108. When Did the Contemporary Begin? Thailand, Southeast Asia, and the Problem of Periodisation

The 1990s are frequently described as the decade in which Thailand and Southeast Asia entered the contemporary. Across the region, this period witnessed the emergence of independent art spaces, new curatorial platforms, regional exhibition networks, and increasing international visibility. Yet the assumptions underpinning this periodisation have rarely been examined directly. Why have particular decades, events, and institutions come to signify the beginning of the contemporary? How have these narratives shaped the writing of art histories in Thailand and across Southeast Asia?

Recent scholarship on multiple modernities, global art history, and the contemporary has challenged linear models of artistic development derived from European and North American experiences. Scholars, including John Clark, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Terry Smith, and Okwui Enwezor, have demonstrated the need to account for diverse historical trajectories and regional formations. Yet comparatively little attention has been paid to the processes through which particular decades, events, institutions, and artistic practices come to be identified as the beginning of the contemporary itself. This session takes Thailand as an important point of departure while inviting comparative perspectives from across Southeast Asia.

Contributors are encouraged to examine artists, exhibitions, curatorial projects, archives, independent spaces, biennales, and critical texts that have shaped understandings of historical change. Papers might reconsider the significance of political and economic transformations, regional networks, or alternative temporal frameworks that complicate established narratives of transition from modernity to the contemporary. Through Thailand and Southeast Asia, the session seeks to open a broader discussion on how art histories are periodised, narrated, and revised.

Themes: Periodisation, The Contemporary, Southeast Asia.

Additional format comment: The session will conclude with a moderated roundtable discussion.

Lead Convenor: Adulaya Hoontrakul, Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Bangkok, Thailand.

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.