About
Infrastructures for Collective Imagining: A day-long gathering
1 February 2026 | 10 am – 5 pm
Call for expressions of interest
Space is limited to 20 participants.
Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea will be included in the ticket price.
Tickets: $25
On the occasion of Trần Lương’s exhibition Tầm Tã – Soaked in the long rain, we invite expressions of interest to participate in a one-day event exploring artist-led infrastructures and strategies for social change.
This invitation is open to artists and activists, curators and cultural workers, teachers and students, poets and policy makers—anyone who aspires to build a future beyond neoliberal forms of production, transaction and consumption.
This gathering will unfold over a series of talks, workshops, and performances.
Together we will explore approaches to art, publishing and education that aim to co-create infrastructures that reimagine the public sphere and create openings for meaningful connection and exchange. Among the guiding questions are: how can artistic and curatorial strategies respond to silencing; what sorts of communicative and cognitive gaps does arts practice help us overcome; and how can knowledge be generated and shared differently.
The event will feature contributions from:
Sue Bradford — a co-founding member of Kōtare - Research & Education for Social Change an independent community-based educational platform based in Hōteo North, founded in 1994;
Bea Gladding, also known as Mr Meaty Boy, (Ngāti Porou, Ngāpuhi) — a multidisciplinary artist, producer, and true powerhouse of Ōtautahi’s arts scene. Bea is the Artistic Director of Te Wā, known for pushing boundaries and building vibrant creative communities;
Spoor Books — an independent publisher, community platform and online bookstore seeking to connect readers with left-field inquiries and non-Western imaginaries.
The question of what it means for us in Aotearoa to engage with Trần Lương’s practice of resistance and community-building in his own context forms the development of this programme. Tầm Tã – Soaked in the long rain forms the ground, or leaping off point to reimagine ways of working together, to create new routes for exchange, solidarity and critical practices.
Further details about the day’s programme will be announced.
Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea will be provided.
Please contact the gallery if you have questions.
About Trần Lương
Over more than three decades Trần Lương has played a significant role in the development of critically engaged contemporary art in Vietnam—a context with little infrastructure for contemporary art and continued limits on artistic expression. Beginning his career among the influential Gang of Five, Trần Lương’s early work sought to break away from a social realist tradition and seek out space for inquiry and experimentation, often in friends’ apartments or semi-underground settings. In 1998, Trần Lương co-founded Nhà Sàn Studio, an energetic site of development and dialogue, which closed in 2011 under authoritarian pressures. In 2020, he co-founded the Center for Art Patronage and Development, an organisation committed to nurturing artistic experimentation, inter-disciplinary conversation and learning, all the while continuing to work as an artist in ways that are genre-defying.
This event has been developed by Balamohan Shingade and Simon Gennard.
It takes place on the occasion of the exhibition Trần Lương, Tầm Tã - Soaked in the long rain, curated by Biljana Ciric and co-organised by Art Jameel, the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Western Australia.
Image: Trần Lương, Cọc Cạch, 2013-ongoing, photo documentation of durational performance, Sở Mountain, Chương Mỹ, Hà Nội. Courtesy of the artist.