We have now entered the second edition of the Asian Contemporary Art Week in San Francisco. From September 19-26, 2013, ACAW-SF 2013 celebrates the diversity and dynamics of Asian contemporary art practices. ACAW-SF 2013 brings together an international group of artists from over 10 different countries and features 27 programs ranging from exhibitions, screenings, conferences, talks and performances at different venues across the Bay Area.

On September 21st, 2013 at the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts., is the highlighted program “IN DIALOGUE: DROP A PIN”, a daylong presentation-conversations. This program will be followed by the film screening HISTORY OF HISTORIES: 50 YEARS OF AFGHAN FILMS.

IN DIALOGUE: DROP A PIN, brings four distinct panelists (Inti Guerrero, James T. Hong, Mariam Ghani, and Gimhongsok) to the Bay Area to participate in a discussion reflecting on the generalizing of globalization and the oversight of individual localities. The program references the virtual motion of dropping a pin on a map and the ability to draw new paths to any other point in the world. The daylong dialogue serves as an open platform to examine each speaker’s practice and the geopolitical specificities that have shaped it. Panelists will pull from their specific points of departure (Hong Kong, Zhejiang, Kabul and the fictional Xijing), linking them to various destinations and viewpoints, including the culturally diverse Bay Area. (Saturday, September 21, 11am to 4pm, at CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts)

HISTORY OF HISTORIES: 50 YEARS OF AFGHAN FILMS follows the daylong presentation-conversations IN DIALOGUE: DROP A PIN and extends the conversation to the cinema realm. Through the eyes of Afghan local filmmakers and cameramen, the screening invites viewer to reflect on the visual representation of the city of Kabul in films and videos. Programmed by artist Mariam Ghani and independent curator Leeza Ahmady, this film screening juxtaposes contemporary Afghan shorts and selections drawn from the ongoing digitization project in the archive of Afghan Films, Afghanistan’s national film institute (operated from 1967 to 1996). The archive program draws from feature film clips, documentary shorts, weekly newsreels and propaganda films produced from 1967-1980 to reflect the changing fashions, mores and politics of the times, as the Afghan state shifted from monarchy to autocratic republic to embattled Communist project. (Saturday, September 21, 6pm to 8:30pm, with an introduction from the curators and a brief Q&Q, at CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts)

For more details about the programming of ACAW-SF 2013, visit our website http://www.asiancontemporarysf.org/acaw