New Eelam: Brisbane
Christopher Kulendran Thomas in collaboration with Annika Kuhlmann
13 April–8 June 201913 Apr–8 Jun 2019
#NewEelamBrisbane
New Eelam is a long-term artwork in the form of a start-up—a real estate technology company founded by the artist Christopher Kulendran Thomas to develop a flexible global housing subscription based on collective co-ownership rather than individually owned private property. Originated in collaboration with curator Annika Kuhlmann, the venture takes as a starting point the art field’s involvement in the global processes through which cities around the world are transformed and explores how to reconfigure what art can actually do in the world structurally.
Sitting like a new development in a rapidly changing neighbourhood, New Eelam: Brisbane presents a sci-fi vision of an alternate reality. The speculative documentary, 60 million Americans can’t be wrong introduces the post-capitalist housing proposal and the political and historical horizons of the venture. Taking as a departure point the once self-governed—but now non-existent—homeland of ‘Eelam’ from which the artist’s Sri Lankan Tamil family originates, the film explores how a new economic model could emerge out of the existing economic system rather than in opposition to it. Thomas’ first exhibition in Australia provides a timely opportunity to consider new possibilities for the architecture and experience of citizenship. New Eelam: Brisbane has been integrated locally through partnerships with landscape designer Pete Shields and ceramic artist Tim Wilson (Hunchmark).
Christopher Kulendran Thomas, 60 Million Americans can’t be wrong (2018) in collaboration with Annika Kuhlmann, was commissioned by the IMA, A Tale of a Tub, DIS, and Tensta konsthall.
Artists
Curated By
- Aileen Burns and Johan Lundh
Christopher Kulendran Thomas is an artist who manipulates some of the structural processes by which art produces reality. His work has been included in the 7th Bi-City Biennale, Shenzhen (2017); the 11th Gwangju Biennale; the 9th Berlin Biennale; and the 3rd Dhaka Art Summit (all 2016). Recent exhibitions include I Was Raised on the Internet, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2018); New Eelam: Tensta, Tensta konsthall, Stockholm (2017); Christopher Kulendran Thomas, New Galerie, Paris (2017); moving is in every direction, Hamburger Bahnhof, Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin (2017); Bread and Roses, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (2016); Co-Workers: Network As Artist, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2015) and Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making, Tate Liverpool (2013). Forthcoming exhibitions include Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin, as well as a new commission with the V-A-C Foundation for the 58th Venice Biennale. Thomas is the founder and CEO of New Eelam (new-eelam.com).
Annika Kuhlmann is a curator who works predominantly through long term collaborations. As Creative Director at New Eelam, she has developed presentations for the 9th Berlin Biennale, the 11th Gwangju Biennale, Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof—Museum für Gegenwart, Tensta konsthall in Stockholm, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. She has also worked on exhibitions at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; BFI Miami, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg; New Galerie, Paris; and she co-curated the exhibition Welt ohne Außenat Gropius Bau, Berlin together with Tino Sehgal and Thomas Oberender. Kuhlmann is associate curator at Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin.
Annika Kuhlmann is a curator who works predominantly through long term collaborations. As Creative Director at New Eelam, she has developed presentations for the 9th Berlin Biennale, the 11th Gwangju Biennale, Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof—Museum für Gegenwart, Tensta konsthall in Stockholm, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. She has also worked on exhibitions at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; BFI Miami, Kunstverein Harburger Bahnhof, Hamburg; New Galerie, Paris; and she co-curated the exhibition Welt ohne Außenat Gropius Bau, Berlin together with Tino Sehgal and Thomas Oberender. Kuhlmann is associate curator at Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin.
