KataKatha melds the curious, cultural and creative minds of Southeast Asia in one spellbinding exhibition, writes Pauline Fan
WHAT does it mean to be an artist or a cultural practitioner in contemporary Southeast Asia? Does the region exist simply as a legacy of colonial borders that have shaped our modern nation states, or is there an underlying sense of a shared experience among Southeast Asians?
These were some of the overarching questions in the inaugural KataKatha - Southeast Asian Conversations On Culture And The Arts, held in Kuala Lumpur last November.
KataKatha is a formative regional initiative by Maybank Kim Eng, supported by Maybank Foundation, conceptualised and curated in collaboration with Pusaka, which aspires to create a meaningful interaction and dialogue between regional practitioners of culture and the arts, in an exploration of Southeast Asia’s artistic, cultural and intellectual experience.
The event brought together 10 of the most distinguished and exciting cultural figures from Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia to participate in a series of conversations on the theme of Shared History, Shared Culture, Shared Traditions.
The participants were poet and essayist Goenawan Mohamad and architect and poet Avianti Armand of Indonesia, sculptor Agnes Arellano and filmmaker Kanakan Balintagos of the Philippines, dancer-choreographer Pichet Klunchun and filmmaker Anocha Suwichakornpong of Thailand, urban geographer Lai Chee Kien and visual artists Geraldine Kang of Singapore and visual artist Nadiah Bamadhaj and historian Farish A. Noor of Malaysia.
Eminent Malaysian poet and painter, Latiff Mohidin, was a special guest.
Next week KataKatha will launch This World, Out Here - The KataKatha Exhibition. Participants of the first KataKatha will share formative materials that offer a glimpse into their creative processes. The exhibition will be on display in Balai Seni Maybank from July 28 to Aug 28.
CHAOS OF CREATION
The exhibition is an attempt to explore the creative chaos and eccentric narratives that permeate creative life in Southeast Asia. The chaos that urges the creative impulse was beautifully expressed by Singaporean visual artist Geraldine Kang, the youngest participant who remarked: “To be working on art in Southeast Asia is to be fundamentally anxious.”
The exhibition transforms ideas and questions that emerged from the conversation series into a visceral experience of Southeast Asia. It is an immersion into life in the region, through a play of visuals and spaces, soundscapes and smells, and tactile senses. These are presented using quintessentially Southeast Asian elements of shadow play and fabrics, folk music and incantations, rice & spices and seawater, alongside sketches, notes, marginalia and scripts provided by the participants.
It also pays homage to the oral traditions of the region, which form an organic continuum with culture and the arts in contemporary life. “In construction and attitude, it alludes to the lyricism of the conversations, which are themselves rooted firmly in the long Southeast Asian tradition of orality,” says exhibition curator Eddin Khoo.
Juxtaposed with strong textual and contemporary motifs, the exhibition evokes a modern sense of subliminal anxiety with the essentially syncretised nature of the region and the questions it negotiates in the more exacting world of modernity. By confronting the region’s elements, world views, history and contemporary experience, the exhibition aims to provoke a contemplation of the factors that have inspired creative ingenuity in the region.
CHAMPIONING CULTURAL LIFE IN ASEAN
If economics is the lifeblood of a society, culture and the arts form the soul. In the rapidly developing region, there is a danger of societies falling into the traps of rampant materialism, unless economic growth is matched by meaningful efforts to nurture the mind and soul. A keen awareness of the vital role that arts and culture plays in society, as well as the need to invest in sustained cultural interaction among Asean countries, led to the birth of KataKatha.
“Asean is one of the fastest growing regions in the world but as we continue to develop, it is imperative that we do so in a holistic manner. Countries are not built on numbers alone, society depends on culture for identity and unity, and relies on art for creativity and diversity,” explained Datuk John Chong, CEO of Maybank Kim Eng Group, the fully-owned investment banking arm of Maybank which leads the KataKatha initiative. “We believe that arts is key to the development of a society, which is why we created KataKatha. By investing in arts and culture, we are effectively investing in the development of this region, its people and its soul.”
One of Asia’s leading banking groups and Southeast Asia’s fourth largest bank by assets, Maybank Kim Eng has presence in six Asean countries, while Maybank as a group is present in all 10 Asean members. Given the regional footprint, they are perfectly poised to champion an initiative exploring Southeast Asia’s artistic and cultural heritage.
KataKatha is timely, too, particularly in light of the Asean Socio-Cultural Community that complements the integrated Asean Economic Community that was established in 2015, and which lists as one of its aspirations that “Asean citizens interact in a community conscious of its historical ties, aware of its cultural heritage and bound by a common regional identity”.
There will be public programmes every weekend during the exhibition period, including curatorial walk-throughs, a film screening by award-winning Filipino filmmaker Kanakan Balintagos, conversations with Singaporean architect Lai Chee Kien and visual artist Geraldine Kang. One of the highlights will be a special poetry reading by Latiff Mohidin for the closing of the exhibition on Aug 28.
This World Out Here — the KataKatha Exhibition
When: July 28 to Aug 28, 11am to 9pm
Where: Balai Seni Maybank, Merana Maybank, 100 Jalan Tun Perak, KL
Admission: Free
Weekend public programme
July 30, 3pm-5pm
• A Walk Through Curation by Eddin Khoo
• A Conversation On The Idea of KataKatha with Anurendra Jegadeva (curatorial advisor), Shahril Azuar Jimin (CEO, Maybank Foundation)
& Eddin Khoo (Curator)
Aug 6, 7.30pm-9.30pm
• Baybayin — A Screening
• Q&A with Kanakan Balintagos
(film director)
Aug 7, 3pm-5pm
• Constructing This World, Out Here by Razif Nasruddin (designer &
co-curator)
Aug 13, 3pm-5pm
• Curating Elements Of Creative Chaos by Yana Rizal
(co-curator)
Aug 20, 3pm-5pm
• History In The Eye Of The Contemporary with Lai Chee Kien (urban geographer) and Geraldine Kang (visual artist)
Aug 21, 3pm-5pm
• KataKatha: Film Poem. In conversation with Indrani Kopal (filmmaker)
Aug 28, 3pm-5pm
• Latiff Mohidin: Rempah Ratus
— A Poetry Reading