[Press release]
15 Invitations for 15 Years
A special programme series featuring exhibitions, projects, written works, performances, a blog, and publication marking Asia Art Archive’s 15-year anniversary.
Between 1967 and 2009, Hong Kong-based artist Ha Bik Chuen collaborated with the Beirut-based artist Suha Traboulsi on a number of projects. Most of these remained out of view until 2010, after Ha’s death, when his archives were unpacked and studied.
The two met in 1962 when Traboulsi travelled to Hong Kong to research Chinese calligraphic practices. They struck an immediate friendship that soon turned into an artistic collaboration from afar: Ha in Hong Kong and Traboulsi in Beirut.
For Section 39_Index XXXVII: Traboulsi at the AAA Library, works from two collaborative series are on display: ‘Editor’s Introduction’ (1972–1980) and ‘Notes’ (1983–2009).’Editor’s Introduction’ consists of several ‘sculptural spaces’ built by Traboulsi and inspired by Ha’s ephemera-laden collage books. ‘Notes’ consists of Traboulsi’s reproductions of canonical modern paintings by Arab artists: Inji Efflatoun, Abdel Hadi el-Gazzar, Hamed Nada, Ibrahim el-Salahi, Marwan, Seta Manoukian, among others. The Traboulsi reproductions were scattered among several of Ha’s collaged notebooks. Traboulsi never revealed where her productions were strewn, and it has taken several years of painstaking archival research to reassemble some of her paintings shown here.
– Walid Raad
Image: Walid Raad, Section 39_Index XXXVII: Traboulsi (Editor’s Introduction I), 2016. Courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery.
Section 39_Index XXXVII: Traboulsi stems from Walid Raad‘s interest and research into AAA’s Ha Bik Chuen Archive. During his 2014 residency at AAA, Raad was introduced to the work of Ha Bik Chuen. Raad immediately realised Ha’s affinity to one of his fictional collaborators, Suha Traboulsi.
Theme-based tours on the project in relation to AAA’s work and collections will be held in August and September by AAA team members.
Staging and Performing the Archive
Date: 13 Aug 2016
Time: 11am–12pm (English); 2–3pm (Chinese)
Language: English and Chinese
Description: AAA Researcher Michelle Wong explores the concept of documents as neither art nor record, but the private performative space of an art practice through AAA’s Ha Bik Chuen Archive.
Art in the Age of Surpassing Disasters
Date: 20 Aug 2016
Time: 11am–12pm
Language: English
Description: AAA Head of Research and Programmes Hammad Nasar discusses Raad’s project in relation to Lebanese artist and thinker Jalal Toufic‘s concept of ‘withdrawal of tradition past a surpassing disaster’.
The Artist as Author
Date: 3 Sep 2016
Time: 11am–12pm
Language: English
Description: AAA Public Programmes Curator Ingrid Chu expands on the idea of the ‘artist as author’ in creating alternative readings of their work and how this resonates through AAA’s growing collection of artist books.
Walid Raad
Walid Raad is an artist and Professor of Art at the Cooper Union, New York. Raad’s works include The Atlas Group, a fifteen-year project between 1989 and 2004 about the contemporary history of Lebanon, and ongoing projects Scratching on Things I Could Disavow and Sweet Talk: Commissions (Beirut). His books include The Truth Will Be Known When The Last Witness Is Dead; My Neck is Thinner than a Hair; Let’s Be Honest, the Weather Helped; and Scratching on Things I Could Disavow.
Raad’s works have been shown at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Louvre, Paris; Documenta 11 and 13, Kassel; Kunsthalle Zurich; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; the Venice Biennale; the Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Homeworks, Beirut; and other museums and venues throughout Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. Raad is the recipient of the ICP Infiniti Award (2016); Hasselblad Award (2011); Guggenheim Fellowship (2009); Alpert Award in Visual Arts (2007); Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (2007); and Camera Austria Award (2005).
Ha Bik Chuen Archive
The Ha Bik Chuen Archive presents one window into Hong Kong’s art history: through exhibition history, circulation of artistic practices and reading materials, and international exchange. Primarily known as a sculptor and printmaker, artist Ha Bik Chuen (1925–2009) had parallel practices of photographing exhibitions he attended, and collecting materials including illustrated magazines and artist portraits, in part for the construction of book collages. Ha’s entire collection has been stored in his Hong Kong studio since his passing.
Asia Art Archive began an initial pilot project to map, assess, and selectively digitise Ha’s archive by invitation of the Ha family in 2013. Made available to a wider audience for the first time, the archive consists of a continuously growing selection of Ha’s collage books, exhibition documentation, and exhibition catalogues.
The Pilot Project (2014–16) is supported by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. The Archive Project (2016–19) is funded by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.
The Archive is accessible on the AAA website: http://goo.gl/2TblEF
Asia Art Archive
Asia Art Archive (AAA) is an independent non-profit organisation initiated in 2000 in response to the urgent need to document and make accessible the multiple recent histories of art in the region. With one of the most valuable collections of material on art freely available from its website and onsite library in Hong Kong, AAA builds tools and communities to collectively expand knowledge through research, residency, and educational programmes. www.aaa.org.hk
Image: Installation view of ‘Walid Raad: Section 39_Index XXXVII: Traboulsi’ at Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong, 21 Jun–3 Sep, 2016. Photo: Kitmin Lee 2016.
Image: Installation view of ‘Walid Raad: Section 39_Index XXXVII: Traboulsi’ at Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong, 21 Jun–3 Sep, 2016. Photo: Kitmin Lee 2016.
Image: Walid Raad, Section 39_Index XXXVII: Traboulsi (Editor’s Introduction III), 2016. Courtesy of the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery. Photo: Kitmin Lee 2016.