Based in Hong Kong, Asia Art Archive (AAA), a non-profit organization and registered charity, is dedicated to documenting the recent history of visual art from the region within an international context. It is a library

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

 resource center as well as an education center open to the public, located in Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

’s Sheung Wan

Sheung Wan

Sheung Wan is an area in Hong Kong, located in the north-west of Hong Kong Island, between Central and Sai Ying Pun. Administratively, it is part of the Central and Western District...

 District at 233 Hollywood Road

Hollywood Road

Hollywood Road is a street in Central and Sheung Wan, on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong.Hollywood Road is filled with trinket and antique shops of all sorts: from Chinese furniture to porcelain ware, from Buddha sculptures to Tibetan rugs, from Japanese netsukes to Coromandel screens, from Ming...

.

Mission statement

To collect, preserve and make information on contemporary Asian art easily accessible in order to facilitate understanding, research and writing in the field. Acknowledging its position as more than a static collection of material waiting to be discovered, AAA endeavours to be pro-active in instigating dialogue and critical thinking through the regular initiation of educational and public programs, and in introducing as wide an audience as possible to this rich resource.

History

Asia Art Archive is a dynamic organisation initiated in 2000 as a direct response to the increasing number of Asian contemporary art exhibitions and events world wide. Its first Executive Director, Claire Hsu, founded the Asia Art Archive in collaboration with Johnson Chang

Johnson Chang

Johnson Chang is a top curator and dealer of contemporary Chinese art. He is a co-founder of the Asia Art Archive in Hong Kong and a guest professor of the China Art Academy in Nanjing. - Background :...

 Tsong-zung and Ronald Arculli

Ronald Arculli

Ronald Joseph Arculli, GBM, GBS, CVO, OBE, JP is chairman of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing and Non-official Members Convenor of the Executive Council of Hong Kong . He is a Hong Kong solicitor and a founding partner of the law firm, Arculli, Fong, & Ng, which later merged with King &...

. The current chair of the board is Jane DeBevoise. AAA has participated in a number of forums and panels. Since 2008, AAA has also instigated a number of projects that invite artists from greater Asia to come and interpret the material in the collection and the physical space in which it is housed through the international and local artist in residency programs, including Raqs Media Collective, Pak Sheung Chuen, and Cedric Maridet. AAA also actively organizes public talks and forums, some of the speakers have included Xu Bing

Xu Bing

Xu Bing is a Chinese-born artist, resident in the United States since 1990. He currently resides in Beijing.-Biography:...

, Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist, active in sculpture, installation, architecture, curating, photography, film, and social, political and cultural criticism. Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008...

, David Elliot (curator), Htein Lin

Htein Lin

- Early life :Htein Lin was born in Mezaligon, Sagaing Division in northern Burma. From 1985, he studied for a Bachelor of Law degree at Yangon University...

, Huang Yongping and Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba.

Archive

AAA has one of the most comprehensive collections of primary and secondary source material on contemporary Asian art. The public can access over 27,000 titles, free of charge, in its collection and from its website. The secondary materials are organized into eight categories: exhibition catalogues, monographs, reference books, periodicals, audio-visuals, AAA files, invitation cards, leaflets and clippings.

Based in cities across Asia, including Hong Kong, Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, Taipei

Taipei

Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...

, Seoul

Seoul

Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...

, Manila

Manila

Manila is the capital of the Philippines. It is one of the sixteen cities forming Metro Manila.Manila is located on the eastern shores of Manila Bay and is bordered by Navotas and Caloocan to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, San Juan and Mandaluyong to the east, Makati on the southeast,...

, Bangkok

Bangkok

Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...

, Tokyo

Tokyo

, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

, Lahore

Lahore

Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...

 and New Delhi

New Delhi

New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...

, AAA researchers collect material in their respective countries and send it back to Hong Kong for cataloguing. The combination of researchers actively traveling to document events and subscriptions to the latest periodicals ensure that the collection remains up to date.

AAA's Special Collections

AAA’s special collections house primary sources such as artists’ writings, sketches and original pieces. The highlights of the Asia Art Archive collection include personal material donated by individuals, rare periodicals and publications, individual, event and organization files, and material produced by AAA, including images and audio-visual material. AAA’s special collections include original sketches and texts by artists such as Lu Peng (China), Mao Xuhui (China), Wu Shanzhuan

Wu Shanzhuan

Wu Shanzhuan is an artist based in Hamburg.Wu was born in Zhoushan. His art is Conceptual in nature, often dealing with issues surrounding language...

 (China), Zhang Xiaogang

Zhang Xiaogang

Zhang Xiaogang is a contemporary Chinese symbolist and surrealist painter. Paintings in his Bloodline series are often monochromatic, stylized portraits of Chinese people, usually with large, dark-pupiled eyes, posed in a stiff manner deliberately reminiscent of family portraits from the 1950s...

 (China), Roberto Chabet

Roberto Chabet

-Career:Chabet studied architecture at the University of Santo Tomas where he graduated in 1961. He had his first solo exhibition at the Luz Gallery in the same year. He was the founding museum director of the Cultural Center of the Philippines and served there as curator from 1967–1970...

 (The Philippines). Many pieces of the collections are now available online because of extensive digitization projects, most notably through a partnership with ARTstor

ARTstor

ARTstor is a non-profit organization that builds and distributes the Digital Library, an online resource of more than one million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences. The ARTstor Digital Library also includes a set of software tools to view, present, and manage images for...

. Donations and purchases from museums, galleries, bookshops and individuals provide the main sources for the materials.

Projects

Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980–1990

• In 2006, Asia Art Archive embarked on a focused archiving project, which aims at developing a comprehensive collection of primary research materials including books, periodicals, newspapers, exhibition brochures, invitations, video recordings, correspondence, and other relevant documents. As part of this project, AAA has also digitized the personal archives of renowned artists and curators. With a total of over 70,000 digital documents, AAA now maintains the world’s largest and most systematically organized archive of documentary material about Chinese art made during the 1980s. As part of this project, AAA has conducted over 70 in-depth videotaped interviews with artists, critics, curators, and scholars on contemporary Chinese art in the1980s.
• China 1980's Project

Build Your Dream Museum Collection Everyday!

• A fun and easy way for the general public to submit images of personal objects that challenges traditional museum collection practices.
• AAA collected responses on what a museum means to many people ranging from local school children in Hong Kong to global art professionals. These responses were then used to conduct workshops on the changing and flexible nature of the museum

Shifting Sites: Cultural Desire and the Museum

• A conference raising awareness about current debates surrounding contemporary museum practices in Asia.

All You Want to Know about International Art Biennials

• An online project which aims to chart and map the modes, development, and diverse range of international biennales and triennials.

Archiving the Contemporary: Documenting Asian Art Today, Yesterday and Tomorrow

• A workshop which discussed the challenges confronting archivists and others documenting contemporary Art in Asia.

Back Room Conversations (2009, 2010)

• During the Hong Kong International Art Fair, AAA presented a series of programmes with leading experts and practitioners. Backroom Conversations includes panel discussions and screenings that touch on a number of prevalent issues and offer a first-hand look into the contemporary art world today. Topics have included Reinvesting in Contemporary Chinese Art; Heritage Sites: the Answer to Hong Kong’s Arts Needs?; Artist as Activist, Art as Catalyst; and In the Aftermath of the White Cube: Museums and Other Spaces. Among others, Martha Rosler
  Martha Rosler
  Martha Rosler is an American artist. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, where she now lives. She graduated from Brooklyn College and the University of California, San Diego . Rosler works in video, photo-text, installation, and performance, as well as writing about art and culture...
  
  , Hu Fang
  Hu Fang
  Hu Fang/胡昉 is a fiction writer, art critic and curator. He is the Artistic Director of Vitamin Creative Space, an alternative art space in Guangzhou. Hu Fang studied at the Chinese Literature Department of Wuhan University. Hu Fang has published the "Sense Trilogy" novels...
  
  , and Ron Arad
  Ron Arad
  Ron Arad may refer to:* Ron Arad , Israeli Air Force weapon systems officer; classified as missing in action since 1986* Ron Arad , Israeli industrial designer, artist and architect...
  
  have been speakers.

External links

• Asia Art Archive
• Asia Art Archive America
• All You Want to Know about International Art Biennials
• ARTstor
• Build Your Dream Museum Collection Everyday!
• China 1980s Project
• FT: “Two Women Reshape Hong Kong’s Art Scene”
• Pool of Possibilities: Mapping Currents of the 3rd Guangzhou Triennial
• Shifting Sites: Cultural Desire and the Museum
• What is Your Dream Museum