ArtAsiaPacific - January - February 2022

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ArtAsiaPacific’s Almanac 2022 recalls the second year of the pandemic and looks ahead toward what the post-pandemic era might be like.
We compile 2021’s key news, from institutional disputes to solidarity campaigns, censorship issues, and the emergence of new public platforms around the globe. The Cultural Currency section details the art market’s latest developments, including the astronomical rise of NFTs, which have changed the industry.
In City Reports, 15 artists, writers, and curators share their communities’ responses to the events of 2021 and their focuses moving into the new year. Curator Chloe Chow describes the opening of Hong Kong’s much-anticipated M+ museum amid concerns for freedom of speech. Yogyakarta-based curator Alia Swastika expounds the growing importance of collectivism, decentralization, and decolonization in Indonesia’s social movements. Nav Haq, associate director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, similarly reflects on discussions around decolonization and the necessity of alternative models within such discourse in Europe.
In an interview with assistant editor Pamela Wong, Ryuta Ushiro from the group Chim↑Pom shares his thoughts on the controversial Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. For photographer Sohrab Hura, in 2021, issues in broader Indian society became closely aligned with the art world: “Even art comes from the privilege of caste, class, region, city, and language. People are questioning these elements within the very hierarchical spaces of art and there is something in flux right now.”
The issue also celebrates six Artists of the Year whose projects and exhibitions drew attention to pertinent issues and gained traction in 2021: Yu Ji, Yee I-Lann, Park Seo-Bo, Monira Al Qadiri, Bani Abidi, and Sung Tieu. In the back of the issue are noteworthy exhibitions and festivals that captured the zeitgeist, along with the events that we will have our eyes on in 2022.