Asia Art Archive and Para Site co-present Camping and Tramping through the Colonial Archive, a two-part programme by Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, Curator, National University of Singapore (NUS) Museum and current participant of Para Site International Art Residency (PS IAR).
Part 1. About and Beyond
18:30-19:30 hrs, A Space, Asia Art Archive, 10/F Hollywood Centre, 233 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong.
One of the more provocative approaches to emerge since the 1990s of what it means to curate in the public sphere, has been one where the curator self-consciously renders the site of the exhibition ‘incomplete’ and simultaneously (de)constructs meaning with reference to a conceptual paradigm in which the experience of the public is seen as an intervention. Considering the NUS Museum’s unique position within the Singapore cultural landscape as a ‘University Museum’, this talk will broadly reflect on curatorial methods adopted since 2007 with the aim of developing exhibitions that have multidisciplinary interests. It does this by discussing the dynamics and implications such encounters may have by looking at two exhibitions in particular; namely, Camping and Tramping Through The Colonial Archive: The Museum in Malaya and Prep Room | Things That May or May Not Happen.
Part 2. Throes of Empire
20:00-21:00 hrs, Para Site, G/F, 4 Po Yan Street, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong.
Presenting a selection of films curated by Shabbir Hussain Mustafa from www.malayablackandwhite.wordpress.com, an online platform that engages representations of ‘Malaya’ through the moving image archive, the screenings titled Throes of Empire will explore the work done made by the Malayan Film Unit in colonial Singapore as it increasingly recognised the potency of films in maintaining social order, leading up to a modern and self-governing society.