Esplanade Presents | da:ns focus - Connect Asia Now Rethinking Representation: Contemporary Art and the Question of Identity

How do historical ways of seeing continue to shape expectations of artists today? Why are artists from Asia often expected to represent their culture, nation, or region, while others are more readily understood through the singularity of their practice? Drawing on her own artistic practice and broader developments in Indonesian contemporary art, Melati Suryodarmo reflects on how colonial legacies continue to influence the ways contemporary art is produced, presented, and received. The session examines how curatorial narratives, institutional frameworks, and the global art market often privilege cultural identity as a primary lens, reducing complex political, historical, social, and environmental realities into recognisable representations. Rather than rejecting identity, the session invites artists, curators, and cultural practitioners to rethink representation itself, exploring how contemporary art might be encountered beyond the expectation of speaking for a nation, culture, or region. This programme is presented as part of da:ns focus – Connect Asia Now (CAN), a weekend that spotlights contemporary dance works created by or in collaboration with Asian artists, focusing on distinct voices and creative impulses from the region.