[Image from] http://www.eonsbetween.net/kl.html
The 3 organising partners selected 22
participants in September 2007: 11 persons from Asia and 11 persons from
Europe. The selection was made according to the relevance of the needs of each
applicant regarding the content of the training, and also according the
motivation of the applicants to get involved in a future international
collaboration. One of the selected applicants could eventually not come, due to
unexpected political events in his country, Pakistan, so we eventually ended up
with 21 participants, coming from 19 different countries.
8 trainers/speakers/facilitators were
appointed, coming from Europe and Asia. Please check more about participants, trainers and moderators by clicking on
their names on the right hand side window of this blog!
PARTICIPANT: Kok Yoong LIM, Malaysia.
Name of your organisation:
Rumah Air Panas
(R.A.P.) Art Society
Website of your organisation:
How is your organsation funded?
R.A.P. is solely funded by monthly
membership fees collected from R.A.P.’s members.
Explain what your organisation is about (to
somebody who does not know about it).
Established in 1997, R.A.P. is an
independent art space run by art enthusiasts. It is both an artist studio and
also a venue, which has featured numerous exhibitions, artist slides
presentation and dialogue sessions. Aims to explore and coalesce visual arts
and other cultural practices through collaboration in exhibition and project;
documentation and exchange of ideas in discussion, the members of R.A.P.
support an independent, aware and concerted artistic practice in engaging the
artistic community and the art public.
In July 2003, the artist collective was
finally formed. Since then, R.A.P. has organized more than 20 art and cultural
dialogue/talks, 9 exhibitions, and projects in collaboration with other groups.
R.A.P has officially gained it society status
on 17th August 2006 and it is currently known as R.A.P. Art Society/ Persatuan
Seni Rumah Air Panas (Registration No. 1107-06-WKL).
Describe how your organisation is engaged
in international cooperation and exchange.
Starting from year 2005, R.A.P. has
extended and expanded its networking to a wider regional network. R.A.P. is
also part of the Intra Asia Network. R.A.P. has been working closey with other
art organisations / art groups in the region by participating in workshop,
symposium, discussion and joint project, in fostering exchange as well as
sharing of knowledge. In the case of LetArtsMoveYou (LAMU), a visual art in
automobile project, R.A.P. has coordinated the regional collaboration by
bringing a number of artists from the SEA region.
Just to name a few, in September 2004,
R.A.P. was invited to participate at the International Meeting Between
Autonomous Cultural Centers Stemming from Citizen and Artistic Initiatives forum
in Shanghai. In September 2005, R.A.P. participated in the ‘SeptFest Foum: Art
Spaces and Artistic Directions’, organused by Singapore’s Substation. In
September 2006, R.A.P. participated in the Intra Asia Network 2006 Symposium
and workshop, Seoul and Gwangju Korea.
R.A.P also very often hosts artist talks by
artists or researchers from the foreign country i.e. Singapore, Myanmar, Spain,
America etc. in creating a module of the exchange that benefits speakers /
researchers and the local art scene as well as to inform others about the art /
cultural practices in Malaysia.
Describe how your art space relates to the
local community. If you are about to open an art space, explain how you related
to the local community in your previous experiences.
The space R.A.P. formerly used were sublet
to artists and there was a constant flow of artists coming in and out of the
studios and this had kept the place vibrant and exciting, whereby artists of
different background and practices intermingled and grew together. Not only
that, the surrounding non-art community was also benefited by being invited to
witness the show or performance/ gig R.A.P. organized. Occasionally, R.A.P.,
members also went in to the local market to sell artworks to raise fund for
project. In 2005 RAP has started an outreach project inviting artist to
give art talks and coordinating art tour for secondary students from the Kuala
Lumpur Klang Valley region, which is not far from R.A.P. space.
Even while R.A.P. is space-less after it
parted its premises, R.A.P. still continued carry on with its project and
activities by holding them in other organisation’s premise and other non-art
space. R.A.P. also co-organised project, show and activities with other
artistic collective i.e. SICKL in the ‘Crossing Over’ show by Evolutioary Girls
Club. (Artists, Scholars and Activists – The Evolutionary Girls Club is an
inclusive group of artists and activists who work and show work globally), the
‘Walk in Walk out’ project in Notthatbalai Art Festival, the LAMU project with
Collective Art Developers (see image below) etc.
[Image from] http://www.eonsbetween.net/kl.html
What are the major internal and external
challenges your organisation is facing?
The major internal problem R.A.P. is facing
is that there is no full time staff to do the administration and managerial
work. R.A.P. members consist of artists & cultural workers working Provo no
and very often have to perform multi tasking in running the organization. Many
are breadwinner of the family and can not be fully committed to organization;
juggling between tasks make members quite versatile to a certain extent.
Externally, R.A.P. is struggling to keep
itself abreast with the contemporary art movement/ development which stresses
on artist mobility and professionalism. With limitedresources, the collective
cannot afford to offer the same exposure on the global platform to all members
but only in a selective manner.
What are the main achievements and
strengths of your organisation?
R.A.P. has established quite a good
reputation at a national level, through its dedication to community work and
engagement with local art & non art community by providing an alternative
space for artists & cultural workers to showcase, present, share and do
work. R.A.P was also an important catalyst of artists run space and alternative
art platform in Kuala Lumpur art scene. Following the footstep of R.A.P, many
other artists run spaces sprang up and diversity the cultural offerings in KL.
R.A.P’s persistency & perseverance in
sustaining itself in a hostile situation is strength of the organization.
