany/
United Kingdom)
Please refer to page 26
Kristy H. A. Kang (United States/
Singapore)
Please refer to page 24
PerMagnus Lindborg (Sweden/
Singapore)
Please refer to page 24
Newell Harry (Australia)
Please refer to page 23
31
�For children and youth
Wednesday
24 January 2018
2.30 — 4.30pm
Workshop: Fish Tales and Fish Tails
by writer Filipa Ramos
The Oceanic
9 December 2017 – 4 March 2018
NTU CCA Singapore
Curator:
Professor Ute Meta Bauer
Developed for children aged 7 to 12
How do images lead to stories? And how do stories convey images?
In this workshop, we will explore the stories that pictures of oceanic
life and sites of environmental transformation tell, and the images
that stories summon. Together, participants will write and enact
one and many stories, thinking about how tales are told, inventing
new ways of combining memory with discovery and imagination,
and discussing the ways in which we share experiences, visions, and
emotions with others.
Curatorial Team:
Khim Ong
Ana Sophie Salazar
Outreach & Education:
Magdalena Magiera
Syaheedah Iskandar
Exhibition production:
Kiat Ng
Isrudy Shaik
Workshop: Nothing Remains the Same,
and All at Once
by artist Mary Bernadette Lee
Exhibition Design Consultant:
Associate Professor Laura Miotto, NTU ADM
Developed for participants aged 14 and above
External venue and The Seminar Room
Logistics:
Lotus Fine Arts
In this full-day workshop, participants will be introduced to the
process of art making from research and conceptualisation to
execution. The day will consist of a trip to the beach to collect
plastic waste and organic debris like shells washed ashore to create
artworks out of these found materials during the second part of the
workshop. Using The Oceanic as an entry point to raise awareness
on the dire health of our oceans and the islands most affected,
participants will learn how to engage with questions of climate
change, as well as its impacts.
Saturday
3 March 2018
10.30am — 5.00pm
Conservation:
Global Specialised Services
Art Handling:
Rhema Events & Arts Services
Exhibition Construction:
Design18
Technical Installation:
PAVE System
Design of Collaterals:
Currency
All workshops are free and require registration. To register or schedule an exhibition tour,
please email ntuccaeducation@ntu.edu.sg. Unless otherwise stated, the programmes take place in
The Seminar Room, Block 43 Malan Road, Gillman Barracks.
Filipa Ramos (Portugal/
United Kingdom)
Please refer to page 24
Mary Bernadette Lee (Singapore)
holds a BA in English Literature
and Communications & New
Media from NUS (2006),
32
The Oceanic
and a BFA (Hons) in Visual
Communication from NTU
ADM (2014). Her practice is a
phenomenological approach to
understanding the relationship
between exterior topography
of body, architecture and
place, and the interior tapestry
of psychological states. This
relational dialectics are
expressed through her paintings
that foreground the architecture
of her as a person and an artist.
Credits:
All artworks copyright and courtesy the
artists, unless otherwise stated.
Atif Akin, Tepoto Sud morph Moruroa, 2017
Originally commissioned by TBA21–Academy,
London. Exhibited version realised with further
support by NTU CCA Singapore.
Laura Anderson Barbata, Costumes from
performance Ocean Calling, 2017
Commissioned by TBA21–Academy for World
Ocean Day 2017. Collection of TBA21.
Newell Harry, (Untitled) Nimoa and Me: Kiriwina
Notes, 2015–16, and (Untitled) Anagrams and
Objects for RU & RU , 2015
Copyright and courtesy the artist and Roslyn
Oxley9 Gallery, Australia.
Armin Linke, OCEANS . Dialogues between ocean
floor and water column, 2017
The presented project was commissioned and
co-produced by TBA21–Academy. The installation
was realised in collaboration with the Edith-RussHaus for Media Art, GEOMAR – Helmholtz Centre
for Ocean Research Kiel, and MARUM – Center
for Marine Environmental Sciences, University
of Bremen. Part of the project “Year of Science
2016*17 – Seas and Oceans,” German Federal
Ministry of Education and Research.
Kula Ring objects: Mwali shell armband,
Trobriand Islands Kula canoe splashboard,
Trobriand Islands canoe splashboard, and
Omi tapa cloth (Milne Bay Province)
Collection of Newell Harry.
Coordinating Invigilator:
Divaagar
Acknowledgements:
For the loans of their commissions and
works from the collection, some of which were
presented in TBA21–Academy’s Tidalectics (2017)
at TBA21–Augarten, Vienna, we thank TBA21:
Francesca von Habsburg, Founding Chairwoman;
Markus Reymann, TBA21–Academy Director;
Stefanie Hessler, TBA21–Academy Curator;
and the team.
33
�The Current Convening #3 Tabu / Tapu
The 12 Fellows of The Current will be present, joined by
TBA21 Chairwoman and Founder Francesca von Habsburg,
TBA21–Academy team, and invited speakers and participants:
Dr Cynthia Chou (Singapore/United States)
A collaboration between TBA 21–Academy
and NTU CCA Singapore
25 – 27 January 2018
Part of Singapore Art Week 2018
Professor, Department of Anthropology, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences,
University of Iowa, United States
Taholo Kami (Tonga/Fiji)
Special Advisor, Pacific Partnerships and International Civil Society, COP23
Presidency Secretariat of the Fijian government
Dr Cresantia (Frances) Koya Vaka’uta (Fiji)
Convening #3 marks the culmination of of TBA21–Academy
The Current’s first cycle of expeditions. Convening #3 will
bring together The Current Fellows; collaborators from Fiji
and French Polynesia; thought leaders from diverse disciplines;
and local agencies and community groups. Through a
series of talanoa sessions, talks, lectures, workshops, and
performances, Convening #3 will share with a wider public
the research and collective body of knowledge from the
expeditions to the Pacific archipelagos of Papua New Guinea,
French Polynesia, and Fiji, and the diverse tabus encountered.
With a focus on the modalities of exchange, environmental
urgencies and responsibilities, and the ownership and rights
of nature, Convening #3 will provide a platform that invites
active and creative participation, and exploration on
how we can be agents of change and effect development
to international laws, policies, culture, and education.
Guest-of-Honour during reception on 26 January 2018:
Masagos Zulkifli, Minister for the Environment and Water
Resources of Singapore
Convening #1 The Kula Ring in Kingston, Jamaica (16 – 17 March 2016)
Convening #2 Tuamotus, Distant Islands in Kochi, Kerala, India (13 – 15 December 2016)
Convened by Professor Ute Meta Bauer, Markus Reymann, TBA21–Academy Director,
and Stefanie Hessler, TBA21–Academy Curator
Director, Oceanic Center for Arts, Culture and Pacific Studies & Pacific
Heritage Hub, UNESCO Faculty of Arts, Law and Education, The University
of the South Pacific, Fiji
Dr Hervé Raimana Lallemant-Moe (French Polynesia)
Law Department, University of French Polynesia, Tahiti
Dr Sandor Mulsow (Chile/Jamaica)
Director, Office of Environmental Management and Mineral Resources,
United Nations International Seabed Authority, Kingston, Jamaica
Maureen Penjueli (Papua New Guinea)
Coordinator PANG, Pacific Network on Globalisation
Thursday
25 January 2018
Friday
26 January 2018
Public lectures and presentations
Performance
by Tarek Atoui (Lebanon/France), musician, composer,
and sound artist
(coinciding with Gillman Barracks Art After Dark)
Saturday
27 January 2018
Public lectures and presentations
Communal Meal
conceived by Lucy Orta (United Kingdom/France), artist, and
Professor and Chair of Art and Environment, University of the Arts
London, United Kingdom
Generating conversations about the ocean as food resource and
food sustainability, the artist will engage local providers for the
production of the meal.
For updates on programmes and participants, please visit ntu.ccasingapore.org/events/convening-3/
The Oceanic
(talanoa – a term used throughout the Pacific to designate guided
roundtable discussions used to share information and facilitate
communal conversations)
guided by invited guest speakers from Fiji and The Current
expedition team to Fiji
Coordination for NTU CCA Singapore: Samantha Leong, Executive, Conference,
Workshops and Archive; and Magdalena Magiera, Curator, Outreach and Education
34
Workshops and talanoa sessions
the current convening #3
35
�Research Project in The Lab
The Institute of Critical Zoologists
Final Report of the Christmas Island Expert Working Group
3 March – 29 April 2018
Since the establishment of the first human settlements in
the late 19th century, the ecosystem of Christmas Island—
a small volcanic outcrop in the Indian Ocean which was
transferred from Singapore to Australia in 1958—underwent
dramatic changes. Along with human settlers, several nonindigenous species alighted on the island disrupting the
endemic biodiversity that had thrived undisturbed thanks to
geographical remoteness and almost nil human interference.
The accidental introduction of invasive species severely
impacted a fragile ecosystem, imperilling the island’s wildlife
and causing the extinction of a number of native species.
As a result, extreme biocontrol strategies are currently being
undertaken in an attempt to restore the island’s biodiversity.
In the past two years, The Institute of Critical Zoologists
has been researching the escalating chain of events brought
about by the human presence on Christmas Island gathering
a varied collection of research materials that merge factual
and fictional elements. By surveying the impact of human
beings on an endemic habitat, Final Report of the Christmas
Island Expert Working Group maps out lines of invasion and
retreat, it investigates dynamics of connectedness and isolation
triggering reflections on states of vulnerability and conditions
of survival in the age of globalisation.
Curated by Anna Lovecchio, Curator, Residencies
36
The Oceanic
Robert Zhao Renhui, Fig 105. A frigate bird using an abandoned pool in a deserted casino to drink
freshwater, 2013, photograph. Courtesy the artist.
Friday
2 March 2018
7.30 — 9.00pm
The Institute of Critical
Zoologists was founded by
multidisciplinary artist Robert
Zhao Renhui (Singapore).
Persistently twisting reality and
fiction, Zhao’s artistic practice
addresses the relationship
between humans and nature
challenging accepted parameters
of objectivity and scientific
modes of classifications. Over
the years, Zhao has appropriated
research project In the lab
Exhibition (de)Tour with artist Robert Zhao Renhui
For details, please refer to page 29.
codes and conventions of
documentary photography and
museum display to compose
compelling narratives that
problematise the notion of truth.
His work has been exhibited
in numerous international
exhibitions including: Jakarta
Biennale (2017); 7th Moscow
Biennale (2017); and 20th
Sydney Biennale (2016).
He received the National Arts
Council’s Young Artist Award
in 2010 and was a finalist for
the Hugo Boss Asia Art Award
for Emerging Asian Artists
2017. He is Artist-in-Residence
at NTU CCA Singapore until
March 2018.
37
�CLIMATES. HABITATS. ENVIRONMENTS.
This topical research cluster connects the Centre’s research & academic
programmes, exhibitions, and residencies during the upcoming years. Climate
change has become an urgent issue around the globe in its impact on urban
environments and other habitats. As weather patterns change causing droughts,
large storms, and severe flooding, humans and animals are forced to migrate on
a critical scale, requiring communication across disciplines and beyond national
borders. Reflecting its geo-political, cultural, and ecological conditions and
interrelations, the Centre intends to discuss these precarious realities through
art and culture, in dialogue with other fields of knowledge.
CLIMATES. HABITATS. ENVIRONMENTS. follows the overarching topic of
PLACE. LABOUR. CAPITAL. (2015–17), continuing to address the complexities
and the dynamics that entangle the local with the global and vice-versa.
NTU CCA Singapore Publications
The publishing activity emphasises the holistic approach of the Centre by
expanding the connections across the various departments to capture and deepen
the knowledge on contemporary art linked to the Centre’s ongoing research projects.
The mobility and lasting nature of publications allow the Centre to disseminate its
contributions to discourse beyond its physical parameters.
Theatrical Fields: Critical Strategies in Performance, Film, and Video
(with König Books, and Bildmuseet Umeå, 2016)
Tomás Saraceno: Arachnid Orchestra. Jam Sessions (2017)
Becoming Palm, Simryn Gill and Michael Taussig
(with Sternberg Press, 2017)
SouthEastAsia: Spaces of the Curatorial. Jahresring 63
(with Sternberg Press, 2017)
Place.Labour.Capital. (to be released in January 2018)
38
The Oceanic
NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore
Located in Gillman Barracks, the NTU CCA Singapore is a national research centre
of Nanyang Technological University, supported by a grant from the Economic
Development Board. The Centre is unique in its threefold constellation of research
& academic programmes, international exhibitions and residencies, positioning
itself as a space for critical discourse and diverse forms of knowledge production.
The Centre focuses on Spaces of the Curatorial in Singapore, Southeast Asia, and
beyond, as well as engages in multi-layered research topics.
Since its inauguration in October 2013, the NTU CCA Singapore has developed
into an influential platform encompassing research-based artistic practices of
international scope, curatorial education, and public programmes to delve into
the complexities of the contemporary art field.
Artists’ Limited Edition Everyday Items
NTU CCA Singapore launched a line of artist editions designed by the Centre’s
Artists-in-Residence. Ranging from scarves, beach towels, and tote bags to
umbrellas, raincoats, and notebooks, these numbered editions are sometimes
witty, always thoughtful, and beautiful to behold. Proceeds from sales go towards
the sustainability of the Centre’s residencies programme. Items by: Hamra Abbas
(Kuwait), Julian ‘Togar’ Abraham (Indonesia), Yason Banal (Philippines), Heman
Chong (Singapore), Duto Hardono (Indonesia), Alex Mawimbi (Kenya/Netherlands),
Alex Murray-Leslie (Australia/Spain), Arjuna Neuman (United States), UuDam
Nguyen (Vietnam), Ana Pravčki (Serbia/United States), anGie seah (Singapore),
SHIMURAbros (Japan), Tamara Weber (United States), Jason Wee (Singapore).
For more information, please email ntuccaevents@ntu.edu.sg
Giving to NTU CCA Singapore
Your contribution regardless of amount will go a long way in supporting us to
maintain a significant role within the art ecosystem of Singapore and the region.
Taxpayers to Singapore enjoy a 250% tax deduction in 2017. For more information
on how to donate to NTU CCA Singapore, visit ntu.ccasingapore.org/support.
39
�NTU CCA Singapore Staff
Professor Ute Meta Bauer, Founding Director, NTU CCA Singapore,
and Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Exhibitions & Residencies
Khim Ong, Deputy Director, Curatorial Programmes
Dr Anna Lovecchio, Curator, Residencies
Magdalena Magiera, Curator, Outreach & Education
Ana Sophie Salazar, Assistant Curator, Exhibitions
Syaheedah Iskandar, Curatorial Assistant, Outreach & Education
Lynda Tay, Curatorial Assistant, Residencies
Ng Soon Kiat, Assistant Manager, Production
Isrudy Shaik, Executive, Production
Chua Yong Kee, Young Professional Trainee, Production
Jamie Koh, Young Professional Trainee, Exhibitions
Joey Sim, Young Professional Trainee, Residencies
Prunella Ong, Young Professional Trainee, Outreach & Education
Research & Education
Sophie Goltz, Deputy Director, Research & Academic Programmes,
and Assistant Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Cheong Kah Kit, Manager, Research
Anca Rujoiu, Manager, Publications
Samantha Leong, Executive, Conference, Workshops & Archive
Ho Mun Yee, Young Professional Trainee, Research
Operations & Strategic Development
Philip Francis, Deputy Director, Operations & Strategic Development
Jasmaine Cheong, Assistant Director, Operations & HR
Shirley Low, Head, Development
Yao Jing Wei, Manager, Finance
Sylvia Tsai, Manager, Communications
Angie Ang, Interim Special Projects Assistant
Lee Yan Yun, Executive, Administration & Finance
Louis Tan, Executive, Operations
Samuel Lee, Young Professional Trainee, Communications
40
The Oceanic
NTU CCA Singapore Governing Council
Co-Chairs
Professor Alan Chan Kam-Leung, Dean, College of Humanities,
Arts and Social Sciences, NTU
Paul Tan, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, National Arts Council (NAC)
Professor Kwok Kian Woon, Associate Provost (Student Life),
President’s Office, NTU
Mike Samson, Managing Director/ Regional Head ASEAN,
Leveraged and Structured Solutions, Standard Chartered Bank
Professor Dorrit Vibeke Sorensen, Chair, School of Art, Design and Media, NTU
Michael Tay, Group Managing Director, The Hour Glass Limited
Low Eng Teong, Assistant Chief Executive, Sector Development, NAC
Ng Wen Xu, Director, Lifestyle, Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB)
NTU CCA Singapore International Advisory Board
Chair
Professor Nikos Papastergiadis, Director, Research Unit in Public Cultures, and
Professor, School of Culture and Communication,
The University of Melbourne, Australia
Ann DeMeester, Director, Frans Hals Museum, The Netherlands
Chris Dercon, Director, Volksbühne, Berlin, Germany
Hou Hanru, Artistic Director, MAXXI National Museum of 21st-Century Arts,
Rome, Italy
Professor Yuko Hasegawa, Artistic Director, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
(MOT), and Professor, Department of Arts Studies & Curatorial Practice, Graduate
School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan
Professor Sarat Maharaj, Head Supervisor of Doctoral Candidates and Professor of
Visual Art and Knowledge Systems, Malmö Art Academy, Lund University, Sweden
Philip Tinari, Director, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing, China
Dr John Tirman, Executive Director and Principal Research Scientist, Center for
International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge,
United States
41
�Index of Works
E
PerMagnus Lindborg
A. Tuamotus Triptych, 2017
Sound piece, 12 min
Tue Greenfort
B. Tamoya Ohboya, 2017
Installation with aquarium, live jellyfish, and video
projection, dimensions variable, 5 min 13 sec
H
3
Newell Harry
H. (Untitled) Anagrams and Objects for
RU & RU, 2015
7 tapas, ink on Tongan Ngatu,
each approximately 300 × 100 cm
I. (Untitled) Nimoa and Me: Kiriwina Notes,
2015–16
20 black-and-white photographs on lustre paper,
each 17.5 × 26 cm / 65 × 45 cm (framed);
includes 8 hand-typed notebook transcriptions
D
F
2
G
j
I
1
5
C
4
K
Armin Linke
C. OCEANS . Dialogues between ocean floor and
water column, 2017
Four-channel video installation, colour, sound,
dimensions variable, 40 min
Nabil Ahmed and INTERPRT
D. Unfolded Pacific Ring, 2016–ongoing
Diagram printed on acrylic, 150 × 400 cm
Developed by INTERPRT (with Olga Lucko)
Lisa Rave
E. Europium, 2014
HD video, 18 min 40 sec
Written in collaboration with Erik Blinderman
Narrated by Hanne Lippard
Laura Anderson Barbata
F. “Queen” costume from performance
Ocean Calling, 2017
Costume consisting of 9 pieces including crown,
collar, shell top, skirt, tank top, and jewelleries,
238 × 172 × 96 cm
G. “Bird Fish Prince” costume from performance
Ocean Calling, 2017
Costume consisting of 7 pieces including crown,
mixed fibre coat, pants with sequins, shaggy skirt,
decorated t-shirt, two shaggy wing extensions,
271 × 68 × 55 cm
Ocean Calling was realised in collaboration
with Chris Walker, The Brooklyn Jumbies,
Mei Yamanaka, and Sinuhé Padilla Jarana
Beat musicians.
42
The Oceanic
The Single Screen
Kula Ring objects
C
K
j. Mwali shell armband
Date and maker unknown,
approximately 31 × 18 × 13 cm
K
j. Trobriand Islands Kula canoe splashboard
Date and maker unknown, possibly Kitava, wood
carving and enamel, 76 × 68 × 4.5 cm
C
The Lab
The Oceanic Resource Room
j. Trobriand Islands canoe splashboard
Date and maker unknown, wood carving and
paint, 51.5 × 49 × 3.5 cm
M
C
j. Omi tapa cloth (Milne Bay Province)
Date and maker unknown, tapa and vegetable
dyes, approximately 121 × 67 cm
Atif Akin
B
L
6
K. Tepoto Sud morph Moruroa, 2017
Installation with poster, video, and animation,
98 × 68cm (poster), 2 min 40 sec (loop)
A
Headphones
checkout
Jegan Vincent de Paul
L. One Belt, One Road, One World:
A New Silk Road Project, 2017
Set of 12 posters, each A3
main entrance
L. The Belt and Road and Beyond/ Critical
Perspectives of Extractive Industries, 2017
3 volumes of compiled documents and texts,
each 22 × 30.5 cm
L. Working Map of Projects by Chinese Firms
in Papua New Guinea, 2017
Map, A1
1–6 Interviews
Please refer to page 21
M. With additional contributions by
Guigone Camus, Kristy H. A. Kang,
Armin Linke, and Lisa Rave
43
�NTU CCA Singapore
Visitor Information
Exhibition Hours
Tuesday – Sunday,
12.00 – 7.00pm
Friday, 12.00 – 9.00pm
Closed on Mondays
Open on Public Holidays
Public Programmes
Wednesday and Friday evenings
Free admission to
all programmes
ntu.ccasingapore.org
facebook.com/ntu.ccasingapore
Instagram: @ntu_ccasingapore
Twitter: @ntuccasingapore
Exhibitions
Block 43 Malan Road,
Gillman Barracks,
Singapore 109443
+65 6339 6503
Residencies Studios
Blocks 37 and 38, Malan Road
Singapore 109452 and 109441
Research Centre and Office
Block 6 Lock Road, #01-09/10,
Singapore 108934
+65 6460 0300
Email: ntuccaevents@ntu.edu.sg
DE
Residencies Studios
BLK 37 & 38
ad
AD
Ro
RO
ck
T
Lo
PO
Malan Road
Exhibitions
BLK 43
Ro
an
M
al
Singapore Teachers’
Academy for the Arts
Entrance
to Gillman
Barracks
Pedestrian walkway
ad
Office & Research
Centre, BLK 6
Bus Stop
Alexandra Road
Bus Stop
Labrador Park MRT
(Circle Line)
© NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. Printed in December 2017 by First Printers.
A voyage into the geopolitical and biophysical of the pacific
45
�46
The Oceanic
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Resources
Exhibition Resource
Collateral and other print or digital materials pertaining to exhibitions held at the Centre. Examples include exhibition guides, banners, postcards, digital tour videos, etc.
Short Description
The Oceanic Exhibition Guides
Theme
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
None
Place.Labour.Capital.
Climates. Habitats. Environments.
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
<i>The Oceanic</i> Exhibition Guides
Description
An account of the resource
<i>The Oceanic</i> Exhibition Guides
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2017-12-09
Contributor
An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource
Laura Anderson Barbata
Tue Greenfort
Newell Harry
Jegan Vincent de Paul
Nabil Ahmed
Atif Akin
PerMagnus Lindborg
Filipa Ramos
Guigone Camus
Lisa Rave
Kristy H. A. Kang
Armin Linke
Ute Meta Bauer
Markus Reymann
Stefanie Hessler
Format
The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource
Guide
Coverage
The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant
Asia
Oceania