THE HUMAN FACTOR
Rethinking Relationality (or the artist as bricoleur)
Published by: cura.books
Produced by: qwatz, artist in residence program – Rome
Editor: Beatrice Leanza
Essays and words by:
Beatrice Leanza (curator The Human Factor), Mami KATAOKA (chief curator Mori Art Museum, Tokyo), Pauline J.YAO (curator M+ museum, Hong Kong), June YAP (curator Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative – South and Southeast Asia), Mike SPERLINGER (assistant director LUX, London), Chris MANN (composer and performer), and the artists.
An Introduction by Benedetta Di Loreto (director qwatz, artist in residence program – Rome)
Part of the project The Human Factor organized by qwatz, artist in residence program – Rome and curated by Beatrice Leanza, the publication features Koki Tanaka, Charles Lim, Hong-Kai Wang and Liang Shuo, the four artists who were part of an exhibition of the same title held at Museo Pietro Canonica in Villa Borghese (May 23 – June 3), presenting a selection of both existing and newly created works as a result of a two-months research period at qwatz in April and May 2012.
The book collects the critical reflections of artists, leading writers and curators invited to expound upon this cross-section of Asian contemporary art practices, as proponents of discerning perspectives around the meaning and criticality of ‘rethinking relationality’ in order to reinforce transregional narratives within global cultural practice and discourse.
Arranged in four focused chapters (1.Situational Objects – 2.Beautiful Evidence – 3.Musical Memory – 4.Neutral Spaces) the commissioned contributions – presented in form of essay, interview or deferred dialogical experiment – incubate deepening social and philosophical interpretations departing from each artists’ practice by rendering a transformational architecture of experiential knowledge that identifies itself with change and situated relations: through the sonic space of speaking and listening (Hong-kai Wang), in the sensorial and affective relationship with things and people (Koki Tanaka), in the social and aesthetic process of inhabiting (Liang Shuo), in the construction of narrative dispositives mapping real and imaginary territories (Charles Lim).
‘Relationality’ is addressed here as a crucible for the articulation of theoretical thinking that can eventually interrogate normative paradigms of visual and material production engrained in the Western modern project and its contemporary accounts. Taking an interest in a history of associations of ‘relation’ within transcultural positions that advocate divergent models of sociability, materiality, concepts of interdependence and spatiality, this publication looks at the work of writer and poet Edouard Glissant as a guiding intellectual inspiration for an exploration of the entanglements of contemporaneity and globalism stemming from other-than-western historical and aesthetic traditions.
Language: English
Dimension (Width x Height): 140×200
Color: blue and CMYB
Pages: 80
Graphic Design: Andrea Baccin
Editor: Beatrice Leanza
Year: 2012
Produced by qwatz artist in residence program Rome
ISBN: 978-88-97889-10-6
The project THE HUMAN FACTOR is made possible by the generous contribution of various supporters and sponsors:
Ines Musumeci Greco; Agi Verona; Japan Foundation; Cultural Affair Department, New Taipei City Government; FARE in collaboration with Open Care and with the support of Fondazione Cariplo, NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, GAI – Associazione Circuito Giovani Artisti Italiani; O’A.I.R.; ArchiviAzioni; ROMA CAPITALE, Museo Pietro Canonica in Villa Borghese – musei in Comune, in collaboration with Acea, BNL, Unicredit, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Acqua Claudia, Finmeccanica, Lotto, Vodafone, with the support of Atac, la Repubblica.