MFA Fine Arts presents a talk by writer and curator David Xu Borgonjon. Touching on artists working in New York, in diaspora, and in the other hemisphere, Borgonjon's talk inquires into the origins and uses of a renewed interest in the concept of Asia. Because this thing is often both too big to fail and too vague to find, the talk will start with the claim that it is always an imaginative, artistic and even political project. Along the way, Borgonjon will welcome some of Asia’s alter-egos into the conversation, including old and new friends like A+sia, Bsia,and Aphasia. Finding tools that work locally and scale planetary may involve asking: "Where has Asia been (all this time)?" Keywords: anti-pan-fan-Asianism, Asia as Method, political economy, Fantasia, Yoko Tawada.

David Xu Borgonjon is a writer, curator and founding member of the bilingual Chinese/English media art platform SCREEN. He works on the economic imagination in contemporary art and 20th century literature. Based in New York, he teaches curating at Rhode Island School of Design and is completing a Ph.D. at Columbia University.

Talk

Where Is Asia?

Room 101C