The ASEAN-KOREA Partnership Project for Innovative Culture (PIC) presents “Perseverance: Art Crossing Borders”, which consists of two exhibitions at the KOFICE booth at Art Jakarta and the Art:1 New Museum. Both of the exhibitions offer a transnational perspective on contemporary art practices – not only of the making and viewership of art but also its cultures of collecting – from the 10 member countries of ASEAN as well as Korea.
The presentation at the PIC booth at Art Jakarta seeks to understand not only the intentions and drives that underlie the making of art as well its viewership, but also the dynamics of art collecting, and the significant roles commercial galleries and locally-run art fairs have in the making of an art world. For if the arts is indeed a “world”, it is composed out of a multitude of intersecting parts, and the commercial sector is undoubtedly one that makes such a world critically more complex, where borders – from the symbolic to the factual – are perpetually crossed.
The main intention behind this booth is to present a cross-regional and cross-national partnership not only in the exhibiting of art but also in its commercial activities. This builds on existing discussions on the replacement of the center-periphery model that used to be dominant in the art market, as it is overturned by a counter-flow that moves, instead, in multiple directions.
The works by the artists represented in this occasion by the participating galleries show that the art market is now more global than ever, facilitated by Art Jakarta as an art fair. The fact that this presentation takes place within an art fair also presents an opportunity to reflect on therole of art fairs today, beyond the making of a heavily-marketed spectacle that it is so often – perhaps somewhat uncritically – associated with.
We hope you enjoy the show.
Mitha Budhyarto and Bob Edrian.
Exhibition Curators.
(Curatorial text for 2023 ASEAN-KOREA Innovative Culture Exhibition, PERSEVERANCE: Art Crossing Borders, 17–19 November 2023, Art Jakarta, JI Expo Kemayoran, North Jakarta, DKI Jakarta, Indonesia)