One of the consequences of globalization is the globalization of migration. ?What is the meaning of the “globalization of Chinatown?”? There is no way to calculate how many Chinese are living in diaspora, just as there is no way to calculate how many Chinatowns there are in the world.? As consequences of the migration of people with different geographical, linguistic (and dialects), cultural, ethical, class, ideological, political background, the Chinese itself is already a migration of hybridity of migrants.? The curatorial method of the Long March seeks to uncover the linkages between history and the present, and the visual narratives and imaginations of different societies, contexts and texts through the language of art.? Continuing with the Long March methodology of movement and journey, Long March – Chinatown will march for an indeterminate amount of time across different geographies and countries, histories and cultures.? Chinatown can take place in the public spaces of any Chinatown around the world or not in Chinatown at all.? It can happen in museum or biennale space, it can be an extension of large scale international exhibition – extending the traditional art spaces into the lives of the general public.  Chinatown can take place in an artist’s studio, or in the private happenings of a notebook.  It can be a cooperation between Chinese and international artists, it can be a collective collaboration, an individual artist, or an assemblage of individual works.  It is not limited to any topic, medium, or form.  Here, Chinatown is a visual space.? The project wants to address the narrow understanding of cultural characteristics and difference, widening and expanding the methodological understanding of the history and geography of visual culture initiated by the first segment of the Long March to include specific works within specific contexts.? The narrative set forth by the globalization of Chinatown is about the repetition of return and departure, and how each process invariably is linked and turns into the other.  We are always re-arriving, but in different forms. ??Long March – Chinatown is not simply a “thematic” replacement to the Chinese national pavilion filled with contemporary Chinese art, but rather an international campaign that enters into the different temporal and spatial sites of experience/action, as well as construction and reproduction.?

For the 2007 Auckland Triennial, the Long March – Chinatown will be brought to Auckland in a collaborative project with artist Kah Bee Chow and Daniel Malone entitled No Chinatown.? The project takes a public minded approach by utilizing public spaces not just as exhibitions sites, but also involving the contributions of many other individuals, communities and collectives as a vital part of the work.? The metaphor of “Chinatown” will be used to engage with the Triennial’s curatorial theme of Turbulence, and the subsequent dynamics of immigration, tourism and cultural diaspora raised in the process of globalization, with Chinatown serving not as an illustration for identity politics or post colonial discourse, rather, a metaphorical site to explore general notions of performed and constructed identity, as well as focusing on the local context of Auckland, a city, which has been deemed a “high-immigration” city.?

No Chinatown will engage with the ambivalent social atmosphere, at times ambiguously, at time provocatively around the relationship between Auckland and its Chinatown(s).? Should Auckland have a Chinatown?? Does Auckland in fact already have Chinatown(s)?? What indeed constitutes a Chinatown or any (self) determined cultural identification with place?? No Chinatown will raise these questions and the discursive space for any number of simultaneous answers, sometimes contradictory, acting as a catalyst to precipitate the emotional state of Auckland; at times lamenting a lack, proposing an action, at others giving voice to confusion or resisting an over-determination. ?It will engage in the Triennials broad discourse around multi-culturalism as well as the unique context of Aotearoa New Zealand’s bi-cultural geo-politic and the notion of Tangata Whenua (People of the Land).

Within the Triennial space, No Chinatown will take place in an array of art venues offered by the triennial, including the Gus Fischer Gallery (Center of New Zealand Art Research and Discovery, University of Auckland), the St Paul Street Gallery (Auckland University of Technology) and Artspace.? The display at each venue is both individual and linked, building momentum and resonance with a larger space of transitory events and activities outside and between the galleries during the course of the Triennial, most significantly at the Auckland City Council facilitated Lantern Festival in Albert Park on the triennial’s opening weekend, and through a number of events directly involving students, such as an architecture competition and a public survey to be organized through the Long March’s involvement in the Elam School of Fine Arts Artists Residency program.

<< BACK