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Title + Wall Text

M A D E
I N A S E A N

Online Exhibition
15.11.2020 - 15.12.2020 and onwards
Held asynchronously in Southeast Asia

Who is Southeast Asia made of?

We must beg this question of who instead of what, because decades after Southeast Asian countries’ colonial histories the search for a shared identity persists. In 1967 the ASEAN was founded as a means of establishing mutual cooperation within the region and since then, it has grown from five post-war countries to ten independent member states. One Vision, One Identity, One Community; the ASEAN motto implies seeing, recognising, and belonging.

Participants from different ASEAN countries and the UK engaged in participatory photography to reflect on what it means to be an ASEAN member citizen in today’s world. The main challenge was to reflect on the various ways we might see, recognise, and belong to ‘ASEAN-ness’ using images of everyday life, nostalgia, and places — almost stripping the grand narrative of geopolitics down to what we can imagine with our very eyes and, by extension, what can be observed by our camera phones. The view of a nameless street from one’s window, intertwining clotheslines stretched out from the kitchen back door, a cupboard overflowing with chopsticks, spoons, pots and pans, a handful of souvenirs and trinkets tucked away for several years, and memories of travel adventures and childhood games. The similarities are uncanny yet familiar to our imaginative eyes; the differences only reveal themselves when we speak of them. While we remain indoors for still an uncertain period of time, we invite you to visit Southeast Asia by imagining with us.

MADE IN ASEAN transforms our collective act of imagining into image-making. As the regional integration project ASEAN Vision 2020 was envisioned to launch this year, our curatorial project offers the public an alternative means of reflecting on the ASEAN’s identity-building efforts in the last fifty years. Who makes the ASEAN? Who makes of the ASEAN? What do we make of the ASEAN?

We can only imagine, for now.

Participants' Zoom Simulation Mirror

M A D E
I N A S E A N

Held asynchronously in ASEAN countries
Audio clips from June to December 2020

ASEAN Manifesto

On ASEAN Day, Kristian Agustin (Philippines), Amy Matthewson (Canada & UK), Yen Ooi (UK & Malaysia) and Martin Vidanes (Philippines) re-adopt the ASEAN Declaration (1967) into today’s sociopolitical climate to challenge what is archaic and historic about ‘Southeast Asia’ as both an identity and a geopolitical bloc. Dubbed ‘ASEAN MANIFESTO’, the collaborative performance piece serves as a culmination of a series of paracuratorial experiments held in 2020.

Guest Book

Please click here to open the logbook on a new window.

"MADE IN" Labels

With its gross domestic product (GDP) nearing USD 3 trillion, the ASEAN region is collectively recognised as the 5th largest economy in the world.

Rice Bowl

Kita hanya boleh bayangkannya,
buat masa ini.

Intro notes: "assemblage"

An international curatorial collaboration, MADE IN ASEAN presents an assemblage of photographs taken from various locations in Southeast Asia.

Buddha, Monk, Coconut, Corn

东南亚
是由谁组成的？

東南亞是由誰形成呢？

Home Stuff, Figurine, Couch, Pots, Pans

Kitchen condiments Tuktuk Mall

Elephant, HoChi Minh, ASEAN Mall

QR Snail

ຈຶ່ງຄ່ອຍສາມາດເຫັນຄວາມແຕກຕ່າງໄດ້.

MESA SA KWARTO

MESA SA KWARTO by Kristian Jeff Agustin (Philippines) is literally a desk in his room which serves as his only workspace while observing the strict lockdown in Manila. He makes do with this desk (‘mesa’) within the room (‘kwarto’) to introduce an expandable exhibition space in a Zoom Gallery.
(click to expand)

Myanmar Eatery, Formal Tea Flatlay

เอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้ - คิดให้เป็นภาพ.

MEDIaTisATION

This audio guide is a rendition of Agustin’s ‘performative
photography’ in Estonia (Nordic Summer University, 2019).
You may need to use your earphones and mobile phone.

‘Southeast Asia must be geopolitically unburdened,
released from its colonial and Cold War psychogeography.
The contemporary and the curatorial can initiate this
redistribution.’ (Flores, 2020)

Clothesline, Power Lines, Outdoor

Ai làm nên Đông Nam Á?

Ai làm nên khối ASEAN?

Escalator, Climbing the Mountain

Saan man nais pumunta,
tiyak na may patutunguhan.

Greens, Greens, Green Bowl

CROSSWORLD PUZZLE

Read curatorial statement here

Co-curators Kerrine Goh and Andy Chan (Singapore) transform images into intersections in CROSSWORLD PUZZLE. The popular word game is remade into a visual play to trigger what we make of various photographs taken from places across Southeast Asia — snapshots of crowds, cuisines, cities, shops, and, souvenirs. Look for the visual clues scattered here and there; solve them pic by pic.

^{(click to view)}

Camera Pedestal, Wall Text Description

PHOTOGRAPHING THE ASEAN

Reminiscent of the online crowdsourcing of ASEAN photographs that started in 2011, MADE IN ASEAN is a challenge to view our imagination of Southeast Asia as a visual construct, a model, or even a product. The exhibition focuses on images that are often excluded by the visual language of touristic snapshots and travel selfies, and yet left embedded in camera phones — if not deleted. Hence, these images are not necessarily unseen and untaken.
^.
But for images as yet unphotographed due to the so-called ‘unmaking’ of the year 2020, this exhibition also opens a space for make-believe.

Books, Books, Books

Disney, Toys, Children

Motorcycles, Street Photos

Untuk saat ini, kita hanya dapat membayangkannya.

World Map, Beach Waste, MRT Crowd

虽然熟悉，但当我们讨论时，
差异便渐渐的浮现。

Food, Food, Food

ANONYMISED SKIES

ANONYMISED

SKIES

Martin Vidanes (Philippines) invites residents and visitors of Southeast Asian countries to locate their specific geographic co-ordinates while taking pictures of the sky.

A panoramic view of the big picture is thus almost made visible: that despite geopolitical borders, rifts or seas within the region, when looking up at the same sky, we are made one.
Click here.

Click here to participate

Two Windows, One Sky (Haiku Text)

You and I both have

These two perceptive windows

To view the same sky

Globe, Books and Zhuang Wubin Quote

‘As a proposition, I wish to invoke the imaginary of ‘‘Southeast Asia’’ as a posture of solidarity with others who have been made ‘‘peripheral’’ by centres of power.’ (Zhuang Wubin, 2016)

Phynuch Thong Photos

តើអ្នកណាបង្កីតអាស៊ាន? តើអ្នកណាគិតអំពីអាស៊ាន? តើយើងមើលឃើញអ្វីខ្លះអំពីអាស៊ាន? ឥឡូវនេះយើងអាចស្រមៃបាន។

ASEAN Concert

‘A Concert of Southeast Asian Nations’

(ASEAN, 1997)

This screenshot was taken from this collaboration,
a video by The ASEAN Musical Theatre Project.

Can a ‘screenshot’ be considered as a photograph?

ASEAN Mosaic

Guest Feedback

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ASEAN Photo Voices

Participate in our exhibition by submitting a photo.

MORE INFORMATION BELOW

MADE IN ASEAN Audio Guide

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00:00

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MEDI^AT^ISATION Audio Guide

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The virtual gallery is only viewable on devices with a bigger display resolution (e.g., desktop, laptop, tablet). Please try another device. Thank you.

See our collection of photographs below.

USER GUIDE

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