100. The Territorial Trap – when “being local” becomes a new essentialism in Southeast Asian Art

Decolonisation as style, locality as brand. This panel examines a paradox in contemporary Southeast Asian art: as “locality,” “indigeneity,” “site-specificity,” and “decolonisation” gain increasing institutional and market value, practices intended to challenge Western-centric frameworks may themselves become new aesthetic norms. We ask three interconnected questions. First, does the demand for “authentic locality “encourage artists to perform cultural difference for international audiences, producing a form of auto-exoticisation? Second, does the celebration of selected cultural vocabularies—such as Thai animism, Indonesian collectivism, or Vietnamese craft traditions—risk constructing a new “Southeast Asian essence,” obscuring the region’s internal differences and uneven visibility? Third, when museums and biennials institutionalise “decolonial” practices, can their critical potential be neutralized through curatorial incorporation and cultural branding, producing what we call “sustainable exoticism”?

The panel invites empirically grounded papers examining artists, exhibitions, biennials, museum collections, curatorial practices, or art markets across Southeast Asia. Rather than presuming a position for or against decolonisation, we seek contributions that complicate, challenge, or reformulate these questions.

Themes: Southeast Asian contemporary art, Neo-essentialism, Auto-exoticisation

Lead Convenor: Xinping Wei, Renmin University of China, China

Co-convenors: Bairong Zhang, Johns Hopkins University

To submit a Paper to this Session, please follow the guidance on our website and complete the AAH 2027 Call for Papers Proposal Submission Form.