Mesa Sa Kwarto
Curatorial Statement
If ideas are made in the mind, where do they materialise? In any advanced society, the corporeal act of drawing, inscribing, sculpting, and even tasting often takes place on a stable surface, such as a desk. Before machinery became as handy as mobile devices, pinning down ideas required a physical substrate upon which ideas are held or pressed against. The desk serves many a purpose in today’s ‘work-driven’ society.
In 2020, numerous workers have been deprived of access to their desk jobs as mass lockdowns shuttered workplaces not only in Asia but also the rest of the world because of COVID-19. Virtual meetings conducted over videoconferencing apps, therefore, made quite the difference — had this pandemic happened decades prior, the physical and social challenges would prove even harder. While many industries have swiftly realised various workarounds using online connectivity and virtual spaces, the arts sector (especially in Southeast Asia) has yet to circumvent many physical restrictions. Regardless of the global pandemic, however, creative practitioners have long been experimenting to offer new solutions.
MESA SA KWARTO is a para-curatorial experiment that is designed to expand the now ubiquitous Zoom gallery view into a makeshift exhibition space. Here, the desk (mesa) in the room (kwarto) balances between the material and virtual, execution and concept, offline and online, work and life. The effect is a home-made rendering of augmented reality.
An almost ‘retrospective’ exhibition, the display of objects is culled from an intimate curatorial collection — with the curator’s bedroom serving as both an archive and a repository of artworks, clothes, journals, letters, and souvenirs which have accumulated through the years. The life-size inventory is distilled on a desk, where the objects are weighed, wielded, and written.
For the MADE IN ASEAN online exhibition, curator Kristian Jeff Agustin presents a catalogue of Southeast Asian artefacts and products manufactured in ASEAN countries. As if pre-empting future museums, curators and collectors, these objects are altogether presented as a depiction of the material culture of the ‘ASEAN civilisation’. After all, located in the region are some of the most vulnerable nations in the world in the face of pandemics, rising oceans, and world wars.
NOTE: This video recording of the latest live-streamed Zoom session has no audio to anonymise some of the attendees who preferred not to be recorded. However, it remains as a visual demonstration of the curatorial project. Live-streaming was made via Universe and Words on YouTube.
A Para-curatorial Experiment
This para-curatorial experiment started with a few photographs of objects shared among the participants of the ASEAN Vision Project. The first few participatory photography sessions needed some activity to facilitate the getting-to-know-you stage, hence a ‘treasure hunt’, also called a ‘scavenger hunt’ in some countries was initiated. Several participants contributed to brainstorming the list of items to be found during the Zoom meeting, such as books, ‘made in’ labels or tags, souvenirs, unique objects, et cetera. Then, the participants rummaged through their rooms and homes to find these list of objects and brought back photographs of each (using their handy cameraphones, of course). Each took turns to describe their photographed objects in the manner of a ‘show-and-tell’ activity. Occasionally, some participants would ask the group to guess what an object could be or where it could be from. Even the least travelled individuals amongst the group were able to find objects from other Southeast Asian countries tucked away in their homes. Perhaps these objects actually travel on their own, only to find their place in another country.
Curiously, several of these found objects were unexpectedly Southeast Asian: a Disney souvenir mug with the label ‘Made in Thailand’, a Hanoi-made greeting card of a pop-up galleon or ship that resembled those that launched during the Age of Exploration, and a French tea blend manufactured by TWG (a Singaporean tea brand), among others.
These objects that the participants found in their own rooms and homes might as well be a selection from an inventory of a lifetime of personal effects that have accumulated through the years. The curator traced this inquiry and reflected on his own collection of objects, stored in his room. The strict lockdown in Manila, also touted by the government as an ‘extreme community quarantine’, was just imposed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the succeeding months seemed uncertain. Unable to step outside and view galleries and museums because of the health risks brought about by the pandemic, a ‘tiny desk exhibition’ brewed in the curator’s room. It shall be titled MESA SA KWARTO, the Filipino (or Tagalog) translation of ‘table in the room’ — this table being the only desk in the curator’s room — for the sake of simplicity. After all, during a period of economic austerity, things has to be simple. Sometimes, even art.
The sketches shown here intimate a glimpse of the thinking and translating process involved in the making of MESA SA KWARTO. To date, it is a work in progress in that the curatorial inventory is ongoing, considering the hundreds of potential objects for display stored in the curator’s bedroom, his living space and workplace during the pandemic.
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Kristian Jeff Cortez Agustin / KJCA
Curator (Philippines)
PhD (Manchester Metropolitan University)
Kristian is from Manila, Philippines, but has lived in Singapore (for a stint at the Asia-Europe Foundation), Hong Kong (for his research at Hong Kong Baptist University School of Communication / Academy of Film), and London (for his postgraduate studies at the University of Westminster). He is now a PhD candidate at Manchester School of Art — whilst based in Manchester in the last two years, he recently moved back to Manila due to the pandemic. His artistic practice includes exhibition design, visual art and graphic design, various digital media, performance art, and literature. His poetry book For Love and Poetry, was published in London.
His current and previous academic and professional affiliations include the following: International Communication Association (ICA), International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), Association for Cultural Studies (ACS), Association of Southeast Asian Studies in the United Kingdom (ASEASUK), Nordic Summer University (NSU), and Japan Association for Cultural Economics (JACE).
He is a trained participatory photography facilitator (certification obtained from PhotoVoice UK).
This project is supported by
This project is supported by
Exhibition design and media partners
This research project is funded by
Contact information
Kristian Jeff Agustin (PhD Candidate)
Project Lead & Curator, ASEAN 20/20 Vision
Email: info@aseanvisionproject.com
