A festival of visual culture that features a series of exhibitions, commissions and interventions by international and UK artists exploring the theme of Time and Generation, presenting new site-specific work alongside work not seen before in the UK, and challenging stereotypical viewpoints of contemporary Asian artistic practice. The vision for ATM11 looks at one of the most important stories of our time: the migration of peoples from one place to other parts of the world.
The UK's only Asian Art Triennial opens 1 October – 27 November 2011 in
Manchester, with a vibrant and exciting showcase of current contemporary visual art from
Asia. Asia Triennial Manchester 11 is a festival of visual culture that features a series of
exhibitions, commissions and interventions by international and UK artists exploring the
theme of Time and Generation, presenting new site-specific work alongside work not seen
before in the UK, and challenging stereotypical viewpoints of contemporary Asian artistic
practice.
The artistic vision for ATM11 looks at one of the most important stories of our time: the
migration of peoples from one place to other parts of the world. This continuous
movement of people has radically changed our demographics, giving rise to new politics of
identity focused on place, territory, belonging, global economic changes and community.
Lahore-based artist Rashid Rana was previously commissioned in 2007 for a trailblazer at
the first Asia Triennial Manchester. Widely recognised as one of the most important artists
of his generation from South Asia, Rana works across multiple media including
photography, sculpture and video installation. This exhibition at Cornerhouse is Rana's
first major public solo show in the UK. It includes new work which ambitiously cuts across
conventional notions of the scale and status of the photographic object, opening up its
potential to represent cultural, social and physical realities and relationships. The work's
seductive materiality belies its sharp critical and political consciousness.
Cornerhouse is also curating the Asia Triennial Film Programme that includes a range of
new films from across the region with a major retrospective of Philippine director Brillante
Mendoza, recently named best Director at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival.
Indian artist N S Harsha will produce Thought Mala or “spiritual garlands” to be worn by
visitors in the Victorian Gothic splendour of The John Rylands Library. The artist intends
to transform the library into a spiritual place full of ritual, as visitors borrow the garlands as
they would a book, wearing them, handling them or simply contemplating them.
Castlefield Gallery will present a project by Istanbul based collective PiST, looking at
notions of contemporary ‘debt’ within a contemporary context, the project challenges
notions of migration, political and cultural identity.! Examining the growth of the VISA
industry in Istanbul, PiST will transform Castlefield Gallery into an alternative VISA
application and training centre for visitors to ATM11, replacing the obligatory language
and cultural exams for emigration to the UK.
Institution for the future will showcase a group of young artists from China and other
Asian countries, who actively engage with the local art scene and attempt to contribute to
the development of an arts infrastructure in their country. Archives and projects from
individual artists and collectives explore the notion of a future institution. Working at a
local level the artists attempt to define new institutional models and methods of art
production that work effectively on a local level but also make a contribution to the global
dialogue. These individuals attempt to respond to the needs of the local artistic
communities in Asia that have drastically changed over the last ten years.
Since Korea was formally divided in 1948 down the 38th parallel line, the Northern and
Southern parts of the peninsula have followed very dissimilar temporal and spatial paths.
The division of the nation has created subsequent generations of Koreans who are, in
many ways, poles apart, both physically and ideologically. MadLab‘s exhibition Korea,
Time and Generation: 38 ° of Separation presents cultural reflections and experiences of
DPRK through the eyes of North Korean, South Korean and Western artists, illustrators and
photographers, presenting the practical and cultural aftermath of a divided nation, whose
populations, separated since WWII, have spent their daily lives in very different ways.
Asia Triennial Manchester (ATM) is conceived by Shisha, the UK’s international agency
for contemporary South Asian crafts and visual arts, in partnership with Bury Art Gallery,
Castlefield Gallery, Chinese Arts Centre, Cornerhouse, The International 3, John Rylands
Library, MadLab, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester Metropolitan University, People’s
History Museum and The Whitworth Art Gallery.
For the past 10 years, Shisha has championed new and dynamic visual cultures from
South Asia and beyond to the UK, including new commissions by Subodh Gupta, Rashid
Rana, Anoli Perera, Shilpa Gupta, Atul Dodiya, Imran Qureshi and Pushpamala N. For
ATM11, Shisha continues to develop this, placing newly commissioned work and forging a
dialogue not only with the selected artists, but also with the international arts community.
Visit www.asiatriennialmanchester.com for updates.
For further information please contact Catharine Braithwaite on 07947 644
110 or cat@we-r-lethal.com