MARS landing!

Bayu with Shahnim Safian, Co-Director of MARS at the opening of Transit A4/soft launch of MARS

A very big congratulations to MARS (Malaysian Art Archive and Research Support), which was launched  at HOM over the weekend. Initiated by Bayu Utomo Radjikin and Nur Hanim Khairuddin, MARS is planned as a “nonprofit research support center that compiles, preserves, and archives mainly printed materials related to Malaysian visual and fine arts intended for the consumption of researchers, students, and interested parties” (HOM website). The fundraising exhibition Transit A4 at HOM brought together 77 Malaysian artists and this made for a raucous launch crowd. It’s the beginning of something beautiful!

MARS site in Ampang

SEARCH Library - W.I.P.

Meanwhile, back at the RogueArt ranch, our more modest SEARCH Library is slowly taking shape – made up of our own collection of SEA publications and the loan of regional titles from the VK Collection, we hope to have it open by appointment by December. It’s very exciting to be part of a wider push for better research, documentation and access, and we look forward to linking up with MARS and other regional resource sites in the near future.

(BY)