Asia Forum for Contemporary Art

The Asia Forum for Contemporary Art launches in Venice during the opening week of the 59th Venice Biennale on April 23, 2022 and the inaugural one-day programme at the historic Fondazione Querini Stampalia. Proudly supported by the Bagri Foundation, the Forum is envisioned as a new itinerant platform for experimental art practices and research generative of new worlds beyond the North Atlantic.

Through a series of incisive and engaging discussions, artists’ presentations, interactive sessions and screenings, the Asia Forum departs from the central exhibition, national pavilions, and collateral events that present the arts of “Asias”. Artists, curators, and thinkers will be invited to respond to pressing current events and engage in discussions addressing questions such as: “What is the role of art in reshaping public cultures, when both problems and solutions have become globally entangled? How do adopting “Asias-centered” perspectives help re-imagine futures beyond current thought paradigms? How do artistic practices reshape our understanding of the collective building and sharing of knowledge?”.

Full programme of the day:

• 9:30am Registration
• 10am Welcome
• 10:15am “Tracing Asia Art Histories: Modernism as Crime Scene”: a roundtable with Hoor Al Qasimi, Patrick Flores, Annie Jael Kwan, Hammad Nasar, John Tain, Ming Tiampo
• 11:30am Presentation by Ho Rui An
• 12:30pm Lunchtime screening programme
• 2pm Abbas Zahedi X Querini Stampalia—presentation by Abbas Zahedi
• 3pm Paradise Camp presentation by Yuki Kihara (New Zealand Pavilion 2022)
• 4pm Carrier Bag Meditations presentation by Sin Wai Kin
• 4:30pm Curatorial Directions with Sheelasha Rajbhandari and Hit Man Gunung (“Tales of Muted Spirits—Dispersed Threads—Twisted Shangri-La” Nepal Pavilion 2022)
• 5:30pm Collective Futures—Reza Afisina (ruangrupa) & Saodat Ismailova
• 6:30pm END