Concept Context Contestation: Art and the Collective in Southeast
Dates: August 21 – September 21, 2016
Venues: Cemeti Art House, Ruang MES 56, and Kedai Kebun, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Concept Context Contestation: Art and the Collective in Southeast Asia is an exhibition organised by Bangkok Art and Culture centre in collaboration with three Southeast Asian curators, Iola Lenzi, Agung Hujanitkajennong, and Vipash Purichanont on the theme of conceptual approaches in Southeast Asian art with social and critical content. Initially installed at BACC Bangkok in 2013, the exhibition is now touring. Starting in 2015 at Goethe Institut, Hanoi, CCC will open in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, at Cemeti Art House, Ruang MES 56, and Kedai Kebun on August 20th 2016.

In conjunction with the show’s opening, a public educational forum, the Kedai Kebun CCC Forum, will be held at Kedai Kebun on 21 and 22 August. Conceptualised by Iola Lenzi and Paul Khoo, the forum aims to build on the main exhibition premise, the idea that Southeast Asian art of the late twentieth century has developed conceptual approaches sourced in local conditions among others. This assumption, unpicked in various ways via forum topics, in the context of the Yogyakarta exhibition site, is being scrutinized particularly through an Indonesian lens. The overarching concern of the forum is Southeast Asian art, so early Indonesian contemporary art, namely that of the New Art Movement (GSRB), is being connected to regional practices beyond Indonesia, as well as beyond GSRB’s 1970s inception period.

Iola Lenzi is a lecturer in the MA Asian Art Histories Programme. Paul Khoo is an alumni of the MA Asian Art Histories Programme.