What is Borneo Laboratory book about?

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A Book Dedicated to the Contemporary Landscape of Borneo Art

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The Borneo Laboratory book is a selected palette of art projects, conceived and carried out with the goal of extending and developing Borneo’s existing cultural narrative. Built on four pillars of creative focus – Design and Make; Food; Documentation and the Performing Arts – it presents experienced practitioners and the innovative changes they conjured in their respective fields. It will take you through their projects, through setbacks and triumphs, through collaboration and individual endeavour, and from concept to completion. From these, you will encounter the diversity of arts and culture in the contemporary Borneo landscape. This book represents a progression from our previous Borneo Art Collective publication, which featured the unfolding stories of individual cultural practitioners in Borneo. This Borneo Laboratory book, instead, is more an exploration of the original content of its authors, told in their own words.

The Book Making

Since we started our journey, from the beginnings of Borneo Art Collective until the start of Borneo Laboratory in 2018, we have always believed that Borneo could be the destination for experimental art, given its abundance in materials, ingredients and ambience. We see the realisation of this book as the stone that precedes the ripples. While we were planning for our second book, we hoped its production could itself be a platform for art practitioners to work on the innovation they wished to see. We engaged them, explored with them and provided our space for them to explore every possibility for the content. During the production process, never a day has gone by without us being inspired by the dialogue we have collectively created. The making of this book has allowed the creatives to be more courageous, experimental, reflective and critical in their projects. The documentation for the book provided them with the opportunity to review the purpose, methods and dialogues their projects have crafted, and how they could contribute to the wider conversation in their field. Over the past two years, we have realised there is nothing more motivating and encouraging than the manifestation of good will, so it is when we speak about innovation in art and crafts.

Why

Publication is an important medium of exposure for Bornean contemporary art and culture. From our roots as a digital platform, we wanted this handcrafted book to be a work of art in itself. Through its creation, we hope to inspire a different angle of exploration in Borneo contemporary art and culture. We believe that only through actively engaging practitioners to review and explore the potential of their respective content, through the tangible forms of print and ink, can the contemporary practice in art be unlocked.