KADIST is hosting a monthly series of ‘catch-up’ sessions, with short saucy presentations by artists around the world—artists that we’ve been following but haven’t visited in a while. Each session is hosted by a different international curator, served up via Zoom and streamed via YouTube. We’ll sit down with 20 artists over the course of the year, celebrating KADIST’s 20th anniversary.
The event will be live-streamed on YouTube. Free to attend, RSVP for Zoom link. Real-time captioning provided.
Our third Ketchup Session features Pratchaya Phinthong and Tuan Andrew Nguyen, two artists brought together by curator Zoe Butt to discuss a shared interest in the malleability of history, politics of display, and collaboration. Brief presentations about current work and ideas is followed by an informal dialogue moderated by Butt.
Pratchaya Phinthong (Thailand, 1974) is an alchemist of economic value and social functions. Phintong’s works often arise from the confrontation between different social, economic or geographical systems. They are the result of a dialogue, and bring all their poetic forces from an almost invisible artistic gesture. Recent solo exhibitions include Extended Release, Art Center University, Wang Thapra, Bangkok (2021); This page is intentionally left blank, Bangkok Citycity Gallery, Bangkok (2019); Pratchaya Phinthong, gb agency, Paris (2018, 2015, 2012, 2009, 2007); Who will guard the guards themselves?, Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok; A proposal to set CH4 5.75H20 on fire, Kiosk, Ghent; A piece that nobody needs, Lothringer13_halle, Münich; and Broken Hill, Chisenhale Gallery, London (2013).
Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s practice explores strategies of political resistance enacted through counter-memory and post-memory. Extracting and re-working narratives via history and supernaturalisms is an essential part of Nguyen’s video works and sculptures where fact and fiction are both held accountable. Nguyen has received several awards in both film and visual arts, including an Art Matters grant in 2010 and best feature film at VietFilmFest in 2018 for his film, The Island. His work has been included in several international exhibitions including the Asia Pacific Triennial 2006, the Whitney Biennial 2017, and the Sharjah Biennial 2019. Nguyen founded The Propeller Group in 2006, a platform for collectivity that situates itself between an art collective and an advertising company. Accolades for the group include the grand prize at the 2015 Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur for the film The Living Need Light, The Dead Need Music and a Creative Capital award for their video project Television Commercial for Communism.
Zoe Butt is a curator and writer who lives in Vietnam. Her curatorial practice centres on building critically thinking and historically conscious artistic communities, fostering dialogue among cultures of the globalizing souths. Currently Artistic Director of the Factory Contemporary Arts Centre, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s first purpose-built space for contemporary art, Zoe formerly served as Executive Director and Curator, Sàn Art, Ho Chi Minh City (2009–2016); Director, International Programs, Long March Project, Beijing (2007–2009); and Assistant Curator, Contemporary Asian Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane (2001–2007) – this latter post particularly focused on the development of its Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. Her work has been published by Hatje Cantz; ArtReview; Independent Curators International; ArtAsiaPacific; Printed Project; Lalit Kala Akademi; JRP-Ringier; Routledge; and Sternberg Press, among others. Recent exhibitions include Sharjah Biennial 14: Leaving the Echo Chamber – Journey Beyond the Arrow, (2019); Interface: Oanh Phi Phi (2019); Empty Forest: Tuan Andrew Nguyen (2018); Spirit of Friendship (2017) and Poetic Amnesia: Phan Thao Nguyen (2017).