15 Invitations: a short history of the art book bag (and the things that go in them)

Asia Art Archive marks its 15th year by extending 15 Invitations to creative practitioners to look within and beyond the organisation as an archive, a collection of material, a digital platform, and a node in a wider collective network. The 15 Invitations will take various sizes, forms, and directions—literary, polemic, political, sonic, physical, and digital—and function as a series of ‘drop pins’ to alternatively navigate where AAA originated and where it may be going. AAA’s e-journal Field Notes will trace the 15 participants as they contribute notes and entries to document the process, resulting in a final print publication.

AAA Public Programmes Curator Ingrid Chu explores the international phenomenon of the ‘art book bag’ in a short history of the art book bag (and the things that go in them). Using the last 15 years since AAA began as a guide, the exhibition features ‘the things that go in them’—art publications, magazines, and related ephemera—alongside a vast array of these popular totes in the AAA Library.

Contributors include Dan Graham, Jonathan Monk, and Yoko Ono for Art Metropole, Toronto, C&G for Asia Art Archive and Silas Fong, Hong Kong, Rirkrit Tiravanija for DIS and Liz Magic Laser, New York, East of Borneo, Los Angeles, Haegue Yang and Lawrence Weiner for Latitudes, Barcelona, and Takashi Murakami for Louis Vuitton among many others.

Chu also invites such artists, curators, art book fair organisers, and print and online publishers as Stacey Allan, Executive Editor, East of Borneo, Savannah Gorton, Curator, Friends with Books and Co-Director & Curator, Forever & Today, Inc., David Senior, Bibliographer, The Museum of Modern Art, and Christina Li, Director, Spring Workshop to provide insight into the changing modes of knowledge production and circulation, and their influence on the recent art of Asia through Field Notes.

Other 15 Invitations participants include Zoe Butt, Inti Guerrero, Hu Fang and Zhang Wei, Marysia Lewandowska, Walid Raad, Rashid Rana, Samson Young, as well as AAA team members and others.