Co-curated by Nikita Yingqian Cai and Mia Yu, the long-term project “Three Contested Sites—The Worldly Fables of the long 1990s” will be first exhibited in Times Art Center Berlin from September to December, 2022. In order to fulfill the research needs, we are pleased to announce the open call for one exhibition history researcher from Thailand, Berlin, London, Hong Kong and Mainland China respectively to form a research group.
Zooming in on three exhibitions and their transnational itinerates that map the discrepant connections across stories, artworks, cities, and thoughts, the long-term project “Three Contested Sites—The Worldly Fables of the Long 1990s” attempts to unpack the long 1990s in view of post-Cold War Europe-Asia reverberances. The exhibitions include China Avant-garde at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin that marked the watershed year of 1993 together with a succession of “offshore” exhibitions focused exclusively on contemporary art from inside mainland China; Die Hälfte des Himmels (Half the Sky) at the Frauenmuseum Bonn in 1998 as the institution’s rebuttal to a protest against the lockout of Chinese women artists in the China! exhibit at the Kunstmuseum Bonn in 1996; Cities On the Move, the emblematic exhibitions that toured a variety of locations in Europe, the U.S. and Asia (Vienna, Bordeaux, New York, Humlebaek, London, Bangkok) and documented the accelerated changes and urban flux occurring in global Asian cities. More than key events in Chinese contemporary art history, these exhibitions are also transnational sites of contacts, conflicts, and productive contestations, where the joint forces of social processes, art projects, cultural agents, institutional positionalities, and urban spaces have intersected to create worldly fables about the canonization of Chinese contemporary art, the global rise of the Asian art market, the dualistic fixation of East-West ideologies, and the emergent millennial coordinates of gender, ethnicity, and urban identity.
In September 2022 at the Times Art Center Berlin, we will stage an archival revisit of these three exhibitions contextualized by artistic responses and reflections from the present moment. A multitude of institutions as well as a variety of engaged individuals, will be our partners and interlocutors, and an intergenerational mix of thinkers and researchers will be invited to interrogate the impactful cultural resonances of the long 1990s with fresh eyes.
Expected researchers:
–Have a deep understanding of the history of contemporary art in China and Asia, and have a command of methods for further research;
–Be able to explore and integrate local research resources;
–Be able to build structural links between the exhibition, transnational networks, and the wider historical context;
–Be adaptable to team research and willing to communicate and share resources with teammates;
–There is no restriction on the applicant’s nationality, but applicants should be able to read both Chinese and English materials and write academic essays accordingly.
Project “Three Contested Sites” provides:
–Professional guidance and subject workshops by the Academic Committee of Guangdong Times Museum and top international research and publishing agencies of exhibition histories
–15000 RMB (about 2300 USD) for the full project duration payable in two installments;
–Presentation of the research progress on TM and TACB platforms;
–Publication of the research results, and additional contribution fee will be paid;
–Assistance to academic and resource development.
Important dates:
Application Deadline: February 22, 2022
Interview: February 22–27, 2022
Notification: February 28, 2022
Project duration: 6 months
Exhibition: September 2022
Publication: To be confirmed according to the project development
Applications must include:
–Cover letter (please detail the reasons for your interest in the position, how you would be able to contribute to “Three Contested Sites” based on your previous work and/or interests, and how the presidency would benefit your own practice and development)
–1-2 publications or previous essays
–CV
Please submit your application to exhibition [at] timesmuseum.org. Before submitting your application, please visit Times Museum’s website for details of Scope of work, responsibilities, and submission of research results.
