​

Asialink

Utopia

Utopia Banner

Utopia@Asialink is a pan-Asian incubator


Featured Events

Book launch at Art Basel Hong Kong of Jitish Kallat: Circa published by Utopia@Asialink

Following on from the exhibition Jitish Kallat: Circa at the Ian Potter Museum of Art as part of Melbourne Festival 2012, Utopia@Asialink publishes a book on Kallat's mammoth sculptural interventions to be launched at Art Basel Hong Kong on Friday May 24 2013 with contributions by David Elliott, Nikos Papastergiadis and Chaitanya Sambrani, edited by Natalie King and Bala Starr.

See below the Jitish Kallat: Circa catalogue:

Curatorial Lab with Hou Hanru

MELBOURNE, 16 April 2013- Following a public in-conversation with Natalie King on 15 April, a Curatorial Lab with Hou Hanru and 20 Australian arts professionals was held at Asialink to explore new exhibition models and modes of curating, moderated by Natalie King and Victoria Lynn, Director, TarraWarra Museum of Art. Participants included National Gallery of Victoria, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, National Gallery of Australia, MONA, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Westspace and Next Wave Festival.  
 
Presented by Utopia@Asialink and proudly supported by Naomi Milgrom AO

 

Acclaimed biennial curator, Hou Hanru, in conversation at Asialink

MELBOURNE, 15 April 2013 - On the eve of the 5th Auckland Triennial, acclaimed biennial curator Hou Hanru joined Natalie King, Director, Utopia@Asialink, for a candid conversation. Hou provided insights into exhibition modalities that interact with artists, audiences, cities and communities to envisage possible futures. Like a laboratory, Hou is interested in open and evolving exhibition platforms and the social agenda of locality and place.

Presented by Utopia@Asialink and proudly supported by Naomi Milgrom AO.
Courtesy of the 5th Auckland Triennial, 10 May - 11 August 2013; organised by the Auckland Art Gallery with major partner AUT University.

Watch Hou Hanru in conversation below


Utopia@Asialink Director part of editorial advisory team for Gondwana issue of Art Monthly

Utopia@Asialink Director, Natalie King, was part of the editorial advisory team with Dr Chaitanya Sambrani and Dr Neeti Sethi Bose for the special Gondwana issue of Art Monthly, Summer 2012/2013 with a focus on interrelationship between Australia and India, featuring Nikhil Chopra and Jitish Kallat.

See here >

Utopia@Asialink at Res Artis

Utopia Director, Natalie King, was invited to participate in a roundtable discussion on “Pan-continental collaboration” in Tokyo at the Worldwide Network of Artist Residencies / Res Artis General Meeting 2012, 26-28 October 2012. The session focused on new regional methodologies and intra-continental dialogue.

Participants: Hedwig Fijen (Director, Manifesta Foundation, The Netherlands); Natalie King (Director, Utopia@Asialink, Australia); Sunjung Kim (Professor at the Korea National University of Arts/ Artistic Director, Samuso/ Co-Artistic Director, Gwangju Biennale 2012, South Korea);
Tan Boon Hui (Director, Singapore Art Museum, Singapore); Kadija de Paula (Residencias en Red, Brazil). Moderator: Yusaku Imamura (Director, Tokyo Wonder Site/ Counsellor on Special Issues to the Governor, Tokyo Metropolitan Government). 

Images from Res Artis

Melbourne Festival 2012

15 October 2012, Monday
Lemuria
17 October 2012, Wednesday
Film Screening
13 - 28 October 2012
Gigi
13 October 2012 - 7 April 2013
Jitish

Utopia Partners

  • Mr Yusaku Imamura, Director of Tokyo Wonder Site & representing Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Tokyo
  • Mr Tan Boon Hui, Director of Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
  • Ms Sunjung Kim, independent curator, Artistic Director of Media City Seoul 2010 & Co-Artistic Director of 2012 Gwangju Biennale, Seoul
  • Ms Deeksha Nath, curator and writer, New Delhi
  • Ms Lesley Alway, Director, Arts Asialink, University of Melbourne, Melbourne
  • Ms Natalie King, Director, Utopia @ Asialink, University of Melbourne, Melbourne


Background

Utopia was first proposed during Sun Walking: Australia-Japan Visual Arts Partnerships Program 2005-9. This strategic initiative culminated in key recommendations from forums in Sydney and Tokyo resulting in the Utopia project - a cross regional biennial mobile multi-layer visual arts program. To date, Utopia has secured development funding from Arts Victoria, Australia Council and DFAT.

About Utopia
Left: Seung Woo Back, "Signboard", 150x183cm, digital print, 2011. © the artist
Right: Raqs Media Collective, Utopia is a Hearing Aid, 2003. Courtesy of the artists and Frith Street Gallery, London


Utopia as Cultural Insurgency

After extensive regional consultation (New Delhi, Singapore, Hong Kong…), Utopia has evolved to become an agile and experimental model that participates in existing activities such as biennales, art fairs and conferences. Inspired by Manifesta, Utopia was originally formulated as a major biennale that changes its destination. Concerns about establishing a new and expensive infrastructure given the number of biennales in the region led Utopia to restructure its model and utilize existing infrastructure. Utopia seeks to be an alternative model of encounter between communities, cities and geographies that is founded on collegiality, reciprocity and capacity building. As such, Utopia is an incubator for cross-cultural ideas, thinking and working methodologies.

Utopia team
Back: Yusaku Imamura, Director of Tokyo Wonder Site; Tan Boon Hui, Director of Singapore Art Museum. Front: Professor Rajeev Lochan, Director of National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Natalie King, Director of Utopia @ Asialink, New Delhi, September 2010.
Utopia team 2
Left: Natalie King, Director of Utopia, Mr Yusaku Imamura, Director of Tokyo Wonder Site and Mr Khairuddin Bin Hori, Curator, Singapore Art Museum, June 2010, Singapore.
Utopia team 3
‪Left to Right: Khairuddin Bin Hori, Senior Curator of Singapore Art Museum; Natalie King, Director of Utopia @ Asialink; Lesley Alway, Director Asialink Arts; Tan Boon Hui, Director of Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, January 2011.‬


In the Media

April 2013
 Machines of Knowledge and Experimentation, Natalie King & Hou Hanru, Art Montly.
Summer 2012/13
 Jitish Kallat: An Evolving Narrative in 8 Acts, Natalie King, Art Monthly.
8 November 2012
 Asian art enters a new frontier, Newsline, Australia Network News.
31 October 2012
 Steaming ahead but still battling not to fall behind, Robert Nelson, The Age. Curated by Utopia@Asialink and the Ian Potter Museum of Art.
27 October 2012
 Gigi Scaria and Chaitanya Sambrani, Weekend Arts, Radio National.
24 October 2012
 Gigi Scaria – A multitalented artist, Hindi, SBS Radio.
27 October 2011
 "Utopia’s latest venture: exploring concepts of visual art", Dione Joseph, Melbourne City Newspaper, Vol 2, Issue 15. [pdf]
26 October 2011
 "Hoarding privacy among the teeming hordes", Robert Nelson, The Age (online). Curated by Utopia @ Asialink, Intimate Publics is an exhibition of video projections that delve into the revelatory world of intimacy within public spaces.

Past Events



Utopia is supported by Arts Victoria


 Arts Victoria       
         


For inquiries please contact Natalie King at utopia@asialink.unimelb.edu.au