MCLC: Art and Radical Democracy in Asia--cfp

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Bo Zheng <mr.bo.zheng at gmail.com>
Subject: Art and Radical Democracy in Asia--cfp
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Dear All,

I'm co-chairing a panel at the next College Art Association conference (to
take place in Chicago in Feb 2014). The topic is "Contemporary Art and
Radical Democracy in Asia." If this is relevant to your research, please
do send me a proposal. I'll also be grateful if you can forward this
message to colleagues working in this area.

Here is the CFP:

Call for Participation
CAA 102nd Annual Conference
Chicago, February 12-15, 2014
 
Contemporary Art and Radical Democracy in Asia
 
Sohl Lee, University of Rochester, sohl.lee at gmail.com
Bo Zheng, China Academy of Art, mr.bo.zheng at gmail.com

 
How has the idea of democracy motivated radical art in Asia? How have
Asian artists imagined radical forms of democracy? We invite papers to
reflect on how Asian artists have engaged with, reinvented, and
radicalized the notion of democracy since the 1960s. This panel will not
only cast a much-needed theoretical perspective to the study of
contemporary Asian art; it will also enrich global discussions on critical
art and the renewal of democratic ideals.

 
The question of political representation has always been one of the key
driving forces behind artistic productions in Asia. Whether in
authoritarian regimes or democratized states, art has provided a fertile
ground to imagine alternatives to existing political orders. The panel
will consider topics including but not limited to: How did Chinese artists
work with the idea of daminzhu (mass democracy) during and after the
Cultural Revolution? How have Indian artists conjured radical enclaves in
the world¹s largest democracy? How did artists in South Korea contribute
to minjung undong (People¹s Movement) in the 1980s, and how have they
continued to reinvigorate the notion of publics after the country
instituted a democratic system in 1987? What can we discern in the recent
surge of activist art in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Japan? And how
are new media artists in Asia using online technologies to push the
political and conceptual boundaries of democracy?

 
In recent years, the theory of radical democracy put forward by Chantal
Mouffe and Ernesto Laclau in the mid-1980s has inspired lively discussions
on ³antagonistic art² (Bishop), ³dialogical aesthetics² (Kester), and
³social practice² (Esche, Sholette, Jackson) in Europe and North America.
Building on these discussions, this panel also aims to draw insights from
the writings by Asian theorists such as Dipesh Chakrabarty, Wang Hui, and
Karatani Kojin.

 
We welcome proposals from artists, historians, and theorists. Papers can
(a) focus on a specific country/region, (b) adopt a comparative approach,
or (c) propose new theoretical frameworks.

 
Please send a preliminary abstract of 1-2 double-spaced pages and a CV by
May 6, 2013. 

 
 
CAA guidelines are available at:

http://www.collegeart.org/proposals/2014callforparticipation
http://www.collegeart.org/pdf/2014CallforParticipation.pdf

with regards,
Bo Zheng

===
bo zheng, phd mfa
assistant professor
china academy of art
+86.137.5826.3395
www.tigerchicken.com <http://www.tigerchicken.com/>