[Hoo Fan Chon] A Tilapia’s Adventure: From Wishing Pond to Fish Farming

(Transcriber: Seah Yi Zai/ original link)

Note: This article is the transcript of the conversation between second invited visual artist Hoo Fan Chon for No Man’s Land residency and Nusantara Archive and the project observer and independent curator Ho Yu Kuan. During which they discussed Fan Chon’s interchangeable roles as the co-founder of an independent art space (Run Amok), curator, art collective member and visual artist, and his views on this project. This conversation took place on the 11th September 2017, 7pm. Seah Yi Zai was the transcriber for this audio recording.

HYK: Having to run an independent space, work as a curator and visual artist,[1] yet for this time you have been invited specifically as a visual artist, what’s your take on the multiple roles you have play?

An Interview with Rumah Attap Library: Archive of the Other Mapping Project

(Author: Alice KO; translator: Alex MA / Original link)

Note: Founded by Amateur, In Between Cultura and Au Sow Yee Studio in 2017, Rumah Attap Library & Collective is located in Kampung Attap, Kuala Lumpur. It is a physical library as well as an imagined space, a space for reading, discussion, publication, workshops, forums, and artists/researchers' residencies. Exchanges of books and thoughts related to cultural studies, arts, literature, philosophy and social sciences are welcomed here. It aimed at building an open and critical alternative knowledge system, creating a "living coordinate" generated by public participation. NML's researcher KO Nien Pu arrived Rumah Attap Library from August 7th to 28th. The article "An Interview with Rumah Attap Library: Archive of the Other Mapping Project" is the second part of her interview with the Au Sow Yee and Show Ying Xin, co-founders of Rumah Attap Library.

AU Sow Yee: Rumah Attap Library & Collective looks to vitalize local knowledge production or critical thinking, and has fine interaction with different organizations in the Zhongshan Building, as we support each other’s events. But I think we are all concentrated in the building, whereas Kuala Lumpur is a more spread-out city. This space provides certain conditions for you to learn and support each other. For example, we knew about “Malaysia Design Archive,” but did not know any of its actual members. Later we became neighbors, and have been interacting more closely.

An Interview with Rumah Attap Library: From Intellectuals to Practitioners

(Author: Alice KO; translator: Alex MA / Original link)

Note: Founded by Amateur, In Between Cultura and Au Sow Yee Studio in 2017, Rumah Attap Library & Collective is located in Kampung Attap, Kuala Lumpur. It is a physical library as well as an imagined space, a space for reading, discussion, publication, workshops, forums, and artists/researchers' residencies. Exchanges of books and thoughts related to cultural studies, arts, literature, philosophy and social sciences are welcomed here. It aimed at building an open and critical alternative knowledge system, creating a "living coordinate" generated by public participation. NML's researcher KO Nien Pu arrived Rumah Attap Library from August 7th to 28th. The article "An Interview with Rumah Attap Library: From Intellectuals to Practitioners" is the first part of her interview with the Au Sow Yee and Show Ying Xin, co-founders of Rumah Attap Library.

Alice KO Nien Po: Please share a bit on the motive and background of your founding of Rumah Attap Library & Collective?

[Zikri Rahman] New Youth Cultural Movement in Malaysia: A Conversation with Zikri Rahman, Co-founder of Buku Jalanan

(Author: SHOW Ying Xin; translated by Kris CHI [English] / originally link) 

Note: As a young Malay activist on the street, Zikri Rahman consistently embarks on various interdisciplinary socio-political and cultural activism projects, including Buku Jalanan and Idearaya Festival. Currently, he is doing a cultural and literary mapping project of Kuala Lumpur through the lenses of literature with LiteraCity. This is an interview conducted by Show Ying Xin on Malaysiakini in 2017.

"Reading should be encouraged at all times, with an effort to promote books that are worthwhile and that enlarge the recruit's facility to encounter the world of letters and great national problems. Further reading will follow as a vocation; the surrounding circumstances will awaken new desires for understanding in the soldiers. This result will be produced when, little by little, the recruits observe in their routine tasks the enormous advantages of men who have passed through the school over the remainder of the troop, their capacity for analyzing problems, their superior discipline, which is another of the fundamental things that the school should teach."

--Ernesto Che Guevara, Chapter Three in Guerrilla Warfare 

“Which book influences us? That must be Che Guevara’s Guerilla Warfare.” Zikri Rahman is in black with tied curly long hair. His words reveal the ideas and resolution of the left-wing youth.

[WU Chi Yu] The Reading List Project: Interview with Kitartb, the independent bookstore in Kota Bharu

(Translated by Okui Lala [English] and Rikey Tenn [Chinese] / original link)

Note: The "Reading List" Project is the collaborative publication between artist WU Chi-yu and Nusantara Archinve. As the pre-text of his work, WU interviewed with two independent bookshops based in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, with the help of artist Okui Lala and cultural worker Wan Atikah. They are Ezzmer Daruh of Kitartb and Zaidi Musa of Kedai Hitam Putih. They've different styles and experiences, and both devote to the alternative practices of knowledge production. The project contains interviews published in English and Chinese, and the notes of WU in the process. They also transform into his new video works. Through the reading list recommended by Ezzmer and Zaidi and their alternative strategies, the viewers see the local reading condition and their values behind the messages they've shared

Kitartb is an alternative bookshop, which I started in Kota Bharu since May 13th 2016. I use the term ‘alternative’ because there are existing bookshops in Kelantan but they mostly sell books to students. From this perspective I thought of what was lacking in Kota Bharu. The relationship between books and readers, books and the public should be more intimate than that. ‘Alternative’ means working together on more events provided by the public. To Kitartb, Kalam[1] is the support team. If Kitartb is a house, Kalam are those living inside it. On the surface, I run and manage it, but Kalam will back it up with support.

[Okui Lala] A Dialogue for Okui Lala's Art Practice on Language and Migration

(Author: Oui Lala; conducted by Alecia Neo [English], Rikey Tenn [Mandarin]/ originally link)

Note: 1-6 of the article was except from a conversation between Okui Lala and Alecia Neo in June 2016 (link: alecia-neo.squarespace.com/) as part of Art in Context: Learning from the Field publication. The full text can be access here: www.goethe.de/ins/my/en/kul/sup/aic.html. The English texts were later edited and translated to Mandarin by Rikey Tenn. 7-8 was a conversation between Okui Lala and Rikey. The interview were conducted in Mandarin and later translated to English by Okui Lala.

1. I like to use this symbol as a way to describe my art practice:

Relationship = self >< others.

This can be read as a two-way relationship, a journey that travels back and forth. Often, I initiate our conversations by sharing my background and thoughts while listening to theirs, to see where we both are coming from. I’m not really into advocacy, but I’m on a quest to search for alternative narratives on identities and belongingness and, in extension, the larger social, cultural and political milieu. Identities >< Migration. My exploration of my own identity began with an artwork I did with my mom (“Sewing & Sew Eng”, 2014). As I was exploring the tensions and compromises between us while making an artwork together, my identity as a Malaysian (as well as the fourth generation of Chinese descendants in Penang, Malaysia) was slowly unveiled; from the languages I spoke, the culture norm I’m bought up in, to the notion of home that differs among generations.

[Hoo Fan Chon] How to Become an Island? - Interview with Hoo Fan Chon, Run Amok

(Interviewed by Rikey Tenn (Tenn, Bun-ki); translator: Zoey Wu / Original link)


Hoo Fan Chon(符芳俊): Since I was little, and growing up in predominantly Chinese neighbourhood, I was puzzled by the concepts of “motherland” and “mother tongue” mentioned by elder members in the family. I didn’t quite know if they meant Malaysia or China at that time. My father would ask question related to national identity, for instance, if China badminton squad is competing against Malaysia, which team would I support? At the back of my mind, I had a feeling that he was hoping that I would root for team China. These thoughts have been playing in my head, just like my parents’ longing for the China, and China being the emerging world political power. Just like my last visit to Hainan island three years ago, where my grandfather came from, I could not relate to it as being home. There’s a huge gap between my way of thinking as compared to my dad’s. I regard myself as Malaysian first then only as Malaysian Chinese.


Tenn, Bun-ki: From my own observation, although there are differences between ethnic groups in Malaysia, the identity contradiction also exists among Malaysian Chinese. By asking more efficiently, I would like to know when was the time you got enlightened in the field of art? As I know, the five years of “Digital Media” you’ve majored in the University of Multimedia seem to focus more in “designing”.

[LiteraCity 2016] An Interview with Amir Muhammad

(Author: LiteraCity; originally published in LiteraCity Festival 2016) 

Amir Muhammad is a casual filmmaker, writer and publisher at Buku Fixi. We met Amir Muhammad at Khadijah’s Kitchen after an event at Gerak Budaya, Petaling Jaya. He opened up the discussion to the exploration of Malay film world in the studio era and English theater world.

Amir Muhammad:
 Maybe not dramatically, but psychologically. If we observe writers like Hamzah Hussein and A. Samad Said, they were formerly based in Singapore, and later moved here. This includes P. Ramlee who was also a writer but specializes in screenplays. There was an attempt to recreate KL myths, because before them, KL was not considered a sexy city. The city was not a harbour, so its romance was different. KL was considered to be a place infected with malaria. In the process of establishing KL, many have died. People were not used to the environment back then. So in the 1960s, there were efforts to develop the image of KL myths.

[LiteraCity 2016] An Interview with A Samad Said

(Author: LiteraCity; originally published in LiteraCity Festival 2016) 

With more than six decades of being involved in the writing scene, cities are his playground. Our fourth Malaysian National Laureate who are prefer to be called as “Bapak”, born in Durian Tunggal, Melaka and brought up in two different cities, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. The interview was held at Masjid Negara, one of his most favourite spaces in the cities every time the call for prayer is called. In this interview, LiteraCity trails his fragments and memories growing in this two cities and how literature observes how the historical events unfold. 


A. Samad Said:
 There is a long poem written by Ahmad Kamal Abdullah. If I am not mistaken, the title is “Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur” and it was staged. So, to say that there are no (works talking about Kuala Lumpur), it might be a mistake. His poem was specifically written about Kuala Lumpur and it was made into a musical, danced to, and staged

專訪倫敦LUX 執行長班傑明．庫克(Benjamin Cook)與副執行長瑪莉亞．克魯斯(Maria Palacios Cruz)

（採訪、整理：周郁齡CHOU Yu-Ling）

Abstract: The relation between moving images and archives has been one of the most discussed topics in art world recently. Also, In Taipei Kuandu Fine Art Museums an exhibition called “Rewind: Video Art in Taiwan 1984-1999” based on historical research unfolds the historiography associated with the visibility of video art; it rediscovers the origin of Taiwan’s video art history by showing/replicating rare video works in the 1980s. In the article Chou Yu-Ling interviewed the director and deputy director of LUX, Benjamin Cook and Maria Palacios Cruz. She is also a researcher and a practitioner who focus on Taiwan’s moving images’ history writing. (近期在國際間掀起了不少關於動態影像與檔案的討論，關渡美術館的《啟視錄：台灣錄像藝術創世紀》充分展現了可見的與可被書寫的關係。本文作者周郁齡特別訪談了英國LUX動態影像機構的兩位主事者，藉此援引為檔案與空間、機構以及發行作為歷史的觀點依據。此外，作者自身也從書寫者的角色參與了藝術史建構的實踐。)

周郁齡（以下簡稱CY）：LUX有令人羨慕的動態影像資料庫，可不可以談談你們的收藏是如何形成？

關於「紀實」的視覺人類學：專訪泰國藝術家Suporn Shoosongdej

（採訪／整理：Freya CHOU）

Editor's Note: Suporn Shoosongdej is a filmmaker based in Bangkok, Thailand. He has participated in many film festival and exhibitions, including the 53rd Venice Biennial, Thai Pavilion. See Saw Seen Art Exhibition, Bangkok, 2010. Thai Short Film and Video Festival in 2010, Bangkok, and BEFF Raiding the Archives, 2012.(本篇Suporn Shoosongdej 專訪為打開-當代藝術工作站台泰交流計畫之一，數位荒原2013年東南亞當代藝術主題的泰國藝術家專訪系列，是與打開-當代藝術工作站共同發展。)

素篷•初松德（Suporn Shoosongdej）1988年畢業於Silpakorn藝術大學裝飾藝術系，主修視覺傳達設計。曾多次參與國際性影展，包括〈Vision of Thought (Deformity) Mickey and I Overexpose〉（1997）分獲愛荷華獨立影展Golden Corn Award與洛杉磯國際短片影展最佳實驗片。

洞穴裡的現代性：專訪泰國當代藝術家Sakarin Krue-on

（採訪／整理：Freya CHOU）

Editor's Note: Sakarin Krue-on is one of the Thai artists who has the most exposure in international art events in the past few years. Major exhibitions include 50th & 53rd Venice Biennale, Documenta 12(2007) & Busan Biennale(2012). He recently curated an art festival, Metro-Sapiens: Dialogue in the Cave, which he invited over 20 artists to turn a prehistoric venue into a contemporary art space in Rachaburi. Sakarin currently serves as Art Instructor of Thai Art Department at Faculty of Painting Sculpture and Graphic Arts, Silipakorn University. (本篇Sakarin Krue-on專訪為打開-當代藝術工作站台泰交流計畫之一，數位荒原2013年東南亞當代藝術主題的泰國藝術家專訪系列，是與打開-當代藝術工作站共同發展。)

薩卡林．庫安（Sakarin Krue-on）出生於1965年，為泰國第一代從事當代藝術創作的藝術家。他參加過國內外眾多大型展覽，曾代表泰國參加第50和53屆威尼斯雙年展，2007卡塞爾文件大展以及2012釜山雙年展。2013年初，他於曼谷外郊的城市叻丕府（Ratchaburi）策劃為期三天的洞穴藝術節，廣邀亞洲26位藝術家團體參展。薩卡林目前任教於曼谷Silpakorn藝術大學。

No Fly Zone (2003), Sakarin Krue-On