Art / Talks / Performance Literature / Workshops / Films
Summer 2014
Cultural Programme
Cover: Yong Min Cho Limit 3.0 (Milan 2000), Inside Cover: Yong Min Cho Limits 3.01 (Milan 2000) Photograph Copyright: Marina Giannobi
Dear Friends and Supporters, Welcome to Asia House’s new summer cultural programme, which celebrates our forthcoming events and some of the most creative projects we have lined up for you. This coincides with the launch of our newly designed website, which brings you up-to-the minute information and stories around our events, both current and future. Explore the landscape of transnationalism through art, food, film, music and dance, as we engage between cultures, and across borders with young emerging musical talents. Two exemplary contemporary performance pieces include A+M dance project on the 13 June, a collaboration with dancer in residence, Yong Min Cho and the Pyung-In company from South Korea, and another multicultural project from the UK, Artist as Nomad in partnership with Roehampton University’s Dance department. These new dance pieces reflect the mood for a summer season of some of the most exciting artists and creative practitioners from Cambodia, Japan, Hong Kong and Korea. We also have a wonderful Vietnamese culinary event to follow on the 17 June, with our young and talented recipient of the Yan Kit So Memorial Award, Mirabelle Lý Eliot, who will share her journey to Vietnam with us, as well as creating some amazing dishes for us to share and delight in. Our ARTiculations series continues with in-conversations between artists and collectors, including collecting Chinese Contemporary Art, with Sylvain Levy of the Sylvain and Dominique Levy Collection (DSL Collection) and Rossi & Rossi Gallery presenting Leang Seckon one of the leading contemporary artists from Cambodia in our gallery space, through June and July. You will also find artworks scattered throughout our wonderful townhouse, for the coming months, which we hope will surprise and delight you all. There will be much more to discover, so do please keep a watchful eye on our website for details. We look forward to seeing you soon.
Pamela Kember, Head of Arts & Learning Mariam Neza, Curator & Programme Manager
Dance and Music Performance
Supported by: May Kim
Bridging Colours – White
Dancers: Pyung-In Dance Company Lee Seung Ju (Dance Director) Eum Jung Eun Jo Song Yi
Friday 13 June 18.45–20.00 As part of his residency at Asia House, choreographer Yong Min Cho will present a special collaborative venture with Korean Dance Company Pyung-In and musical ensemble, Nol Eum Pan. The performance will have an emphasis on the colour white, as this is one of the five most important colours in Korean tradition and life, which consists of white, black, red, blue and yellow.
Musicians: Nol Eum Pan Korean Traditional Music Team: Kim Seung Ho (Music Director) Kim Min Ji Lee Eun Young Lim Hyun Ho
Yong Min Cho (UK/South Korea/ Italy) Artistic director of A+M (Asia Movement), began his studies at the dance theatre school of Paolo Grassi (Picolo Teatro). After training in Milan, he moved to Venice to join the then named Academia I’sola Danza, where he worked with Carolyn Carlson. Since 2005, he has been living and working in London whilst touring in Italy and South Korea. A+M is a new platform for East-West cultural exchange to research and explore potential ideas that cross the rich and diverse traditions of Eastern Dance within a contemporary Western context. The performance is in collaboration with the Fondazione Giorgi Cini onlus, Venice, and Antiruggine, Italy.
Female Dancer, “Korean Dancer Lee Seung Ju, 2013” Photograph copyright Kim Bo Sun.
Tickets £10
I Concessions £7 I Friends £6
Find more information about Yong Min Cho on his website: www.ymcho.co.uk Partner for this Summer dance programme: Sunok Phillips
Book now:
www.asiahouse.org/events
antiruggine +44 (0)20 7307 5454
SOAS Asian Language Tasters at Asia House Saturday 14 June 11.00 –13.00 & 14.00 –16.00 Come along to Asia House and try out your language learning skills in some fun Taster Sessions. As part of Adult Learners’ Week, SOAS and Asia House are offering free mini language lessons that will be interactive and fun. Classes will be in Arabic, Persian and Turkish in the morning and in Chinese, Korean and Japanese in the afternoon. The duration of each class is 40 minutes. The SOAS Language Centre in London offers practical communicative courses in a wide range of Asian and African languages at all levels from Beginner to Advanced, as evening or Saturday courses, or more intensive courses leading to a SOAS Diploma. Free Booking required Please arrive 10 minutes prior to the start time of your class and you will be allocated to a group on the day.
ARTiculations
Collecting Chinese Art the 21st Century Way Tuesday 24 June 18.45–20.00 While increasing global attention on art from China is focused mainly on the extraordinary prices pieces command at auction, French collectors, Sylvain and Dominique Levy, founders of the DSL Collection of Chinese Contemporary Art, (www.dslcollection.org) have instead enjoyed a personal discovery engaging in the study and promotion of their collection, ranging from sculpture, to paintings, to photography and video art. Their approach to collecting is on the philosophy of acquisition and the utilisation of new technologies. Sylvain believes that the information revolution spearheaded by the real-time of the Internet and the iPad can be an interesting alternative space for art. Both Dominique and Sylvain are members of the International Committee of Tate Modern. Sylvain Levy will be in conversation with Pamela Kember to discuss some of the challenges in building their collection, and to share details of a number of the works in their latest digital version, which presents 350 artworks from 200 contemporary artists from China. Tickets £8 Friends Free – Booking required
Book now:
www.asiahouse.org/events
+44 (0)20 7307 5454
The Yan Kit So Memorial Award for Asian Food Writers presents
2013 Award Winner Mirabelle Lý Eliot in conversation with Fuchsia Dunlop Tuesday 17 June 18.45–20.30 Mirabelle Lý Eliot was selected for the Award after the judging panel was enchanted by her proposal for an Asian cookbook titled The Vegetarian Vietnamese: Food from the Jade Cave. Mirabelle went to Vietnam last year and returns to Asia House to tell us about her findings. She will unfold the pages of her food journal and show a range of photographs taken by Luke Walker from her colourful and fascinating journey. From ‘chay’ (vegan) restaurants run by Buddhist nuns, to home-chefs and street stall cooks, Mirabelle has learnt so much from so many who generously opened up their kitchens and shared their knowledge. Mirabelle Lý Eliot is a writer whose special interest in food developed when she became a vegetarian and had to adapt Vietnamese dishes inherited from her grandparents, who left Saigon in the 1950s to settle in Marseille.
Photograph copyright Luke Walker 2013
The talk will be followed by a drinks reception and food tasting prepared from Mirabelle’s recipes. This is generously sponsored by Paul Bloomfield Catering. Mirabelle Lý Elliot’s blog can be found here: thejadecave.wordpress.com Tickets £15 I Concessions £12 I Friends £10 Ticket income will be donated to sustain future Yan Kit So Bursary Awards. The 2014 Yan Kit So Award will launch during the evening.
Cook, food writer and broadcaster Fuchsia Dunlop was mentored by Chinese cuisine expert Yan Kit So when she embarked on her first publication Sichuan Cookery . Fuchsia is a Yan Kit So Award judge alongside David Thompson and Carol Michaelson.
Book now:
www.asiahouse.org/events
+44 (0)20 7307 5454
Summer Public Lecture Series
Encounters with art from Asia: Transnational Identities of Contemporary Asian Artists Saturdays 9, 12, 19 and 26 July 14.00 –17.00
a transnational context and is on the Advisory Board of the Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong and a recent advisory editor for the Benezit Dictionary of Asian Artists (New York NY 2012).
This short course will explore the diverse and complex range of issues brought about through migratory practices and strategies such as spatial culture, trans-existence, and displacement, and how these have profoundly altered contemporary art practices. Subjects to be covered include: the avant garde and Chinese Contemporary Art; artists of the Asian Diaspora, displacement and Asian identity; transnationalism, collecting and curatorship; critical writing about art from Asia; the Asian art markets; and Hong Kong artists of the diaspora.
The Wall and the Book by Pamela Kember Image courtesy Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong 2009.
Course fee £200 I Friends £150
Lectures by Pamela Kember, Head of Arts and Learning, Asia House. Pamela Kember has worked at the Ashmolean and at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, where she became interested in SE Asian art and artists of the Asian diaspora. From 1997-2009, she taught at various art schools and universities in Hong Kong. In 2009 she returned to London, to continue a PhD, as well as lecturing on art from Asia. She writes for a number of art journals on contemporary art practices within
Book now:
www.asiahouse.org/events
+44 (0)20 7307 5454
Artist as Nomad Exhibition (Free Admission) Monday 14 – Saturday 19 July 10.00–18.00 Opening Night Talk by Sara Houston Monday 14 July 18.45–20.00 Performances Thursday 17 & Friday 18 July 18.45–20.00 Examining notions of travel, work, home, movement, independence and inter-dependence, Artist as Nomad , brings together film, live performances and talks by Christopher Matthews, Amaara Raheem and Dr. Sara Houston.
Artist as Nomad began with a series of residencies at the University of Roehampton Department of Dance, which invited emerging artists to consider the nature of mobility, cultural cartography, creative citizenship and what to pack when making work on the road. A year-long journey into mobility culminates in a series of actions, gestures, words, recorded images, sound and text in a playful and insightful week of dance-art presented at Asia House. Dr. Sara Houston (Dance and Communities) speaks internationally on community dance and political issues concerning dance and the arts and is passionate about everybody dancing regardless of age, gender or ability. She was awarded the Bupa Foundation Vitality for Life Prize for her research into how dance helps alleviate the effects of Parkinson’s in 2011.
Christopher Matthews (Choreographer & Video Artist) is an American choreographer and artist based in London with a background as a dancer, performance artist, photographer, video artist, teacher and choreographer for commercial television. Amaara Raheem (Choreographer, Writer and Performer) is a Sri Lankanborn Australian dance artist living and working in Britain. Her work embodies multi-layered experiences of in-between-ness and she investigates how ways of living in relationship to space / place.
Artist as Nomad is a partnership between Creativeworks London, Roehampton Dance and Asia House.
Self portrait on the Eurostar to Brussels 2012 Copyright Chris Matthews
Tickets £10
I Concessions £8 I Friends £6
Various dates As part of the Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival’s Youth Engagement programmes, we will be producing interactive storytelling sessions for young children (ages five to ten) at libraries around London and in the Midlands. The sessions will have Asian or British Asian themes and will engage children and their parents in activities that encourage reading and promote understanding of Asian cultures. They will take place at selected libraries in the London boroughs of Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Brent, Tower Hamlets and Southwark. In the Midlands, our storytellers will be performing at libraries in Leicester, Dudley, Derby and Solihull. Please check the Asia House website for further details.
Exhibition presented at Asia House by Rossi & Rossi Gallery
Leang Seckon: Hell On Earth 27 June – 25 July 2014 Artist in conversation with Professor Peter Sharrock 28 June 14.00 The exhibition held at Asia House features a body of recent paintings, collages and video works by the artist, which are intimate narratives of his experiences and memories from the Khmer Rouge period and the civil war that followed. The process of creating artworks simultaneously allows him to experience and express the freedom that was denied to him as a youth. Seckon is considered one of the foremost members of the emerging Cambodian contemporary art scene. He incorporates several artistic techniques including painting, embroidery and collage to create personal commentary on the history of Cambodia, its people, politics, environment and spirituality.
The Elephant and the Pond of Blood 2013, Leang Seckon Mixed media and collage on canvas (200 x 150 cm)
Summer Family Events
Forthcoming Events in 2014 Exhibition: Ghazaleh Avarzamani
Apologie For Understanding 1 September Beginning with kitsch domestic ornaments, Avarzamani painstakingly renders a vision of Utopia, which although outwardly vibrant, on closer inspection reveals the anxiety, apprehension and tension experienced when all of us attempt to embark on the search for an extrinsic happiness.
SUSTAIN Sculpture Commission September Chinatown Arts Space, in partnership with Asia House, presents a Masterclass by renowned Singaporean artist Chua Boon Kee, winner of the SUSTAIN sculpture commission, a new public art landmark for London’s West End. The visiting artist will discuss his work and the inspiration behind this new piece entitled Flowing . The sculpture is commissioned by Shaftesbury PLC and will be unveiled in Chinatown this September, to coincide with the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival.
Drifting Dérive 13 October – 24 October At the beginning of his essay on the Theory of Dérive the Situationist International founder, Guy DeBord, describes dérive as a mode of human behaviour, one that’s linked to a “rapid passage through varied urban ambiances”. This is a ‘choreographed’ exhibition throughout Asia House’s building, as it also draws upon Debord’s ‘psycho geographies’, the study of the psychological effects of our social, public
urban through the image of the moving body in space. Artists include Suki Chan, Antoni Malinowski, Meekyong Shin, Eiko Soga and Yong Min Cho.
Music of the Zhihua Temple 6 November A performance at Asia House with an introduction written by Dr Stephen Jones, a specialist in ritual music in north China. For over 20 generations until the 1950s, the monks of the Zhihua Temple (Temple of Wisdom Attained) were the most prestigious transmitters of the exquisite and plaintive instrumental music that accompanied Buddhist rituals in Beijing. The current performers learnt from the last generation of elderly former monks.
Suki Chan: A Hundred Seas Rising December Inspired by Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities , A Hundred Seas Rising explores how literature might be implicated in the imagination and trajectories of revolutions. The installation will use the sound of 100 individual voices as a sculptural material, re-imagining Dickens’ revolutionary mob sonically by creating surges of ideological thought that reverberate across the gallery space. A partnership project between Aspex, Portsmouth; Space, Creative and Cultural Industries Faculty, University of Portsmouth; and Quay Arts, Newport, Isle of Wight.
Membership Become a Friend of Asia House and you will get discounted tickets to our events and at a range of restaurants, museums and shops, as well as priority booking. Enjoy a wide range of other benefits and be part of a vibrant community celebrating the arts and cultures of Asia. From £50 per year. £10 per year for student membership.
Venue Hire Our beautiful headquarters in an enviable central London location is available to hire for all kinds of events. 63 New Cavendish Street is a grade II* listed Georgian townhouse, with restored period features filling our intimate and expansive spaces alike. Our premises house a purpose-built art gallery and a flexible contemporary studio space.
Visit Mackwood’s Tea Room The elegant Georgian room inside Asia House is an ideal place to meet, refresh and relax. Open weekdays 9.00 –18.00.
Get in touch www.asiahouse.org enquiries@asiahouse.co.uk +44 (0)20 7307 5454
Asia House is particularly grateful for the support of:
Great Portland Street Marylebone Road Regent’s Park
Founding Stakeholders Devonshire Street Great Portland Street
Hallam Street
Portland Place
Harley Street
Weymouth Street
New Cavendish street
Summer Programme Supporters
BBC
Langham Hotel
Wigmore Street Regent Street
Cavendish Square
Margaret Street
Oxford Street Bond Street
Oxford Circus
antiruggine
Asia House 63 New Cavendish Street London W1G 7LP +44 (0)20 7307 5454 enquiries@asiahouse.co.uk www.asiahouse.org Join us on Facebook @asiahouseuk Nearest Tubes Oxford Circus Great Portland Street Bond Street Regent’s Park
Design: www.yutingcheng.com
Asia House is a centre of expertise on Asia. Our mission is to bring the UK and Asia closer through our pioneering events on business, policy and culture. We are the leading pan-Asian organisation in the UK, having built our reputation on our extensive network, our objectivity and our independence. We aim to deepen understanding of the cultural contexts in which we live, work and do business while preparing the next generation for greater engagement between Asia and the West.