Asia Assemble was a three-day gathering of artists, curators, academics and arts institutions from around Asia in New Delhi. Structured as a series of conversations, screenings and artist presentations, Asia Assemble sought to understand the possibilities, modalities, and urgencies of arts and cultural work around Asia in 2017.

In our individual, collective and organisational capacities we continue to understand and negotiate our local, national and continental conditions to respond to immediacies in a largely ambiguous Asia. KHOJ entered this conversation from the perspective that Asia has never been purely self-delimited, but rather the product of interaction with other regions. New imaginations of Asia are not an affirmation of Asiacentrism but rather an attempt to overcome a logic dominated by egocentrism, exclusivity, and expansionism.

We ask: Where is the ‘silk’ in the New Silk Route? In an era of neoliberal govermentality, resurgent nationalism, and ‘democracy with Chinese characteristics’, can we find possibilities of coexistence and communication in other Asian structures? How do the arts, receiving funding sometimes from States, sometimes from regional bodies, from international organizations and multinational corporations, play into existing and emergent structurings?

Through conversations, Asia Assemble aimed to provide a platform to share challenges, explore connections, discuss strategies and exchange ideas to collectively speculate on new frameworks for our times.

Please find the schedule for the event here.

Asia Assemble was supported by Sher-gil Sundaram Arts Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan and Take on Art (media partner).