AIR Talk
Sense of South – Women Graves,Taiwan-Japanese Soldiers, and the Portrait
Research Talk by Alice Ko
The Sense of South was a book published in 1941, before Japanese troops invaded Malaya. The author wrote down his Japan-centrist geopolitical perspectives of the southern countries, and also included Malaya.The ”south” as expressed in his book written during 1940’s is undoubtedly a metaphor and a concept of the forging of Japanese impression toward the southern otherness since the late 19th century.Discourse on advance to south was gradually becoming a major thinking of Japanese imperialism, in the forms of public policies on social level or in the forms of personal ideology on the mental level.South had been seen an imaginative geography projected from this desire, based on which various kind of literary texts and research were developed in the construction of discourse on military advance to south.
The talk will focus on the groups of workers who travelled oversea to work in Malaya as prostitutes, prison guards and war artists during the rise of the Japanese empire. The research will look into the historical archive, war films, diaries and oral history in 1940s to revisiting its history.These personal emotion and identity fluctuate under the struggle between country and geopolitical region, this group of workers sketched an alternative map of exile, through the transfiguration of country and borderline, affecting their map and route of shifting, as well the imagination of identity and emotional recognition of the moving subject, this imagined composition interweaved from geography and body, it kept circulating in the time of history duplicating its authority relation at the core and margin of the system.
The history of Japanese Invasion of Malaya could be as a unique point to go back to 1980 to 1990s in Malaysia, and relook into the “Look East” policy that prime-minister of Malaysia Mahathir initiated. This policy looked at Japan as examples.And the policy was not only meant as an economic measure, but also as a cultural policy to reform the society and urban landscape of Kuala Lumpur.
Bio
Alice Ko as an independent curator and researcher focusing on building the connection and platform of the contemporary art in East Asia.Her curatorial practice centers around use of urban studies in East Asia, artistic action, social movement, and colonial history.In 2013, she was the curator of Reverse Niche – Dialogue and Rebuilding at the City’s Edge (Hong Kong, Osaka and Taiwan). In 2014, she participated in the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\ Architecture (Hong Kong) and organized the symposium We Are Everywhere—Community Art in the mist of Proletarianized Spatial Production—A Critical Approach (Hong Kong). In 2015, she was the curator of Beyond the Borderline- Exiles from the Native Land (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Korea and Beijing).
Lostgens’ Artist Residency Project 2016
Date
7th Oct 2016
Time
8:00pm
Venue
Lostgens’ Contemporary Art Space
Sponsor
Ministry of Culture (Taiwan)
