Para Site presents Trade Routes was a Beginning, a lecture by Clare Butcher, independent curator and current participant of the Para Site International Art Residency (PSIAR).

Drawing on her ongoing research on the 2nd Johannesburg Biennial Trade Routes: History and Geography (1997), Butcher’s presentation looks at the materials collected around the biennial, including Hong Kong etc., an exhibition curated by Hou Hanru under the umbrella of the biennial. Focusing on the themes of that exhibition such as the city as a riff, urban identities in transition, and colonial residues, Butcher raises the political significance of exhibition histories and with that the urgency of the archive(s) of today and its marginalia. Drawing on examples of her own work, she hopes to engage audience members in a conversation around future steps within the research started during the course of the residency.