Inter-Asia Entanglements, Sinography, and Reading Contemporary Art Through the East

This public online presentation marks the conclusion of a two-month weekly study group centred on Sinology and Cross-cultural Thinking (2020) by Taiwanese-German philosopher Mathias Obert（宋灝）.      

Bringing together artists, researchers, and curators based across London, Berlin, Rotterdam, New York, and Taiwan, the group explored questions including:      

• Multilingual Asia through Sinography
• Fragmented histories across East and Southeast Asia
• Cross-culturality within the Sinophone world
• Writing systems as visual and cognitive structures
• Inter-Asian tensions beyond the framework of the Western gaze        

Drawing on literature, historical research, art essays, and diasporic experiences, members examined a shared interest—or perhaps a recurring impasse—in making and presenting East Asian contemporary art within global contexts, where the complexities of inter-Asian dynamics often remain tactfully unspoken.      

Rather than a solely member-led presentation, the final session invites the audience to an open conversation. Through collective questioning, we hope to trace the shifting silhouette of the vocabularies and cultural entanglements through which we, as practitioners, approach contemporary Asian art today.