About Nusantara in Future Tense workshop:

Produced by The Cultural Taiwan Foundation, initiated by Nusantara Archive and co-organized by Singaporean artist collective soft/WALL/studs), Nusantara in Future Tense  curated by Esther Lu is a collaborative workshop that took place during the pandemic from April to September in 2020. Artists and curators from Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines had developed various exercises and multiple channels of conversations, leading to three thematic webinars “Body, Care and Politics,” “New Geography and Bubbles,” and “Lexicon and Methodology” as the final phase of an expanded exchange.

As the latest extension of the former cultural exchange and research framework of Nusantara Archive in the past three years, the workshop Nusantara in Future Tense invited artists and practitioners who shared the same interest and passion to explore and deepen the articulations on the subject of Nusantara. The original schedule was planned for a three-day international gathering of all participants in Singapore and its neighboring Indonesian island Batam. However, due to the COVID-19 impact, the workshop was postponed to September and moved online, with many bonus hours of virtual gatherings and group discussions. Indonesian artist duo Irwan Ahmitt and Tita Salina presented a new essay film “Bila Anda Tiba Anda Menyesai” at the end; a few future proposals were also made and published on No Man’s Land online journal to open up new opportunities for future collaboration. 

Advisor: Ministry of Culture (Taiwan)
Producer: The Cultural Taiwan Foundation
Organizer: Nusantara Archive Project
Co-organizer: soft/WALL/studs
Curator: Esther Lu
Coordinated by Esther Lu (Taiwan), soft/WALL/studs (Singapore)
Venue supported by soft/WALL/studs (Singapore), OCAC (Taiwan)
Administration supported by The Digital Art Foundation
Special thanks to all members of soft/WALL/studs, ila, Div, Norah Lea, Nurul Huda Rashid, Syaheedah Iskandar, Siddharta Perez, Tan Zi Hao, Okui Lala, Irwan & Tita, Lo Shih-tung, Sheryl Cheung, Ting Chaong-wen