The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts and Asian American Arts Alliance announce the 2022 cohort of New York-based artists for the inaugural Bandung Residency, each selected for their ambitions to foster allyship between Asian American Pacific Islander and Black communities. This year’s residency will support 10 projects by 10 participants.
Inspired by recent events that have deeply impacted these communities, as well as the Stop Asian Hate and Black Lives Matter movements, this program takes cue from the first large-scale Asian–African or Afro–Asian Conference, also known as the Bandung Conference, which took place in 1955 in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. The groundbreaking summit, which hosted leaders from 29 newly independent Asian and African states emerging from colonial rule (representing a total population of 1.5 billion people, 54% of the world’s population at the time), signaled a pivotal juncture between these communities to discuss peace, equality, and mutual respect for sovereignty, political self-determination, cultural cooperation, human rights, the role of the Global South (then known as the Third World), economic development, and decolonization. Building upon the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence as identified the previous year by leaders from China and India, the primary objectives of the Bandung Conference ‘55 cohort were “a call for an end to racial discrimination wherever it occurred, and a reiteration of the importance of peaceful coexistence…and collaboration.”
Similarly, The Bandung 2022 Residency aims to cultivate a dynamic safe space for a diverse cohort of changemakers interested in engaging in social justice discourse, restorative healing, cultural placemaking, expanding the narrative between communities, and cross-community allyship, whether participating in the program for their personal transformation, in service to the communities identified, or both.
THE 2022 RESIDENTS
Meet the 10 NYC-based artists, educators, change makers, and organizers who will be exploring and developing projects over the course of the summer residency.
click each image below to visit the resident’s IG page.
UNTITLED
An ongoing portrait-meets- mural collaboration rooted in the practice of “of seeing each other as an act of care”.
IG: @jessxsnow + @tlynnfaz
SAFEKEEPING
An exploration of safety and community through painted portraits of neighbors in Seward Park on the Lower East Side. What does a safe future look like?
IG: @hannahmiao
FLUSHING MEMORIES
Exploring the Black and Asian histories of Flushing Queens through archival research and art-making.
IG: @laudiColab
VIRAL
A bilingual musical experience stylized as a virtual video game, written as a conversation between Chinese and Black Americans.
IG: @MCtingbudong
IDENTITIES
A portrait + interview project centering biracial/multiracial subjects while exploring the intersection of race and society.
IG: @hidemi_takagi
UNBLENDED PROJECT
A photo interview series celebrating Black and Asian friendship.
BLASIAN MARCH
A solidarity movement for Black, Asian, and Blasian communities through education on parallel struggles with racial injustice and mutual celebration.
THE PROCESS
The Bandung 2022 Residency is an opportunity designed to uplift the work of organizers, artists, educators, and waymakers whose practice is intended to foster solidarity between Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Black communities
For the inaugural year of this residency, 7-10 NYC-based visionaries were selected as residents by an independent panel of 5 reviewers. Cohort 1 was then invited to participate in a 3-month long, hybrid program consisting of self-directed and group learning exchanges that introduce community leaders embedded in this social justice work, propel forward the spirit of solidarity crystalized during the 1960s and 70s, center the historical and contemporary issues faced by AAPI and Black communities, while enabling the deepening of each participant’s relationship with themselves, their practice, other participants within the cohort, and most especially with the communities identified.
Participants in The Bandung 2022 Residency were encouraged to connect with local leaders and community members to inspire unity through the lens of an artistic presentation, shared exploratory experience, or special project (e.g. public art piece, performance, walking tour, ephemeral installation, community building activity, etc.) that they will incubate / create during their residency. “Work” completed during the residency may also plant a seed that leads to a larger project that will be realized after the residency. While collaboration within the cohort is not required, MoCADA + A4 also supported projects that evolved from an individual idea into a collective vision shared between (2 or more) participants.
Our north star rests in the human potential to strengthen cross-cultural community ties through intersectional advocacy (within and across participating communities), and to use “art” as a vehicle for social change through neighborhood interventions.
LIVE COMMUNITY PRESENTATIONS
As part of the Bandung Residency, A4 and MoCADA present a series of discussions with community leaders who offered insights into their practice as makers, organizers, activists and educators.
PREVIOUS PRESENTATIONS
Yura Sapi
July 5, 2022
Educator and activist Yura Sapi shared about their personal practice via a workshop centering their work at the intersection of arts, social justice, and healing.
Nobuko Miyamoto and Taiyo Na
July 5, 2022
Seasoned musicians and activists Nobuko Miyamoto and Taiyo Na who hared their philosophies around activism, and their experiences bridging social movements and cultural and racial divides, as well as uplifting communities of color through art.
Decolonize this Place
June 7, 2022
Members of Decolonize This Place, an action-oriented, decolonial formation and a call to action, facilitated a conversation on movement infrastructures of care and solidarity on the path to collective freedom and liberation. Organizing, research, aesthetics, and action are rooted in interconnected struggles that are anti-colonial, anti-imperial, anti-patriarchal, and anti-capitalist. The university, museum, and city are sites of struggles and organizing. They are sites of refusal, sabotage, infrastructure, sanctuary, play, exit. How can they become sites of training in the practice of freedom?
THE PARTNERS
The Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring greater representation, equity, and opportunities for Asian American artists and cultural organizations through resource sharing, promotion, and community building. Since 1983, A4 has sought to unify, promote, and represent the artistic and cultural producers of one of New York City’s fastest-growing populations. We are a diverse alliance of artists, organizations, and arts supporters who believe that working together as a pan-ethnic, multidisciplinary community is essential to nurturing the development of artists and arts groups. A4 serves as a thoughtful convener of the Asian American cultural workforce around issues of race, identity, and artmaking and provides a critical voice for this community. We are the only service organization in the country dedicated to the professional development of Asian American and Pacific Islander artists in all disciplines.
The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art (MoCADA) was born from the graduate thesis of our founder Laurie Cumbo on the feasibility of an African art museum contributing to the revitalization of its neighboring Black communities. Twenty years later, our mission has grown through three programmatic arms – Exhibitions, Education, and Community – that use art as a vehicle for social change via the celebration of Africa and the diaspora. Through artistic presentations, community conversations, creative expression, interactive learning, and cultural preservation, we amplify “voices” that are central to the upliftment of Black lives, and advocate for equity and access on every level. We reach beyond the walls of our physical museum space to deliver dynamic arts, educational, and social justice programs, including 60+ exhibitions, 500+ public programs, conversations, community gatherings, healing circles, learning opportunities and more in the gallery, the street, parks, schools, public housing and beyond. “More than a museum”, MoCADA has become a critical tool for welcoming those who are systematically left out, and a safe space for engaging with people across social divides.
This residency is co-presented by the Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) and The Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA) and made possible through the New York City Council’s AAPI Community Support Initiative, the Ford Foundation, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
