Hera Chan, our Adjunct Curator, Asia Pacific at Tate Modern is in conversation with our Director Michèle Ruo Yi Landolt, to discuss her curatorial approach in a global context, the shaping of a collection, and her recent collaboration with Myanmar-born artist Moe Satt for an upcoming performance during Frieze Week.

MICHÈLE: Hello Hera, it is a pleasure to be in conversation with you. As Adjunct Curator, Asia Pacific at Tate Modern, you work in a vast region with a focus on research and contextualisation of underseen histories in a global context. You’re also our only Fellow to date who isn’t based in London. It would be great to hear in your own words how you would describe your work and share with us what a day in your life looks like.

HERA: There comes a sense of spontaneity and fluidity from working in the Asia Pacific region. Some days are spent pouring through archives and libraries whilst others start with one studio visit that leads to another. Being in the field means I am able to absorb bits and pieces from the contexts surrounding the artists we are working with at Tate; and to bring those different geographies with the question of translating contexts into our London galleries. Recently, I have been spending more time in Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand and Indonesia, to learn about the conditions that cultural practitioners self-institute to create and sustain their work.

M: Tate Modern is one of the biggest art institutions in the world for modern and contemporary art. What some might not know about your position is that you are also involved in shaping Tate’s collection via artwork acquisition from the Asia Pacific region. How do you approach such a big responsibility and what do you think is essential when it comes to museum collections in the present day and age?

H: The shaping of the collection is a big responsibility and I am continuously reassured by its collaborative and social process. Instead of considering building the collection as a comprehensive art historical exercise, I think alongside the curators at Tate with artists, thinkers, and curators from the Asia Pacific region. I see the collection building process perhaps similarly to the way Asymmetry works with its Fellows, in that each person—or in the case of Tate, each artwork or performance—brings a form of knowledge production. In that, building the collection is also working to bring the worldview of the artist through the artwork itself. These worldviews can allow us to think of other artworks differently, and subsequently, our own world differently.

M: Lately, you have been engaged in curating performances in the Tanks at Tate during Frieze Week. This year, Myanmar-born artist Moe Satt will be staging a new iteration of his iconic performance F n’ F (Face and Fingers)(2008–2012). Alongside the performance, he will also present his first European solo exhibition at Delfina Foundation. Tell us more about your recent project working with him.

H: Satt and I have met in different cities around the world, including Bangkok where he used to work with a performance festival, and in Amsterdam, where he was participating in Rijksakademie. What I knew about performance art in Southeast Asia and the context of Myanmar had always informed the way I experienced his performances. In bringing this performance to Tate and curating it with Senior Curator Rosalie Doubal, we had a chance to imagine and build a temporary set to house his performance which includes textile installation, video, and a light piece. Satt is an artist who is already an icon in the region where I work, and to be able to share that in London across two institutions is very special for me as well. We have variously thought about it as a ‘living exhibition’ and about what it means to really inhabit, haunt, and breathe in an art space together.