SEA AiR – Studio Residencies for Southeast Asian Artists in the EU Cycle 1

Meta Moeng is an independent curator based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She is the founder of Kon Len Khnhom, an independent art space dedicated to building audiences and networking, and Dambaul, an arts resource home comprising a reading room, an art archive, and a space for the sharing of knowledge. She has previously curated exhibitions at Treeline Gallery in Siem Reap (2019) and was creative producer for Creative Generation, a project by Java Creative café (2017–2018). She was the previous Community Projects Manager at SA SA BASSAC (2013-2016).

Melati Suryodarmo is an internationally known Indonesian artist whose work is regularly presented worldwide. Informed by butoh, dance, and history, her practice is the result of an ongoing research on body movement and its relationship to the self and the world. These interests are enshrined in photography, translated into choreographed dances, enacted in video, or executed in live performances. Since 2007, Suryodarmo organises “Undisclosed Territory”, an annual performance art event in Solo, Indonesia. She was Artistic Director for JIWA, the 17th Jakarta Biennale (2017).

Misouda Heuangsoukkhoun is an indipenent curator, the founder of Mekong Art Initiative (MAI) and the manager of Lao Gallery in Vientiane. Misouda’s passion for art developed when her parents opened the Lao Gallery in 1985, the first art gallery in Laos. Misouda was a co-curator of the Singapore Biennale 2013 and of the Mekong Art and Culture Project (2006). She was the nominator of Laotian artists for the Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Japan (2010) and for the Signature Art Prize, Singapore (2012 and 2014). In 2016, Misouda was invited from Taiwan Ministry of Culture to be a member of the inaugural Southeast Asia Advisory Committee to foster art and culture activities between Southeast Asia and Taiwan. She combines her strong interest in art with her passion for social work through art exhibitions organised to raise funds for children with autism in Laos.

Yee I-Lann currently lives and works in Kota Kinabalu, in the Malaysian Borneo state of Sabah, where she works collaboratively with sea-based and land-based communities and indigenous mediums. Her primarily photo-based practice engages with the turbulent history of archipelagic Southeast Asia through works that address issues of colonialism and neo-colonialism, power, and the impact of historic memory in social experiencemoften with a focus on counternarratives and “histories from below”. She is a co-founding associate of The Ricecooker Archives: Southeast Asian Rock ‘n’ Roll Treasury with her partner Joe Kidd and a Board member of Forever Sabah and Tamparuli Living Arts Center (TaLAC), both based in Sabah.

Aung Myat Htay is an artist, writer, and independent curator based in Yangon. In his practice, he explores the potential of freedom of expression in contemporary art. He presented works in local and international exhibitions and participated in residency programs at Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan; Bengaluru Artist Residency One, India; Residency Unlimited, United States; Sylt Foundation, Germany; and the Heritage Space, Vietnam. He is an Asian Cultural Council Fellow (2013) and the founder of School of Contemporary Art (SOCA), an online programme focused on community-based and experimental art.

Renan Laru-an is a researcher and a curator interested in ‘insufficient’ and ‘subtracted’ images, histories, and subjects. He was the founding director of DiscLab – Research and Criticism, a multidisciplinary platform and ‘virtual’ organisation for critical writing, theory, discursive activities and long-term research on Philippine contemporary art and network culture. He is a member of the founding team of the Philippine Contemporary Art Network at the Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center, where he leads the Public Engagement and Artistic Formation desk. He has curated a number of project and exhibitions and was in the curatorial team of the 6th Singapore Biennale (2019).

Syaheedah Iskandar works with vernacular ideas of visuality within Southeast Asia. Her curatorial projects aim to unpack knowledge(s) that inform and counter hegemonic systems of seeing. Recent curatorial projects include State of Motion 2021: [Alternate/Opt] Realities, Singapore (2021) and An Exercise of Meaning in a Glitch Season, National Gallery Singapore (2020). She is the inaugural Emerging Writers’ Fellow for the academic journal Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia and the recipient of the IMPART Awards 2020. She was previously Curatorial Assistant at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (2014–18).

Kittima Chareeprasit is a curator at MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum in Chiang Mai, Thailand. In 2016, she cofounded Waiting You Curator Lab, an experimental curatorial workshop and artists’ book publishing house. Her interest lies in contemporary art and culture that revolve around critical history, social, and political issues. She works on numerous projects with emerging and established artists from Southeast Asia.

The research and curatorial practice of Đỗ Tường Linh range from art and politics to conceptualism and postcolonial studies, with a specific focus on avant-garde and contemporary art in Vietnam post-1986, the relation between Vietnam and post-socialist countries, and the historical connections between Vietnam and Africa. She has worked with galleries, art spaces, institutions and projects such as Art Vietnam gallery, Nhà Sàn Studio, Sàn Art, Hanoi DocLab and Goethe-Institut. She is a fellow researcher for “Site and Space in Southeast Asia”, a research project that explores the intersections of urban space, art, and culture in Yangon, Penang, and Huế.

Since 2017, Đặng Thuỳ Anh (b. 1996, Vietnam) has been developing an experimental artistic practice exploring performance art and other mediums such as installation, photography, and conceptual approaches to art making. Her interests revolve around the connection between human and nature, stereotypical visual motifs, and the impact of social prejudice towards the conceptualization of gender. Selected exhibitions include: Month of Art Practice, Heritage Space, Hanoi (2018); Open Studio, Á Space, Hanoi (2018) and Emerging Artists 6, Nhà Sàn Collective, Hanoi (2018).

Priyageetha Dia (b. 1992, Singapore) is an artist working in the fields of moving image, sculpture, installation, and text. Her practice unfolds contemplative constructions of alternate futures and speculative imaginaries to readdress historical and cultural production of her Tamil identity. Her current research focuses on the ancestral spectre and labour relations of the diasporas in Southeast Asia and beyond. Contributing to the discourse of what constitutes art in Singapore, Dia also experiments with new way of practicing art in public spaces. Selected exhibitions include An Exercise of Meaning in a Glitch Season, National Gallery Singapore (2020); the earth and her skin, Arts Porter Gallery, Singapore (2020-21), 2219: Futures Imagined, ArtScience Museum, Singapore (2019), among others.

Tada Hengsapkul (b. 1987, Thailand) is an artist based in Bangkok. Consisting of photographic series and moving image works, his practice is concerned with investigating and resisting various forms of control to address questions of freedom and social agency. In recent years, his work has been exhibited in numerous group shows including Bangkok Biennale, Thailand (2020); State of Motion, Asian Film Archive, Singapore (2019); and the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia (2018) among others.

Rita Khin (b. 1992, Myanmar) is a Yangon-based queer photographer. Her works addresses gender diversity, women issues, and stories LGBT individuals and communities. She is also a member of Thuma Collective, a collective of Burmese women photographers, formed in 2017, who are committed to challenge stereotypes about photography and gender through visual storytelling. In 2019, she was selected as a fellow to attend the Angkor Photo Festival. In 2018, she was selected to participate in Burmese Days Photography Workshop organised by The VII Foundation.

Kat Medina (b. 1984, Philippines) is a painter who weaves elements of craft-making in her practice. She is especially involved in thinking about craft and object-making in the face of popular production exploring the architectonic nuances of painterly gestures and the configuration of colour. Her work is regularly exhibited in galleries and art spaces across the Philippines and was included in the exhibitions A Knowing Intimacy Or A Life, Jorge B. Vargas Museum, Quezon City, Philippines (2019) and Casting Stones into Still Waters, Mind Set Art Center, Taipei, Taiwan (2018).

nor (b. 1993, Singapore) is an artist whose practice investigates the performative aspects of identities. Their work is rooted in self-portraiture, exploring themes such as gender, sexuality and ethnicity through photography, film, performance, and spoken word. Their works have been featured in exhibitions such as An Exercise of Meaning in a Glitch Season, National Gallery Singapore (2020-21) and Minor Infelicities, Post Territory Ujeongguk, Seoul, South Korea (2020). She received their first solo show In Love at Coda Culture, Singapore (2018).