Established in 2021, AFSAR, the Asian Feminist Studio for Art and Research, serves as a dynamic platform that embraces a diverse range of cultural practices rooted in feminism, encompassing contemporary art, research, activism, and community engagement. The prefix ‘Asian’ within AFSAR goes beyond national boundaries, fostering diverse conversations and idea-sharing among individuals from various parts of Asia. AFSAR’s collaborative formats involve studying, reading, watching, and working together, creating an environment conducive to collective exploration.

As part of AFSAR’s collective study project centered around rethinking technology, Charmaine, You, Hye-in, and Lin engaged in collective readings of books by Hong Kong philosopher Yuk Hui. This exploration led to the development of the concept of cosmotechnics, questioning technological singularity and embracing technodiversity. This fundamental idea challenges universal and hierarchical perspectives on technology, the world, and the cosmos, emphasizing their interconnectedness with different localities.

In the talk “Cosmic Dialogues on Fiction Writing,” Charmaine, You, Hye-in, and Lin extend the discourse from rethinking technology to a more profound exploration of East Asian cosmic thinking and fiction writing. Together, they will collaboratively explore keywords such as Cosmology, East Asian philosophy, technology, and science fiction, building upon the groundwork established by AFSAR’s preceding collective studies. The talk will further be anchored in a written dialogue with the artist Mooni Perry, spanning from January to April 2024. Mooni Perry's video work Letter to AFSAR (2024) is presented as part of the exhibition A Home for Something Unknown (March 2 – April 28, 2024) at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein.

In English

Free admission

Participants

Charmaine Poh is an artist based in Berlin and Singapore working across media, moving image, and performance to peel apart, interrogate, and hold ideas of agency, repair, and the body across worlds. Her current focus, THE YOUNG BODY UNIVERSE, is a series of enactments considering the potentialities of the feminist techno-body. Her work centers the affects of vulnerability, desire, and intimacy from the vantage point of subversion.

Feng You is a cultural worker based in Berlin and spends most of time reading novels and dreaming.

Park Hye-in, a curator and researcher based in Berlin and Seoul, focuses on dissecting the expressions and discussions prevalent in East Asian contemporary art, shaped by technological, social, and political contexts. Her research delves into these themes, aiming to challenge and deconstruct traditional perceptions of culture and art. Hye-in has refined her research intentions through participation in diverse curatorial programs and projects, such as the publication project named Amalgam, Research Studio TPEAA (Trans-cultural Practices in East Asian Art), and various filmmaking initiatives.

Yan Lin writes and translates.