Contemporary Art Gallery

Kura-Kura Gathering: Slow Talk and Unearthing Session

This program highlights the evolving nature of artistic and curatorial practices that emphasize process-oriented approaches, unfold through decentralized structures, and grow from organic, human-to-human connections. With the curators and guest speakers, the audiences are invited to share and exchange their perspectives on how such practices transform the spaces and relationships for contemporary art in Asia. In the field of contemporary art, these practices often go through repeated shifts in response to circumstances, adjusting their forms, sites and modes of operation, making them difficult to fully document or trace. While collaborative attitudes – where decision-making and day-to-day operations unfold simultaneously - may further complicate attempts to understand them in full, such porous and fluid, come-and-go modes of organization may hold important possibilities for sustaining long-term engagement.
This program brings together guest speakers from mid-career and long-standing organizations, alongside an organization engaged in archiving and activating such activities across Asia. Together, we will explore how these fluid approaches take shape, endure, and influence the broader cultural ecosystem in Asia.
Organized as a Pilot Program of “Asia Art Roundtable,” an international networking roundtable led by Agency of Cultural Affairs, Japan, this program draws from ongoing discussions among curators interested in community-based and collaborative practices that operate beyond established institutional frameworks. The title of the program pays homage to our conversations with the artist Shooshie Sulaiman and her concept of “Tadika Kura-Kura” (kindergarten of slow curating), and also plays with the Japanese expression okuradashi (bringing something out from storage). Making the third year of the roundtable, this pilot program seeks to open these ongoing discussions to fellow professionals and the wider public.