Artistic experimentation in exhibition practice

Independent Art Festivals in Chiang Mai 1992–98

Founded on an ethos of friendship, and emerging amidst a regional constellation of artists’ initiatives and independent spaces, the series of festivals known as Chiang Mai Social Installation staged contemporary art within everyday city life. From temples and cemeteries to libraries, the town square, and even a dental clinic, these artist-led interventions present a self-funded, anarchic alternative to Southeast Asia’s subsequently expanding biennial culture while also marking the emergence of a wider contemporary moment.

APTART 1982–84

A collective of artists, a gallery and a movement, APTART was a series of self-organised ‘anti-shows’ that took place in a private apartment and outdoor spaces in Moscow between 1982 and 1984. These covert and anarchic actions, which soon came into conflict with the Soviet authorities, represent a collective attempt to rethink the politics of exhibition-making and the practice of making public in the absence of a public sphere.

‘an Exhibit’ 1957 and Related Projects

‘an Exhibit’ emerged from a decade of testing the formats and possibilities of exhibition-making. A collaboration between two artists, Richard Hamilton and Victor Pasmore, and critic Lawrence Alloway, the show was simultaneously an investigation into abstract environmental forms and a participatory experiment that would fundamentally transform the role of the viewer.