The Green Papaya Art Projects Archive contains substantial material on the contemporary art ecology in Metro Manila, as well as collaborations with artists, researchers, and curators in Southeast Asia and around the world. Founded by Norberto Roldan (a.k.a., Peewee) and Donna Miranda in 2000, Green Papaya Art Projects was part of a wave of artist initiatives that had started throughout Asia from the mid-1980s onwards as alternatives to institutions and commercial galleries. In an environment that sees collectives and non-profits close down every two years or so, Green Papaya Art Projects has continually transformed and become the longest active, artist-run organisation in Manila.
Green Papaya Art Projects started as an exhibition space but soon shifted its focus to off-site projects and those beyond the visual arts—as seen in the operational documents, correspondences, photographs, videos, news clippings, and publications. The material covers experimental dance and choreography; film screenings and one-day performances; collaborations with other organisations and curators not associated with Green Papaya Art Projects; residencies that brought together local and international artists; and special projects such as publications, multi-disciplinary research, and noise performance. Green Papaya Art Projects has shown many well-known artists from the Philippines—established icons as well as then-emerging artists, many of whom are women.
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SOUTH SOUTH is an online community, an anthology, an archive and a resource for artists, galleries, curators and collectors, institutions and not-for-profits invested in the Global South.
The platform offers a repository and a space for new, shared value systems centred on community, collaboration and exchange. It is a central portal to experience the programmes and artist profiles of galleries within and dedicated to the Global South.
It will host year-round events and seeks, during these tumultuous times, to address an imbalance in the global cultural framework by providing a means to explore a de-centred art world, within a broader geopolitical context. In the featured section, the platform maintains an ongoing interview-based editorial component, including conversations, essays and other texts on current events and significant shows in and about the Global South. In the archive section, SOUTH SOUTH facilitates a community-built archive highlighting selected seminal exhibitions, texts and moments about modern and contemporary art in the Global South at galleries, not-for-profits and museums, as well as archived interview-based editorial and artist profiles. Content of the site is established through contributions from key artists, writers, curators, nonprofit organisations and gallerists.
SOUTH SOUTH maintains an ongoing programme, and its launch event, VEZA, ran from 23 February to 7 March 2021 and brought together 50+ galleries from more than 40 cities spread across 30 countries and 5 continents, presenting a more holistic world-view of contemporary art.
ALTERNATIVE ASIA is a website to introduce art spaces and groups engaging in various activities in Asian countries. Recently in Asian countries, more and more attention has been attracted to art spaces which show different developments that are independent from those of conventional art museums and commercial galleries. They are commonly artist-run-spaces which hold various types of events including workshops, music concerts, talks and symposiums, not limited to art exhibitions.
ALTERNATIVE ASIA is here to focus on the unique movements simultaneously happening in Asia, and share the reports and updated information on the art spaces with the world. I hope you can feel the new wave in Asian art scene through our website, created as a part of “Alternative Asia Platform,” research and development project by Tokyo Art Research Lab, human resource development program of Arts Council Tokyo.