NOW explores how the diversity of current female artistic practice transcends notions of gender difference to offer hybrid perspectives on their socio-political environment. ACC alumni Li Shurui, Ma Quisha and Yin Xiuzhen are some of the most exciting female artists working in mainland China.

From giant installations and elusive sculptural pieces challenging and exploring everyday objects to powerful and other-worldly visual narratives, the huge variety of artworks found throughout the NOW programme, reflects the many viewpoints of artists in the wake of feminist movements of the past.

This exhibition is based on the perception that radical avoidance of food on the one hand, and its excessive consumption on the other, are deviations from the middle way; the two meet up where fine taste ends. Abstaining entirely from food as a performative artistic act that has exceeded its own limits is the core of Franz Kafka’s Hunger Artist. The tale’s hero fasts before an audience of spectators for forty days, until the audience grows bored. The artist continues to fast in a circus cage containing only hay. One day an inspector finds the artist dying under the hay, and asks him why he did not eat. 

Twenty years ago in 1998, ACC grantee Basil Twist debuted his boundary-breaking response to Berlioz’s 1830 “Symphonie Fantastique” to universal acclaim, inaugurating HERE’s intimate Dorothy B. Williams Theatre. In the two decades since Symphonie Fantastique’s premiere, Basil Twist has become an internationally recognized artist in opera, ballet, and on Broadway, and has won countless awards including the illustrious MacArthur Fellowship. Twist will revisit his legendary masterpiece as part of HERE’s 25th Anniversary Season. In this revival, accompanied live by the virtuosic pianist Christopher O’Riley playing the exquisite Liszt transcription, Symphonie floats and swirls in a 1,000-gallon water tank neatly disguised as a puppet stage. For the many who never saw it, and for those who relish seeing it again and again, the return of this tour de force to HERE is the event of the season.

Contemporary artist Jean Shin (American, born South Korea 1971) transforms everyday objects—worn-out shoes, fashion remnants, military uniforms—to create dynamic works about connection and belonging. Her installations, often made from donated and discarded materials, raise provocative questions about what, and how, we consume.

On view in this exhibition are six large-scale installations and a video that tell powerful stories about the military, the fashion industry, and Shin’s own Asian American community.

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, presents <How Little You Know About Me> the first in MMCA's 2018-19 exhibition series revolving around the keyword 'Asia'. <How Little You Know About Me> is a question we pose to ourselves ("how do we understand Asia?"), and also one that we raise against the images portrayed and labeled as Asia throughout history. In <How Little You Know About Me> "Asia" does not simply refer to a geographical region or identity -- it is a multifaceted critical framework that enables a new way of perceiving the world.

ACC alumni Yusuke Kamata is one of the 15 participating aratists in this group exhibition.

Seeing is something most of us take for granted. Yet, to consciously see is surprisingly difficult, and as a result, we tend to miss much of what there is to see. An art museum is a place for “seeing,” “admiring,” and “thinking about” artworks. To the visitors to this exhibition, whether they normally enjoy viewing artworks or find it difficult, we would like to say, “First of all, begin by seeing well.” The exhibition “Adventures in ‘Seeing’” starts there.Open yourself to the artwork a little more than usual. Stand and view it 10 seconds longer than usual. After viewing it thoroughly, relax and view it a little more. Doing so, you will begin to see details you had not noticed, and your imagination will have time to come into play. Discoveries, surprises, and new feelings will come to you in an experience really no different from an adventure story.

SUPERPOSITION: Equilibrium & Engagement, curated by Artistic Director Mami Kataoka, presents the work of 70 artists and artist collectives from 35 countries at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Artspace, Carriageworks, Cockatoo Island, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney Opera House and 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.

The Biennale of Sydney is located on the traditional lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. The Biennale acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land and pay respect to Elders, both past and present.

Leading 20th century photographer William Klein had a decisive influence on modern visual culture with his expression that went beyond genres such as photography, movies, design and fashion, and his works capturing the cities of the world, including New York, Rome, Moscow, Tokyo, Paris, etc. In this exhibition, 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT introduces the city vision of Klein and Japanese and Asian photographers trying to examine the cities and people of the 21st century with a fresh perspective and greatly transcend the frames of conventional photos.

The Shanghai-born, New York-based photographer and ACC grantee Shen Wei is the master of seductive intimate portraits, poetic landscapes, still-lives and erotic botanic images. His work is a fine balance between private and public spheres. He often challenges his traditional but conservative culture by explicit self-portraits and nudity. Following his series “Chinese Sentiment” being consistent with his sensual and emotional style, Shen turned the lens upon himself, producing “I Miss You Already”, a series of achingly sentimental nude self-portraits revealing his processes of self-reflection and discovery.

Apichatpong Weerasethakul: The Serenity of Madness, is a solo exhibition  by visual artist and ACC grantee Apichatpong Weerasethakul and is curated by ACC grantee Gridthiya Gaweewong. A leading figure in contemporary film and art, Apichatpong Weerasethakul has developed a singular realist-surrealist style in which he portrays the everyday alongside supernatural elements, suggesting a distortion between fact and folklore, the subconscious and the exposed, and various disparities of power. The artist’s passionate positions regarding class, labor, sexuality, science, and spirituality have informed his practice from early in his career to the present, and his work reveals stories often excluded in history in and out of Thailand: voices of the poor and the ill, marginalized beings, and those silenced and censored for personal and political reasons.

Curated by Gridthiya Gaweewong, Apichatpong Weerasethakul: The Serenity of Madness, uniquely presents a selected survey of rarely seen experimental short films and video installations by Weerasethakul, alongside his photography, drawings, sketches, and archival material that explore threads of sociopolitical commentary. In tandem with the exhibition, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art will present a retrospective of the director’s theatrical releases in its Samuel Roberts Noble Theater. The exhibition will also feature a special opening event for the Museum’s recently launched Film Society.

What would our world look like 32 years from now? Over fifty international and Taiwanese artists will seek to uncover the future through art at this first joint venture by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.

"2050: A Brief History of the Future," which was presented at the Louvre in 2016, will run in Taichung from March 24 through June 3 to elaborate on the concepts first proposed by French economist Jacques Attali in the 2006 bestseller "A Brief History of the Future."

Attali speculates on human and technological development in face of troubling population growth, overexploitation of resources, social inequality, and religious wars. Curator Pierre-Yves Desaive has expanded upon this framework to mount an exhibition with a Taiwanese perspective.

Internationally acclaimed composer and artist -- and ACC alumnus -- Shuta Hasunuma is known for his engagement in a wide variety of music-related activities, as a composer, producer, collaborator in genres like film, theater and dance, as well as his Hasunuma Philharmonic Orchestra, which presents concerts among musicians from different musical backgrounds. Hasunuma will present video, sound, sculpture and other works in which he has extracted the key elements of his creative process, namely, fieldwork, collaboration, and phenomena. The exhibition will consider new relationships and coexistences among people, and between humans and non-humans, while at the same time composing works for exhibition to create a singular harmony. 

For his latest piece, titled Oscar Oiwa in Paradise – Drawing the Ephemeral, the artist used 120 black marker pens to adorn an entire inflatable dome with illustrations of imaginative pathways, mythical forests, and swirling skies. Created exclusively for JAPAN HOUSE São Paulo, the installation took two weeks to complete with the help of five assistants. Visitors are invited to enter the vinyl balloon, where they can experience Oiwa’s otherworldly, imaginary landscape. The colossal, monochrome drawing covers every surface of the 10 x 7 x 4 meter vinyl surface, and is influenced by the artist’s love of comic book art, and the Brazilian urban environment.

Sandra Eula Lee’s work is inspired by the temporary structures built by residents in Beijing where neighborhoods underwent constant demolition and relocation of communities. These structures include make-shift stands, small ‘impromptu’ gardens, and improvised spaces. Her installation pays tribute to the enduring human spirit found in these everyday creative acts.

The three decades from 1970s to 1990s may be brief in the grand scheme of history, but seeing from a global context for Taiwan, this span of time was a critical and important transitional period for Taiwan’s internal and international affairs, cross-strait development with China, and also socio-economical shifts and changes.

Under the intense social tension before and post martial law, Taiwanese photographers, from the main island of Taiwan and its outlying islands, up in the mountains or by the coastal shore, compared with those in other creative practices such as literature or painting, sought to use photography to portray and even interpret the different emotions and ups and downs unfolding in that era, as they engaged in society and interacted closely with various communities including Hokkien, Hakka, mainlanders, and indigenous groups, responding to external challenges in reality and extended inwards to examine life. 

After decades of distillation and accretion, these photographic works have, in the interim, augmented the important ethos and practical foundation of photography internally in Taiwan, through the expansion of its format and phraseology. The transfixed and distinct ethic features in these artworks and also the continually overlapping and subtle contours of the islands not only serve as clues and memories for us to look back upon and use as references for constructing history; the viewpoints of the photographers have also become dignified reflective and direct “gazes” for the islands today and for this era of uproar.

“Songs for Sabotage,” the fourth New Museum Triennial, questions how individuals and collectives around the world might effectively address the connection of images and culture to the forces that structure our society.

The New Museum Triennial is the only recurring international exhibition in New York City devoted to emerging artists from around the world, providing an important platform for a new generation of artists who are shaping the current discourse of contemporary art and the future of culture. The first edition was initiated in 2009 with “Younger Than Jesus,” organized by Massimiliano Gioni, Laura Hoptman, and Lauren Cornell. The second Triennial, “The Ungovernables,” was organized by Eungie Joo in 2012. The third Triennial, “Surround Audience,” was organized by Lauren Cornell and Ryan Trecartin with Sara O’Keeffe and Helga Christoffersen in 2015.

When "local" and "other" meet, it can stir the beginning of unrest. It overlaps, increases, and produces various kinds of insights. Thinking lines, the art exhibitions developed on this theme can be taken as an introduction, leaving open and free imagination space to watch the public.

ACC alumnus Hiraku Suzuki's solo exhibition "Traffic" applies his methodology of ‘excavation’, in the sense that he seeks to express what is beyond time, but still occupying given space. His method has now gone on to a higher level. It is tempting to say his ‘excavations’ are conducted to dig out the crossroads between time and space. 

The Wooster Group takes on one of the greatest figures in 20th century avant-garde theater: the iconic Polish stage director Tadeusz Kantor. Lighting is by ACC alumna Jennifer Tipton.

Chinese Folk Pottery: The Art of the Everyday exhibition explores contemporary folk pottery produced within the diversity of ethnic minorities and Han people across China.  It examines pottery from three perspectives: production values, functions, and aesthetics.

In this exhibition, offering an exceptional combination of talents, ten contemporary artistic outlooks are brought together, expressing their visions in a range of languages, from painting to fashion, from digital design to music. They have drawn inspiration from the specifics of a unique medium, and have observed Alcantara® in all its various declinations and potential, exploring its invention and production processes, working with technicians and experts, be it along independent paths or through innovative collaboration projects.

The ten artists called upon to interpret nine different space-time expeditions launched by Alcantara from the Apartment of the Prince are: ACC alumna Li Shurui, Aaajiao, Andrea Anastasio, Caterina Barbieri, Krijn De Koning, Chiharu Shiota, Esther Stocker and Iris Van Herpen, Zeitguised, Zimoun.

“HARSH ASTRAL” is the conceptual continuation of the exhibition “The Radiants” presented by Bortolami Gallery in New York in 2015. While the theme there was radioactivity in the broadest sense set against the background of the fourth anniversary of the earthquake and resulting crisis in the Japanese nuclear power plant Fukushima Daiichi, which prompted the foundation of both the Green Tea Gallery and the UNITED BROTHERS, “HARSH ASTRAL. The Radiants 2” brings together works that revolve not only around radioactivity, but loosely and associatively follow the motif of radiation, transformation and energy in general, thus spreading out in different directions. 

ACC grantee Elises Thoron adapted and directs THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that chronicles the life of Oscar de León, an overweight Dominican boy growing up in Paterson, New Jersey. Oscar is obsessed with science fiction and fantasy novels, falling in love, and the curse that has plagued his family for generations. Performed by artist Elvis Nolasco (“American Crime”, “She’s Gotta Have It”), this production shows the importance of facing fear with love.

In collaboration with Literature to Life, each performance will feature a short pre- and post-performance discussion.

With enormous projects inside and outside Japan, world-class architect and ACC alumnus Kengo Kuma (b. 1954) is constantly on the move. This exhibition is a major survey of his projects from the past 30 years, projects underpinned by Kuma's intimate knowledge of Eastern and Western thought, both past and present, and his own innovative concepts, which include ideas on “makeru kenchiku (losing architecture)” and “shizen na kenchiku (natural architecture).” The exhibition focuses in particular on materials, which Kuma has dialoged with extensively through his work. It organizes his architecture, product designs and other achievements not chronologically but rather by the category of primary material, including bamboo, wood, paper, stone and earth, in an attempt to provide an overview of Kuma's work from the standpoint of “things.” 

 In “Shadows” at Long March Space, Liu Wei shifts his interest from color-field abstraction to
how shadows land on materials imbibed with their own sensitivity. Liu Wei’s recent large-scale installations and paintings continue to reflect his sensitivity towards urban texture in China’s post-planning era. In his own abstract and streamlined fashion, he retains a certain material and affective tension which parallels the deliriousness of the landscapes around him. His 2015 solo exhibition “Colors” at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art explored the politics inherent in abstract blocks of color: negating the image of things is in fact a violent process, leaving a strong physical impression.

 ACC alumnus Tadashi Kawamata’s artisanal practice places him at a distance from the spotlight and the gossip columns of the art world. His work is always the result of a deep, personal commitment. Though he began his training as a painter, Kawamata soon turned to a more hands-on form of artistic practice. ‘I don’t trust things I can’t touch. Maybe that’s why I stick to tangible, concrete materials,’ he says. His installations and preparatory models are all made of wood. For Kawamata, this natural, easy to find material is the most democratic available.

There will be a film showing of “Dancing around the world – Manila” by Nejla Yatkin (German-American Choreographer), “Free” by Ea Torrado and (Mark Valino- Filipino Canadian Video Artist), a live performance of “Glitters” by Daloy Dance Company, a Movement workshop by Ea Torrado, then finally a Music and Movement Jam.