Curatorial Statement for Encounter Bow – Moi Tran

Curatorial Statement
Moi Tran, for Encounter Bow

Embedded at the core of curatorial thinking for Encounter Bow 2021 lies the theme of Archiving and Care, not only in response to the immediate collective experiences of the pandemic but also in the future care we all yearn for, and what that might look like.

The curator (from Latin: cura, meaning “to take care”) is someone who takes on the role of caregiving. In this moment I share this role with everyone experiencing different levels of care need and care giving as this continues to shape our lives and creativity.

I position care as collective and creative, present and future.

It is also the care that everyone involved in the ‘curation’ of Encounter Bow have collectively invested. The Artists and their works speak deeply to community care, spaces of joy and the importance of sharing and archiving collective narratives.

To actualise the final ‘curation’ of Encounter Bow I include the engagement of the many guests who we hope to welcome to the festival and thank them for completing the work we are inviting them to be part of. It is only through community engagement that we are  able to make any work at the festival complete.

The notion of collective involvement in the shaping of a performance work aims to dismantle conditional exchange between performer and Audience, I hope this opens up space for curiosity, public space care and sharing narrative agency.

Taking agency of our lived experiences directly addresses the invitation to challenge the conventional archive. How do we want our narratives preserved and cared for, and by whom? Archives are evidence of lived experience and I believe can exist in any form: we together decide, and can be the shape shifters of the stories we care for.

The full programme will go live on Friday 14th May.

Image credit: Moi Tran by Yiannis Katsaris