Rethinking (Global) South

Date/Time: 26 August 2023 (Sat.) 16:30-18:00
Venue: 11F Studio, Taipei Performing Arts Center
Language: In English with simultaneous interpretation in Mandrin.
Moderator: Tang Fu-Kuen
Speaker: Mere Boynton, Nayse López, Linda Mayasari, Nobuo Takamori (*Ordered alphabetically by last name.)
Sign up: Online registration , admission by ticket.

What does ‘South’ mean in the term ‘Global South’ and in the context of art ecosystems across Asia-Pacific region and beyond? By questioning the critical notion of (Global) South, this panel discussion brings together Tang Fu Kuen (Artistic and Managing Director, BIT Teatergarasjen), Mere Boynton (Director Ngā Toi Māori for Tāwhiri), Nayse López (Artistic Director, Panorama Festival), Linda Mayasari (Member of the Curatorial Team, Indonesian Dance Festival (IDF)), and Nobuo Takamori to explore the politics of how ‘South’ has been used or misused in arts markets and institutional realms, provoking expanded understanding beyond traditional Western-centric approaches.

Speaker 

Mere Boynton (New Zealand)
Mere is of Te Aitanga a Mahaki, Ngāti Oneone and Ngāi Tūhoe descent. She is a singer, actor, producer and arts manager and is the Director Ngā Toi Māori for Tāwhiri, the organisation that produces the Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts, Wellington Jazz Festival, Lexus Song Quest and the Hui Ahurei Reo Māori (Māori Language Festival).
Mere has an extraordinary breadth of experience garnered over 30 years in the arts sector, spanning her roles as an actor in theatre and film, including Mavis in the iconic Once Were Warriors; as a vocalist and performing artist including in works by Gareth Farr, Jack Body, Michael Parmenter and Lemi Ponifasio; and programming and leadership positions for Taki Rua theatre company, Te Papa Tongarewa and Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival.

Nayse López (Spain / Brazil)
Since 2005, she is the artistic director of Panorama Festival and has been guest curator in many other projects and has a long career as a speaker on cultural management, art and media and has participated in hundreds of international events. In 2020, she directed the Panorama Luto, a live tribute for the victims of covid-19 in Brazil that lasted 51 hours live on YouTube and brought together more than 300 artists and activists reading texts about mourning, art and freedom. In 2021, she was the artistic director of the international platform Panorama Raft, and in partnership with 17 international Institutions, coproduced 15 projects to be seen online in pandemic times. In 2022/2023, she was artistic director of Panorama 30 years, a celebration of the three decades of the festival. She is now preparing the 2023/2024 edition of Panorama, and guest scholar at the online research project La Escuela and guest curator at Lyon Biennale 2025.

Linda Mayasari (Indonesia)
Linda Mayasari is the Director of Cemeti - Institute for Art and Society, where she has worked since 2010. She also serves as a member of the curatorial team of Indonesian Dance Festival (IDF). She is currently completing her Masters in Cultural Studies at Universitas Sanata Dharma, Yogyakarta while working on personal research and writing projects, exploring the intersection of art, politics and post colonialism in the context of Indonesian culture and history. Occasionally, she collaborates with artists from various fields (especially dance and visual arts) to produce independent research-based projects. She worked on a research project with Muhammad AB and Suluh Senja Romana entitled ‘Peeping the Dance Archive: Drunk with Anything American vis a-vis National Identity Jogja Dance Trajectory’. This research was presented in an archive exhibition as part of the ‘Jejak-旅 Tabi Exchange: Wandering Asian Contemporary Performance in Yogyakarta’ (2018). In 2022, she received the 2022 Nusantara Academic Writing Award (NAWA) for writing a master's thesis for the Masters's program in Cultural Studies Sanata Dharma University entitled ‘Bagong Kussudiardja: Javanese Aesthetics, American Drunk, and New Order Heroism’.

Nobuo Takamori (Taiwan)
Independent curator; Director of ‘Outsiders Factory’, a curators collective; selected important exhibition curatorial works include Post-Actitud (2011, Ex Teresa Arte Actual, Mexico DF), South country, South of Country (2012, Zero Station, Ho Chi Minh City & Howl Space, Tainan), The Lost Garden (2014, Eslite Gallery, Taipei), Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition 2014 The Return of Ghosts (Hong Gah Museum, Taipei), Is/In-Land: Mongolian Taiwanese Contemporary Art Exchange Project (2018, 976 Art Gallery, Ulaanbaatar, Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei), The Middleman, the Backpacker, the Alien Species and the Time Traveler (2019, TKG+, Taipei), and The Secret South: from Cold War Perspective to Global South in Museum Collection (2019, TFAM, Taipei). 

Tang Fu Kuen (Singapore)
Tang Fu-Kuen is Artistic and Managing Director of Bergen International Theatre - BIT Teatergarasjen in Norway. He was the Curator of Taipei Arts Festival from 2018-2022, a city-wide platform held annually in August to present contemporary local and international productions. TAF is helmed by Taipei Performing Arts Center (TPAC) which also runs the Taipei Children’s Arts Festival and Taipei Fringe Festival. Fu-Kuen worked previously in immaterial patrimoine in UNESCO (Paris) and in SEAMEO-SPAFA (Bangkok). He was sole curator of the Singapore Pavilion at 53rd Venice Biennale which was awarded Special Jury Mention. As independent curator and producer and dramaturg, he worked across Asia and Europe for platforms including: Singapore Arts Festival, Indonesian Dance Festival, In-Transit Festival (Berlin), December Dance (Brugge), Exodus Festival (Ljubljana), Colombo Dance Platform and Bangkok Fringe Festival