CIRCUIT Symposium 2020 - Sovereign Pacific / Pacific Sovereigns

24 Oct 2020, 9:45am–4:30pm NZDT

Pataka Art + Museum, 17 Parumoana Street, Porirua City Centre, Porirua, New Zealand Map

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Sovereign Pacific / Pacific Sovereigns
Saturday 24 October 2020

Presented by CIRCUIT in association with Pātaka Art + Museum, Porirua. Convened by David Teh (Singapore), Keynote by Dr. Carl Mika (Aotearoa)

with panels and presentations from; Dr. Greg Dvorak (Japan), Very Mey, Sorawit Songsataya, Rangituhia Hollis, Rachel Rakena, Lana Lopesi, Ana Iti, David Chesworth (Aust), Jasmine Togo-Brisby

What is sovereignty? Is it innate and universal, or something to be contested and won, in a given place and time? The word suggests an autonomy that is at once individual and collective, yet sovereignty may be more than political, and more than strictly human. Indeed, as our modernity culminates in mounting global crises, we are compelled to recalibrate all our rights and freedoms in favour of others, of animate and inanimate things, of the planet itself.

Art may be sovereign too; in moving images, sovereignty may be implicit (e.g., in the psycho-politics of montage, the gaze, etc) or asserted explicitly, as in ethno-fiction, or theories of third (or fourth) cinema; while in today’s digital media, both the grammar of images and the visuality of text are more material than ever. What does the new immediacy of self-expression mean for sovereignty?

This symposium, co-hosted by CIRCUIT and Pātaka Art + Museum, will explore how sovereignty is inscribed in art – on page, on screen, in space, on bodies, and in the natural world. Is it altered by contemporary media? Which histories does it invoke, and which does it counter? The 1-day programme will bring together artists and thinkers in an interdisciplinary dialogue with the 2020 Circuit Artist Cinema commissions, and special guest presenters from outside Aotearoa New Zealand.

Symposium Schedule

9.45am: Welcome: Reuben Friend (Pataka) / Mark Williams (CIRCUIT)

10:00am: Keynote: Dr Carl Mika (NZ) - The Maori more-than-human: Rethinking sovereignty

11.15am-12:15pm: David Teh (Sing) –The Sovereign artist in South East Asia

12:15am-1.00pm: LUNCH

1.00pm-2.00pm – Sovereign practices in Aotearoa: three artists - Sorawit Songasataya (NZ), Rachel Rakena (NZ), Rangituhia Hollis (NZ). Followed by conversation with chair Vera May

2.00 – 3.00pm – Expanded Territories, Expanded Practices - Greg Dvorak (Japan) / David Teh (Sing) / Lana Lopesi (NZ)

3.15pm-4.00: Speaking through the Archive -
Andrew Clifford (chair), David Chesworth (Aust), Ana Iti (NZ), Jasmine Togo-Brisby (NZ)

4.00pm Wrap Up

Contact information

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