10 March 2022, Kuala Lumpur –
People of Remarkable Talents (PORT), an
arts and culture agency
under the Perak State Government, with support from the
Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, and
the National Art Gallery Malaysia, announces its
commission of the exhibition Pera + Flora + Fauna, as
an official Collateral Event at the 59th International
Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. PORT is
honoured to present at this prestigious international
art event, the artists and artworks that have been
inspired by the rich histories and context of the state
of Perak, Malaysia.
Pera + Flora + Fauna
engages with the discourse around how indigenousness and
nature are affected
by mainstream cultural attitudes of industrialised
nations, the very nations contributing to existing
environmental problems. This leads us to question, can
aesthetic thinking support the conservation
and restoration of nature or indigenous rights and ways
of life? Can indigenous populations across the
globe challenge the mainstream documented (art) history
written by the non-indigenous? Can
indigenous populations achieve the liberty to
collectively claim “their own history and narratives”,
antagonising the dominant discourse? Pera + Flora +
Fauna intends to address these questions
drawing on different perspectives of man, nature, and
their interrelation.
Pera + Flora + Fauna will take place at Archivi della
Misericordia in Cannaregio, Venice; commissioned
by Nur Hanim Mohamed Khairuddin, General Manager of
PORT, and curated by appointed lead
curators Amir Zainorin and Khaled Ramadan, and associate
curators Camilla Boemio and Annie Jael
Kwan.
The exhibition
features Malaysian artists and collectives, and an
Italian artist, from multiple disciplines
ranging across performance, film, sound, sculpture, and
new media. The artists are Azizan Paiman
(MY), Kamal Sabran (MY), Kapallorek Artspace
(MY), Kim Ng (MY), Projek Rabak (MY), Saiful Razman
(MY) and Stefano Cagol (ITA).
The curatorial team intersects across
diverse expertise and contexts of practice. Amir
Zainorin is a
Denmark-based Malaysian artist, curator, and co-founder
of interdisciplinary artist association
Jambatan, while Lebanese born Khaled Ramadan is a
curator, art historian, filmmaker and cultural
writer who works in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Ramadan curated Maldives Pavilion at the 55th
International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia
and co-curated Manifesta 8, Murcia.
The team includes associate curators Camilla Boemio and
Annie Jael Kwan; Boemio has published
extensively on issues of indigeneity in relation with
the climate crisis, and her curatorial research is
focused on the ethics of ecology, while Kwan is an
independent curator and researcher whose work
at Asia-Art-Activism and Asia Forum refocuses on
"Asia/s" as a lens for alternative histories and
perspectives when exploring critical contemporary themes
and practices. The team is advised by
Alfredo Cramerotti, the president of IKT and the
director of MOSTYN, Wales.
“We invited seven
artists, art collectives and contributors to Pera +
Flora + Fauna with the intention
to present a different narrative and an aesthetic
experience that builds upon research, knowledge,
and participation,” said lead curators
Zainorin and Ramadan. “This project is meant to
re-imagine
nature and Indigenousness in relation to ethics
and aesthetics, questioning who owns nature and who
owns Indigenous history.”
YB Dato’ Nolee Ashilin Dato’ Mohamed Radzi, the State of
Perak’s Chairman for Housing, Local
Government and Tourism committee and member of the board
of directors of PORT, further added,
“The State of Perak is dense with its diverse flora,
fauna, historical and cultural assets. Their essences
are explored and aesthetically presented through
this fascinating exhibition. The fact that this
project
is accepted by the main curator of the biennale
has made us very proud.”
In conjunction with
the exhibition, the discourse expands through a forum
where invited panellists
Henry Meyric Hughes, Dorian Batycka, Ong Jo-Lene and
Alfredo Cramerotti, along with the curators
and artists, will share their observations and
interpretations around the concept of Ownership of
Nature and History; attempting to contextualise the
notion of the natural and the historic and why it
cannot be independent of the intellectual, artistic,
emotional, and technological resources available
to us in the industrialised world. In addition, there
will be three on-site performances by the artists;
one which explores sound and body movement to heal the
internal psychic and spiritual body based
on Malay traditional healing rituals; the others
inviting the audience to engage with the ongoing
contest between capitalist driven narratives of
extractivism towards land and indigenous peoples, and
the agency and creative resilience of indigenous
communities in sharing their histories and holistic
principles of coexistence with nature.
“It is our hope
that Pera + Flora + Fauna will become a gentle
reminder for both artists and the
audience to ponder and contemplate the importance
of sustaining a sense of respect among living
beings,” Nur Hanim emphasised.
Director General of National Art Gallery Malaysia Mr
Amerrudin Ahmed states, “The effort made by
PORT and their appointed curatorial team to
present our own contemporary works at this world class
event is a huge achievement for the Malaysian
visual art world. On behalf of the Ministry of
Tourism,
Arts and Culture, the National Art Gallery is
very glad to be able to support this great initiative.”
Several other agencies
and private entities have lent their support for the
realization of this project.
PORT, the organiser, wishes to thank Art Events, Tourism
Malaysia, Tourism Perak, UOB Malaysia,
George Town Festival 2022, RogueArt, Universiti Sains
Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Danish
Arts Foundation, MUSE Science Museum of Trento,
Autonomous Province of Trento, Laterna Magica
Museum, Chamber of Public Secrets and Jambatan.
OPENING PROGRAM
Opening:
Curators’ talk and press opening - 21st April, 5:30
PM
Dignitaries and official inauguration - 22nd April, 7:00
PM
Forum:
Pera + Flora + Fauna: The Ownership of Indigenousness
and the Social Construction of Nature
- 22nd April 2022, 5:30 PM
Panellists: Henry Meyric Hughes, Honoree president AICA,
UK, Alfredo Cramerotti director of MOSTYN
Wales and curators Camilla Boemio and Annie Jael Kwan.
Moderator: Art writer and curator, Dorian Batycka.
Performances
program:
“Ssegar Angin: The Healing Art Project” by Kamal Sabran
in collaboration with Aida Redza
– 21st & 22nd April 2022, 4:20 PM
“We the Mengkuang” by Projek Rabak
– 23rd April 2022, 4:20 PM
“The Human Status, Indigenous Me-We” by Stefano
Cagol, Dorian Batycka, David Lopez, Ronnie Bahari
& Yahya Torek
– 21st, 22nd, 23rd & 24th April 2022, 3.00 PM - 4:00
PM
> Stefano Cagol's
performance: 21 April, 4-5 PM
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