THE FORCEs OF ART:
Perspectives from a Changing World
(2018-2020)
International research initiative that examines the ways in which artistic and cultural activities shape their own societies. Collaboratively funded by the Prince Claus Fund, Hivos, and the European Cultural Foundation.
This thought provoking and wide ranging book, set to be released on 26 November, is bound to challenge assumptions and stimulate new ideas about how crucial art and culture are. Fifteen independent teams of researchers set out to examine how art and culture exert their power to affect and transform their societies. The book includes chapters for each of their studies plus introductory essays to each section by renowned curators, artists, and thinkers.
Ketemu’s existing position in the contemporary cultural ecosystem of Bali. Copyright by Budi Agung Kuswara, 2020.
Arts and ecosystems: Building toward “cultural resilience” in Indonesia
Amid growing interests in the arts and their possible societal impact in the twenty-first century, notions of empowerment, community building, and reinvigoration of villages and urban neighbourhoods are acknowledged across cultural policies, art studies, and redevelopment plans. Such growing attention to the arts and their life-changing potentiality has led to further instrumentalization of artistic practices. This may cause interdependences with financial agencies, and adds urgency to questions of the societal role, autonomy, inclusiveness, and sustainability of arts. A discussion of arts, cultural, and creative ecosystems has also recently emerged in Indonesia to address these challenges. Koalisi Seni Indonesia and ruangrupa are two recognized initiators for public acknowledgment of multidisciplinary art(s) ecosystem(s).
By positioning the two actors in a broader socio-political and cultural context, the aim of this study is to delineate the main concerns, aspirations, and contingencies related to art(s) ecosystem(s). Through a comparative approach including not only insights by local representatives but also emerging discourses in the region and beyond, I seek to facilitate lateral thinking and further envisionings of more nuanced understandings of ‘balanced art(s) ecosystem(s)’ and how this can contribute towards the regeneration of ‘cultural resilience.’ The major objective of this paper is to enable innovative perceptions and help the planning of future theoretical and practical approaches.
Urban creativity:
alternative aesthetics, agencies and alliances for participatory urbanism (2017-2019)
Research Fellow Minna Valjakka, Asia Research Institute, NUS
Varied forms of urban creativity, from urban gardening and furniture to street art and flash mobs, are reshaping the urban fabric across cities in Asia. While the genealogies of some specific forms (e.g., murals) are gaining scholarly attention, the growing impact of these (un)authorised manifestations to the social and cultural capitals of specific localities is not yet understood. The main aim of this trans-disciplinary research is to respond to these gaps of knowledge and provide new perspectives for understanding the human aspects of urbanization, globalization and changing value structures occupying the cities today. The significance of urban creativity lies in its ability to question the current power structures in society.
Mosaic workshop in Jakarta, Indonesia by Micro Galleries 2017. © Minna Valjakka.
Informal urban gardening at Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong 2017. © Minna Valjakka.
Urban Gardening in East and Southeast Asia: Transformations in Perspective and Practice (2018-2019).
Associate Professor HO Kong Chong (Department of Sociology; NUS), Assistant Professor CHO Im Sik (Department of Architecture, NUS), Research Fellow Minna Valjakka (Asia Research Institute, NUS) and Research Fellow Fiona Williamson (Asia Research Institute, NUS)
The resurgence of urban farming and gardening has taken an eminent role in cities across East and Southeast Asia over the last few years. This interdisciplinary project aims at understanding the varied urban gardening and farming practices as well as their socio-political, cultural and historical significance for well-being, community building, participatory urbanism, civil society and redevelopment of the urban environment in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taipei and Seoul.
This is the first academic research with comparative approach in the regional context that seeks to examine the significance of urban gardening and farming for the past, today and future. The interdisciplinary framework builds on Urban sociology, Environmental aesthetics, Planning and governance, and History and legacy. The four cities are chosen for their position in shared historical trajectories: they are at the turning point where there is a significantly stronger ecological awareness, more active urban citizenship, and new forms of economic and communal experimentations. The comparative perspective also derives from their historical imperial past – which connect them with colonial British and Japanese regimes, and their geographic situation as regional hubs for the exchange of people, belief systems and scientific knowledge.
Seeds for Hope: Urban Creativity in Hong Kong
11/2015 ‒ 12/2016 Research Fellow Minna Valjakka, the International Institute for Asian Studies; University of Helsinki
An interdisciplinary study of transformations, contingencies and challenges of urban creativity in Hong Kong, including yarn bombing, street art, contemporary graffiti, installations, street photographs, guerrilla gardening and urban furniture. To appropriately contextualize the varied genealogies of the manifestations, the translocal mediations, and the material and immaterial interrelations with urban public space, the research developed novel conceptual approaches, such as site-responsiveness.
Honouring King of Kowloon, Hong Kong, 2013. © Minna Valjakka.
Urban knitting commemorating the MV Sewol ferry incident in Gwangju, 2015. © Minna Valjakka.
East Asian Urban Art:
self-expression through visual images in Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Seoul
09/2012 ‒ 08/2015, Postdoctoral Researcher Minna Valjakka, Academy of Finland; University of Helsinki
This three-year postdoctoral research project examined artistic and creative practices in urban public space in East Asia. Urban art is an essential phenomenon of visual culture, with diverse sociopolitical and cultural impacts. It is inherently related to activities of civil society and protest movements. The interdisciplinary research was based on theories and methods deriving from Art studies, Asian studies and Urban studies. The main focus was on the forms of contemporary graffiti and street art that leave a visible imprint on urban public space. Usually urban art is created outside of official art institutions but, despite being unofficial, it is not necessarily anti-institutional. The long-term ethnographic research (18 months in total) in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul enabled in-depth fieldwork, laying a solid foundation for understanding other phenomena in contemporary art as well. The results yielded by this project can be used for further studies in arts, cities and civil society activities.
Gender issues in China
05/2011 ‒ 03/2016 Co-PIs: Dr. Tiina Airaksinen, Dr. Elina Sinkkonen, and Dr. Minna Valjakka
Co-investigators: Cecilia Milwertz, Dongchao Min, Qingbo Xu, Riika-Leena Juntunen, Lena Scheen, Outi Luova, Anja Lahtinen, Olli-Pekka Malinen, Mitra Härkönen
Multi-perspective research project questioning the prevailing assumptions of Chinese women's roles, representations and forms of agency in the past and today, resulting in the award-winning edited volume, Enemmän kuin puoli taivasta [More Than Half the Sky].
Hong Kong Tatler's advertisement in Hong Kong, 2013. © Minna Valjakka.
Urban Art in Hong Kong
04/2012 ‒ 08/2012 Postdoctoral Researcher Minna Valjakka, University of Helsinki
This pilot project helped develop feasible methodological and theoretical frameworks to examine this understudied phenomenon in Hong Kong.