Virtual360 Konnect | Mid-residency: What's happening so far

The 20 residents of Virtual360 Konnect - Emerging Arts Leaders Virtual Residency Series are on full speed working together on their joint projects. After defining project plans, timelines, and a few hiccups in technology in week 1, all residents are now embarking on data collection and research including conducting online interviews and group discussions, experimenting on alternative online communication tools, and making art both offline and online.

Dian Arumningtyas (Indonesia) & Kim Gahye (Korea) are working on ‘The Weekly Struggles’ a publication that aims to dig deeper into the negotiation strategies and methods that have been applied by art initiatives into their practice, and map out the contemporary arts practice in Gwangju, Korea and Bandung, Indonesia to promote collaboration and dialogue between the two cities.

'The Weekly Struggles' by Dian Arumningtyas and Kim Gahye

Charmaine Poh (Singapore) & June Chung (Korea), having been displaced from their found communities due to Covid-19, Charmaine and June used their lens-based and time-based practices on a joint project called ‘Bodies in Translation’ to create media fragments each week as a newfound ritual as a means of grounding. Their weekly prompts have looked at issues of both internal and external displacement, using emotion and affect as a starting point, before looking at online dwelling, private spaces, and cityscapes.

Kathleen Ditzig (Singapore) & Soo Young Leam (Korea) are both researchers and curators currently working as assistant curators on an iterative exhibition commissioned by the Gwangju Biennale Foundation, Spring of Democracy, which mines the historical connections of solidarity between South Korea's democratisation and cultural production from Southeast Asia. Their residency collaboration ‘Spring[s] for Democracy’ examines specific moments that relate to Gwangju's Democratization Movement and South Korea's history of democratisation to Southeast Asia. This will culminate in a paper focusing on how the mutual gazing between South Korea and nations in Southeast Asia and the collective participation in world events in Southeast Asia will mine cultural history that point to potential solidarities that can emerge in a post #COVID19 world. They have since conducted various interviews with researchers and authors.

Gwangju Biennale Commissions: Courtesy of Gwangju Biennale Foundation.

Jade Park (Korea) & Theyvapaalan S Jayaratnam (Malaysia) have been experimenting on ‘Spirit of Rice’ where they draw parallels between the fermentation process of rice wine to the period of recovery during this pandemic. Is the fermentation process similar to our time in isolation, allowing us to reflect on our environment and engage in a meditative like introspection? These are some of the questions Jade & Paalan are working to answer!

Ragi. Photo by Theyvapaalan S Jayaratnam

Micah Pinto (Philippines) & Minji Chun (Korea) are researching on ‘Rethinking Art Residencies in the Era of Pandemics’, an exploratory study on the concept of residencies in the era of pandemics and how collaborative artistic activities and creative experiences be realized online and offline. They have since experimented with online sticky notes with other participants as an alternative way of communication for online collaborations and virtual residencies!

Virtual360 Konnect residents trying out online sticky notes

Nayoung Jeong (Korea) & Soe Yu Nwe (Myanmar) are passionate about ‘Bounded Women’ a project that explores manifestation of cultural, physical and psychological restriction placed on women in Myanmar and Korea. The pair has discussed various subjects around femininity including plastic surgery, beauty standards, religion, patriarchy, and spiritual inferiority.

Nayoung Jeong and Soe Yu Nwe researching on 'Bounded Women'

Mac Andre Arboleda (Philippines) & Sarah Koo (Korea), a publisher-illustrator duo, are working on a zine called ‘Artists in Panic!’ that documents the state of the arts and culture amidst the pandemic. They believe this project is an urgent one especially at a time where people have been escaping to various forms of art (movies, music, video games) without knowing that the people behind these creations are at risk of disappearing.

Mac and Sarah's zine 'Artists in Panic'

Joshua Eka Pramudya (Indonesia) & Benedikta Swasti Renaningtyas (Indonesia) are collaborating on their research ‘Korean and ASEAN Artists: How do they survive in the midst of pandemic?’ They have been gathering information from several arts and cultural activists in ASEAN and Korea. By exchanging and sharing ideas, they hope to strengthen, support each other, and build hope together during this pandemic. They also plan to produce a performance video which will involve artists from various countries in ASEAN and Korea. Through this artwork, they aim to promote culture as a medium to strengthen communities and to hope for an end to the pandemic. This work will serve as a reminder that art, as a universal language, can unite various ethnic groups.

Chloe Choi (Korea) & Faiq Airudin (Brunei Darussalam) are ‘Together, Wired’. They are discussing and creating a possible solution together to make people feel more grounded in the online environment. To kickstart this problem-solving project, they held a Zoom group discussion with their peers from Brunei, India, Korea, Guam, Singapore, and the US about feeling grounded online. Using the ideas and concepts that emerged from the group discussion, they have attempted to create an online space that improves on existing solutions. This solution allows users to interact with each other through movement and proximity along with their voice and video. It also allows for continued interaction, whether you talk to person A or B without having to move to a breakout room or rely solely on text.

Chloe and Faiq brainstorming and experimenting various models of online interaction

Robby Ocktavian (Indonesia) & Mi Seok Huh (Korea) decided to collaborate on ‘Dissecting Boundaries’ an online presentation of art, music and sound. They have been exploring how reinterpretation of traditional culture and its presence on online platforms can bring some discussions on hierarchies in representation and distribution. They have conducted artist interviews to see how they have been working online. Overall they are working towards creating an observation on how art can cope with the online landscape, and how access to material online affects representation and understanding of culture. There will be videos, also some short essays as the outputs.

Robby and Mi Seok interviewing artists from West Kalimantan, Indonesia

Learn more about the participants and their joint projects by following culture360_asef on Instagram!

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Virtual360 Konnect - Emerging Arts Leaders Residency Series is an online cultural exchange and capacity building initiative developed by the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) with the support of the ASEAN Foundation through KONNECT ASEAN. Over a period of one month, 20 emerging art leaders from Korea and 5 countries of the ASEAN region (Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines and Singapore) will collaborate in pairs on the theme of international cultural exchange in the Covid-19 era. Each pair will share weekly stories of their creative & collaborative process.