Global Asia/Pacific art exchange 2019

9/29/2020

‘サモアについてのうた (Samoa ni tsuite no uta) | A song about Sāmoa’(2019–) detail by Yuki Kihara.
Funding received from Creative New Zealand – the national arts development agency of the Government of New Zealand.
Courtesy of Yuki Kihara and Milford Galleries Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL CONFERENCE PROGRAM

GAX 2019 CONFERENCE

Concordia University
Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex (EV Building)
1515 St. Catherine West (Metro Guy-Concordia)
Open to the public. Free admission. All locations are accessible to wheelchair users. If you need accommodations, please contact email: GAX2019Montreal@gmail.com

The Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU Global Asia/Pacific Art Exchange (GAX) Network in partnership with Concordia University is proud to present GAX 2019 in Montreal on the theme of Asian Indigenous Relations in Contemporary Art. Through a series of working group sessions, a public conference, panels, and exhibitions, our meeting brings together over forty international and local artists, curators, and scholars to exchange knowledge about relational approaches to the making, presentation, and study of Indigenous and Asian diasporic contemporary art.

Our two-day conference will focus on the Canadian (including the Americas) and Asia-Pacific contexts, particularly Hawai`i, the Pacific Islands, Oceania, Australia, and New Zealand. Our esteemed keynote speakers are Samoan, Japanese interdisciplinary artist Yuki Kihara, Asian American Studies scholar Margo Machida, and Mohawk multimedia artist Skawennati.

In the past decade, there has been an explosion of Indigenous artists, curators, and scholars in Canadian, the US, Asia Pacific, and Islander contexts and a concurrent surge in uncovering and theorizing Asian Indigenous relations in the fields of Asian American, Asian North American, and Asian Pacific and Islander studies. Decolonizing research and activism and present-day coalition building between Indigenous, marginalized, and ally groups are leading to new paradigms of identity and community to confront issues of self-determination, decolonization, and social justice. Now is the time to have these conversations on global Indigeneity, Asian diasporas, and the future of exhibition making.

ORGANIZERS

Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU GAX Network
Concordia University Research Chair in Ethnocultural Art Histories
Concordia University Research Chair in Indigenous Art History and Community Engagement
Concordia University Research Chair in Computation Media and the Indigenous Future Imaginary

PUBLIC PROGRAM-AT-A-GLANCE

June 11 (2-3:30 p.m.) Public Panel Discussion
ARTEXTE - 2, Sainte-Catherine East, room 301
A Conversation on Indigenous/Asian Art Archives
Jessica Hebert, John Tain, Mikhel Proulx, and Sara England
(Registration required: tiny.cc/Artexte_GAX)

June 13 Conference - Concordia University
Morning Welcome

Sessions: Curating Hospitality; Alternative Contacts/Storytelling; Indigenous Languages; Artist Roundtable and Tour of Exhibitions

EAHR Workshop in Collaboration with Taklif
(Registration required: tiny.cc/GAXthirdspace)

Opening Keynote: Yuki Kihara

Reception & Book Launch: Samoan Queer Lives

June 14 Conference- Concordia University
Morning Keynote: Skawennati

Climate Working Group Session

Sessions: Climate Change; Ethics of Return; Curating Asian Indigenous Relations

Afternoon Keynote: Margo Machida

All Summer
Exhibitions at FOFA Gallery, Department of Art History and EV Junction (all in EV Building) and at the Webster Library. For information on artists, curators, and locations view the exhibitions page on our website.

ABOUT GAX

The Global Asia/Pacific Art Exchange (GAX) will take place in Montreal, Canada in 2019 with a focus on Global Asian Indigenous in Contemporary Art. GAX 2019 will bring together scholars, artists, arts practitioners/administrators, and local organizations to establish research sharing and forward major topics in the field internationally on Global Asias, Asian Indigenous, and Indigenous Studies. In collaboration with partnering institution Concordia University, GAX will present the major international conference: Asian Indigenous Relations in Contemporary Art, June 11-15, 2019 as part of its first exchange in Canada.

GAX 2019 Montreal is co-convened by Alice Ming Wai Jim and Alexandra Chang with Heather Igloliorte, Jason Edward Lewis and the GAX Tiohtiá:ke (Montreal) local organizing team .

Hosted by Concordia University, GAX 2019 Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal is aligned with the University's Indigenous Directions Action Plan: Concordia’s Pathway Towards Decolonizing and Indigenizing the University (April 2019) “to co-construct a new, shared future based on responsibility, reciprocity, and respect,” acknowledging numerous sources including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In response to recent posts on social media related to GAX's public conference "Asian Indigenous Relations in Contemporary Art," the organizers of GAX 2019 Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal reaffirm that the goal of fostering self-reflexivity about the reality of the institutions and contexts in which we work related to issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion inevitably leads to working through difficult knowledge. GAX is committed to perspectives based on sound, culturally-sensitive research that not only contribute to addressing the multiple complex challenges to reconciliation, Indigenization, and decolonization of the academy but also uphold an ethics of hospitality, reciprocity, and anti-racism allyship as foregrounded in this conference.