Soul Song of a New Organisation

Melati Suryodarmo

Suryodarmo’s physically challenging durational performances are the result of ongoing research in the movements of the body and its relationship to the self and the world. Her multidisciplinary practice spans installation, photography, film, and performance and explores concepts of home, spirituality, family, and personal history, drawing on Javanese culture, socio-political, activist and feminist ideas. Suryodarmo has presented her work in various international festivals and exhibitions, including the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (2005); Videobrasil, Sao Paolo (2005), Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma | Finnish National Gallery (2007); Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2009), Biennale Jogja XI (2011); Asia Pacific Triennial, Qagoma, Brisbane (2015); Lawangwangi Art foundation, Bandung, Indonesia (2012); Singapore Biennale (2016); STPI – Creative Workshop & Gallery, Singapore (2019); Museum MACAN, Jakarta (2020–21); and the Asia Society Triennial, New York (2021), among others. In 2022, she received the Bonnefanten Award for Contemporary Art – BACA, with a major solo exhibition at the Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht. In 2017, she was the Artistic Director of the Jakarta Biennale, JIWA. In 2012, she founded Studio Plesungan, an experimental performance art hub. She has been appointed as the Artistic Director of the Indonesia Bertutur Festival of Arts and Culture for 2022 and 2024.

Joan Kee

Joan Kee is the Judy and Michael Steinhardt Director of New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts and a professor of fine arts. Drawing from cross-disciplinary and multiregional perspectives, Kee’s research focuses on how modern and contemporary artworks figure as provocations to structures and frames of reference intended to encompass and absorb various phenomena. Such frames include various conceptions of the “world,” the law, standards of value, and theories of information and cognition. Her books include Contemporary Korean Art: Tansaekhwa and the Urgency of Method (2013), which numerous publications have credited for bringing international attention to Korean abstraction and to postwar Korean art generally, including the New Yorker, the Nation, and the South China Morning Post. Kee also curated a significant exhibition on Tansaekhwa (Dansaekhwa) for BLUM gallery in Los Angeles, cited as one of the best exhibitions of 2014 in LA.

Manuela Moscoso

Manuela Moscoso is the inaugural Executive and Artistic Director of CARA, Center for Art Research and Alliances, where she spearheads innovative research and collaborative projects in contemporary art. With a rich background as a curator, researcher, and critical producer, her work spans across Europe and Latin America. Notable positions include Senior Curator at Museo Tamayo in Mexico City and Curator of the 2021 Liverpool Biennial, “The Stomach and The Port.” A co-founder of Zarigüeya Contemporáneo in Quito and Rivet editorial, Manuela holds a master’s degree from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and a bachelor’s degree from Central Saint Martins in London. She is the Curator of the 2025 Bienal das Amazônias / Amazon Biennial in Belem, Brazil. Dedicated to challenging conventional conceptions of the body and space through art, Manuela’s curatorial approach is deeply influenced by non-Western systems of thought. She emphasizes collaboration, believing that the future of art relies on our ability to engage with diverse perspectives and historical contexts. Her work with artists such as Chimurenga, Nina Canell, and Trevor Paglen showcases her commitment to commissioning and nurturing contemporary art that addresses pressing global issues. Through her leadership and vision, Manuela Moscoso seeks to diversify the art sector, advocating for broader representation and fostering innovative approaches to art research and practice.

Gala Porras-Kim

Gala Porras-Kim lives and works in Los Angeles and London. Her work is about how the social and political contexts that influence history have been framed through the fields of linguistics, history and conservation. The work considers the way institutions shape inherited codes and forms and conversely, how objects can shape the contexts in which they are placed. Porras-Kim has had solo exhibitions at the MCA, Denver in 2024; Leeum and MMCA Seoul; the Fowler Museum, Los Angeles; Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla; MUAC, Mexico City; in 2023; Gasworks, London, Amant Foundation, Brooklyn, and Kadist in 2022, and the MOCA, Los Angeles in 2019 among others. Her work has been included in the Liverpool Biennial (2023) Whitney Biennial and Ural Industrial Biennial (2019), and Gwangju and Sao Paulo Biennales (2021). She was a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University (2019) and the artist-in-residence at the Getty Research Institute (2020-22).

Ute Meta Bauer

Ute Meta Bauer is a Professor at the School of Art, Design (NTU) and a Senior Principal Research Fellow at the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore. Serving as its Founding Director for over a decade, her work as educator and curator over the past years is focused on Climates. Habitats. Environments. At the NTU CCA she curated and co-curated “The Oceanic”(2017/2018), “Trees of Life. Knowledge in Material” (2018), and “The Posthuman City” (2020). In 2022, she served as curator for the Singapore Pavilion at the 59th Biennale di Venezia featuring artist Shubigi Rao and recent large scale projects include the 17th Istanbul Biennial, co-curated alongside David Teh and Amar Kanwar (2022) and the artistic direction of the Diriyah Contemporary Art Biennale 2024. She is a Trustee of the Art Foundation TBA21 and a member of the Governing Council of n.b.k. Berlin.

Paulo Miyada

Paulo Miyada is a curator and researcher of contemporary art. Graduated in Architecture and Urbanism from FAU-USP, he has a master’s degree in History of Architecture and Urbanism from the same institution. He was curatorial assistant for the 29th Bienal de São Paulo in 2010, was part of the team of curators at Rumos Artes Visuais at Itaú Cultural between 2011 and 2013, was adjunct curator of the 34th Panorama da Arte Brasileira at the Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo in 2015, and was adjunct curator of the 34th Bienal de São Paulo between 2020 and 2021. He is currently artistic director at Instituto Tomie Ohtake, where he has worked since 2011. In 2021, he began serving as assistant curator at the Center Pompidou, in Paris.

Joselina Cruz

Joselina Cruz is the Director and Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Manila. She was the curator of the Philippine Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017), a networking curator for the 13th Jakarta Biennale (2009), and a curator for the 2nd Singapore Biennale (2008). From 2012, she produced exhibitions with artists such as Michael Lin, Paul Pfeiffer, Lani Maestro, Manuel Ocampo, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Tiffany Chung, Michael Lee, Maria Taniguchi, and Haegue Yang at MCAD Manila. She is a Fellow of the Nippon Foundation’s Asian Public Intellectuals, and the Asian Cultural Council. Cruz is on the board of the International Committee of Museums of Modern Art (CIMAM).

Arin Rungjang

Arin Rungjang is known for deftly revisiting historical material, overlapping major and minor narratives across multiple times, places, and languages. His interest lies in lesser-known aspects of Thai history and their intersection with the present in the sites and contexts of his practice. Objects, which can draw together distant events across time and space, are central to his investigations. He has a practice that spans different media and often involves video and site-specific installation. In his exploration of history and everyday life experiences he deftly dissects material and revisits master-narratives through the agency of the small event. Representing Thailand at the 55th Venice Biennale, Rungjang’s Golden Teardrop explored the transnational adaptation of a celebrated Thai dessert, uncovering surprising narratives and simultaneities that contradict official history. Recent exhibitions include Documenta14, Athens-Kassel(2017), Mongkut-CAPC-Musée d’art contemporain(2015), Bordeaux, Satellite 8, Jeu de Paume, Paris (2015), Finalist Apb Foundation Signature Art Prize (2014), Golden Teardrop, representing Thailand at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013). He has participated in the 18th Biennale of Sydney (2012), the Bandung ‘City Pavilion’ at the Shanghai Biennale (2012), the Third Singapore Biennale at Old Kallang Airport (2011).

Chang Yuchen

New York based artist Chang Yuchen works in an interdisciplinary manner — writing as weaving, drawing as translation, teaching as hospitality, commerce as social experiment (see Use Value), and publishing as a dandelion spreading its seeds. Chang Yuchen was a recipient of New York Public Library Picture Collection Artist Fellowship, Queens Art Fund New Work Grant, Poetry Project Curatorial Fellowship, Huayu Youth Award Grand Jury Prize, Luminarts Fellowship, etc. She has shown/performed her work at Beijing Commune, Carnegie Museum of Art, Amant, Artists Space, UCCA Dune, Para Site, Taikwun Contemporary. She was an artist in residence at Smack Mellon, Asymmetry Art Foundation, MASS MoCA, Museum of Art and Design, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, among others. Yuchen has written for publications including Heichi Magazine, Press and Fold, Art in Print, and Randian.