Fanatic Heart

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Para Site is delighted to present the group exhibition ‘Fanatic Heart’ from 10 December 2022 to 26 February 2023. The exhibition is curated by Cusson Cheng, featuring works by fifteen Asian artists, including Haneyl Choi, BuBu de la Madeleine, Guhit Kulay (Maria Christina Castillo Anire, Cristina Balao-as Cayat, Jonalyn Macalalad Molina, and Marilyn Santiago Lopez), Ho Tzu Nyen, Yuree Kensaku, Dew Kim, Lu Yang, Green Mok, Yasumasa Morimura, Diane Severin Nguyen, Yoshiko Shimada, and Sin Wai Kin, seven of whom are presenting all-new commissions.

‘Fanatic Heart’ seemingly is an elixir of pop cultural offerings that alleviates us from the hardships of daily life. Nevertheless, it prompts the audience to realise the potent political power behind obsessive, fanatical desires and employ them to make sense of the radical world we live in.

Organised to embrace and expand the definition of fandom culture, the exhibition invites fifteen artists from Hong Kong, Japan, mainland China, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam to materialise the relationship between fandom and socio-political happenings that have taken place in Southeast and East Asia. Making eclectic references to celebrity worship, drag, postcolonial and post-socialist identities, social movements, religion, and technological advances, the artists investigate desire and affect to decipher the cultural unconscious of contemporary social landscapes.

Concerning commissioning new works for the exhibition, curator of ‘Fanatic Heart’ Cusson Cheng said: ‘I have invited seven of the fifteen participating artists to become fans who passionately engage with their subject matter, yet at the same time reflect on the significance of fandom and idolisation in their personal histories. Their works shed light on recent developments of the K-pop industry, lesser-known Filipino history and identity struggles, and contemporary Thai socio-politics. Together with existing works, “Fanatic Heart” our framework to reimagine the ideas and social relations associated with fandom, enabling us to become aware of and deconstruct the complex relationship among media, technology, and geopolitical shifts.’

Likewise, visitors are encouraged to engage with an exercise in ‘fandom’. The Chinese exhibition title, which literally means ‘a fanatic’s diary’, references Diary of a Madman written by the leading figure of modern Chinese literature Lu Xun. The exhibition catalogue is designed as an interactive and customisable fan diary, opening up the potential for fan practice to become a form of social agency, a theme that also finds expression in the works on view in the exhibition.