Convened by Xiaowen Zhu, Quadrio and You contextualise their rich and dynamic practice of curating contemporary art — critically reflecting the ‘global China’ framework and identifying the challenges cultural practitioners face in today’s shifting geopolitical environment. Stream the discussion via Youtube.
Quadrio and You have both conceived numerous curatorial and research projects, constituting new perspectives of the cultural environment, from China to Asia and the rest of the world, rather than focusing on border-defined nations. This conversation resonates with our ongoing quest for alternative ways to understand contemporary East and Southeast Asian art and culture.
You Mi is a professor of Art and Economies at the University of Kassel / documenta Institut. Prior to joining the University of Kassel, she was a research associate in the Art and Media Studies department at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (2014-2021). Her academic interests are in new and historical materialism, performance philosophy, as well as the history, political theory and philosophy of Eurasia.
She works with the Silk Road as a figuration for re-imagining networks, and has curated exhibitions and programs at Asian Culture Center in Gwangju, South Korea, Ulaanbaatar International Media Art Festival, Mongolia (2016), Zarya CCA, Vladivostok (2018), and the research/curatorial platform Unmapping Eurasia (2018-) with Binna Choi. Her recent exhibitions focus on socialising technologies and “actionable speculations”, such as Sci-(no)-Fi at the Academy of the Arts of the World, Cologne (2019) and Lonely Vectors at Singapore Art Museum (2022). She was one of the curators of the 13th Shanghai Biennale (2020-2021). She serves as chair of the committee on Media Arts and Technology for the transnational NGO Common Action Forum. In 2022, she was listed as one of the ‘Apollo 40 Under 40 Asia Pacific | The Thinkers.’