Edited collection explores Asian art

South and southeast Asia are hotbeds of inspiration for many contemporary artists. Many countries in the region have undergone dramatic transformations within only a few generations, from colonial outposts to autonomous nations struggling to keep traditions and cultures alive and relevant.

It is the sometimes uneasy marriage of politics with faith, religion and ethnicity that makes the region fascinating to its indigenous creators. The theme eventually found its way into the exhibition entitled No Country, presented at Asia Society Hong Kong Center as the first touring show of the Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative.

Initially mounted at Manhattan's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum this February to May, the show continues in Singapore next year after wrapping up in Hong Kong.

No Country takes its name from the opening line of William Butler Yeats' poem Sailing to Byzantium, which was subsequently used by Cormac McCarthy for his novel No Country for Old Men. By emphasizing the blurring of political and cultural boundaries between nations, the pieces that make up the exhibition question typical Asian norms. The exhibition was curated by Singaporean June Yap while Dominique Chan provided assistance for the Asia Society show in Hong Kong.

"Our mission is to teach Asians about Asia while promoting a greater understanding of Asia to the rest of the world," says Alice Mong, executive director of Asia Society Hong Kong Center.

"This is our fifth exhibition since we opened our new building and the first time Guggenheim has exhibited in Hong Kong. It is also the first time the Asia Society Hong Kong is presenting works from around the region, though we have a tradition of introducing contemporary artists to Hong Kong."

"The initiative is an ambitious undertaking," says Richard Armstrong, director with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation. "It demonstrates the rhetoric that we're a global museum." About 250,000 people visited the Guggenheim to see the exhibition earlier this year.