DALLAS, TX.- The Crow Collection of Asian Art, in partnership with Dallas Contemporary and the Moving Image Archive for Contemporary Art: MIACA (Hong Kong), announced the presentation of Invisible Cities, an exhibition and screening series showcasing more than 20 contemporary video works by renowned and emerging artists from China, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam. Exhibited as a series of video installations and screenings at the Crow Collection of Asian Art and Dallas Contemporary, these pivotal works represent recent key developments in moving image art in Asia. Invisible Cities runs Friday, Sept. 29, through Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017, at the Crow Collection of Asian Art and Dallas Contemporary.

Presented as a compilation of fragmentary urban images, this project addresses perceptions of various Asian cities in the collective mind. In their vignettes, artists reference traces of colonialism, globalization, and the political aspects of urban development to examine the concept of the “perpetual foreigner” within contemporary cosmopolitan culture. From the stories of vanished cities of the past (Panduranga), to the destroyed cities of the present time (Fukushima), the film narratives encapsulate the memory of specific sites and individuals’ interactions with different landscapes.

By capturing the splendor and tensions of real cities, the project also questions concepts of Post-Exoticism and Otherness in Asia. At the Crow Collection of Asian Art, the work of Yangon, Myanmar-based artist Moe Satt collects stories through the hands of others, while Singapore-born, Berlin-based artist Ming Wong examines the shifting nature of identity through the re-enactment of archetypal characters in world cinema. At Dallas Contemporary, Japanese collective Chim↑Pom presents momentous artworks which document their exploration of cohabitation and survival, and ultimately a focus on historical and cultural continuity between symbolic sites and cities in Japan and worldwide.

Celebrating video art as lingua franca of the contemporary world, Invisible Cities employs this globally accessible medium to capture the richness and diversity of surrounding environments and to prioritize an indigenous perception of the world rather than a “Western perspective.” Inspired by Italo Calvino’s novel Invisible Cities from which the project’s title is derived, this multi-institutional collaboration honors exchange over difference and cultural hybridity over “otherness” by inviting viewers to take a look through the lens of authentic experience.

Invisible Cities will be accompanied by an illustrated exhibition guide featuring participating artist bios, statements and curatorial conversations. The guide will be available at the Crow Collection of Asian Art and at Dallas Contemporary.

This project is organized by Hitomi Hasegawa, Director, Moving Image Archive for Contemporary Art: MIACA (Hong Kong); Lilia Kudelia, Assistant Curator, Dallas Contemporary; and Jacqueline Chao, Curator of Asian Art, Crow Collection of Asian Art.