Leeza Ahmady speaks with photographer and video artist Almagul Menlibayeva, whose 2010 exhibition, Daughters of Turan, took place at New York's Priska C. Juschka Fine Art. Joining them for the conversation is Priska Juschka, founder of Priska C. Juschka Fine Art. Juschka offers an account of the history of her gallery and her interest in Menlibayeva's work, which examines the cultural, political and ecological history and growth of the artist's native Kazakhstan. Melibayeva discusses how the Soviet occupation of Kazakhstan informed her artistic growth and interests, alongside traditional Kazakh culture, and gives a brief introduction to the economic, geographic and political history of the country.

This event took place on April 29, 2010 and was presented by Priska C. Juschka Fine Art in collaboration with ArteEast's Across Histories: Artist Talk Series.

Listen to interview: Part I / Part II

In this conversation at James Cohan Gallery, Sr. Editor of Art Asia Pacific Magazine, Don J. Cohn interviews Yun-Fei Ji about his new body of work and his relationship with China. Yun-Fei Ji's second solo exhibition at the gallery included new works on paper and was the inaugural showcase of his impressive 32 foot long narrative scroll, Migrants from the Three Gorges Dam. Throughout the interview, listeners will be in awe of the calm and thoughtful manner in which Yun-Fei Ji fields Cohn's pressing and often provocative questions. The artist and editor tackle everything from Yun-Fei Ji's understanding of the state of contemporary China to his graphic, fantastical (at times critical) portrayal of Chinese history in his work. The artist discusses how affected he was on a recent trip to the Three Gorges region of China where he witnessed the immense cultural and physical displacement caused by the building and subsequent flooding of the Dam. The experience inspired him to conceive his latest works as a platform to create consciousness and understanding about issues facing China. Forced migration, displacement and increasing consumerism are a global concern, not unique to China. Yun-Fei Ji's ability to eloquently express his creative process with strong self-assurance is applaudable.

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Working behind a stunningly large, custom-built wooden table covered with used clothing, New York-based Taiwanese artist Lee Mingwei speaks with Leeza Ahmady during the performance of his 2009 exhibition The Mending Project. The interview takes place at Lambard-Freid Projects, host to the installation, where visitors would come with an article of clothing or house garment and have the artist personally mend the piece over the course of a conversation. Mingwei discusses the intentions behind making the focus his work a mundane task and turning a private act into an intimate one, stating, "I am interested in opening up beautiful moments of connection." He also speaks of his past works and how each seeks to highlight the banal elements of quotidian life, allowing for a transformative experience for both the artist and the participant (30 minutes).

Listen to Lee Mingwei, The Mending Project

South Korean artist Yeondoo Jung talks with Leeza Ahmady about his art and how his childhood exposure to Traditional Chinese Medicine, and early 19th century photographers continues to inspire his artistic thinking. He discusses his latest video, Hand Made Memory, where he has juxtaposed interviews of real life characters with entirely staged interpretations of their stories. He likes to offer transparency to his viewers about the process of his image construction. "The process is what is so exciting and I want to share how I play with multiple elements: fiction, truth, documentary and pure fantasy." In his first ever-live performance event Cinemagician, commissioned by Performa 2009, Jung integrates sound, camera feed-back, cinematic tricks, and the energy of a live magician in performance to create a magical experience for the audience (37 minutes).

Listen to interview with Yeondoo Jung

Leeza Ahmady in conversation with Bose Pacia gallery director Rebecca Davis. Find out about the gallery's exciting new space in Brooklyn, about their global reach, just what it takes to score a show at the place, and what it's like to be one of the only institutions to exclusively feature South Asian art. It's been a long road but, despite the economic downturn, Davis says Bose Pacia is thriving (30 minutes).

Rebecca Davis, Director, joined Bose Pacia two years ago, after completing an M.A. in Modern Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Bose Pacia has launched the careers of some of the best known artists from South Asia who have now been included in the most prestigious museums and curated events worldwide. In this conversation, Leeza and Rebecca talk about Bose Pacia's growth as a gallery, the increased academic, institutional, and commercial interest in art from the region, and what lies ahead for the gallery. Rebecca gives us details on Bose Pacia's recent move from Chelsea to DUMBO and how they have been handling the recession. We also learn how the gallery started to build its impressive roster of artists and positioned itself at the forefront of contemporary South Asian avant-garde.

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Guy Ben-Ner, is an internationally renowned Isreali artist living and working in Tel Aviv and visiting New York to launch his latest video: Don't Drop the Monkey, commissioned by Performa 20o9. In this conversation with Leeza Ahmady, we hear about the artist's process of making videos, the intentions in his work, and his thoughts on how art and personal life mutually affect each other. Ben-Ner shares details about the making of the video--which he admits he titled with no real reference in the piece--in which the artist holds a telephone conversation with himself over a period of twelve months as he flies between Tel Aviv and Berlin. Ben-Ner's storyboard is life itself, the film is completely live and unedited, and each scene occurs in real time although with significant lapses in between. Shot in Hebrew, and dubbed in English, the film presents a conversation in rhyme, which discusses how art can be at the service of life and the repercussions of such a unified relationship. Mixing sophisticated cinematic devices and crafty, do-it-yourself elements, Ben-Ner's videos brim with witty cross-references to specific episodes and genres within the histories of cinema, video, and performance (31 minutes).

Ben-Ner's Don't Drop the Monkey was on view at the PERFORMA Hub at 41 Cooper Square in New York City through November 22, 2009

Listen to interview with Guy Ben-Ner

Savita Apte, Chair of the Abraaj Capital Art Prize, moderated a conversation with curators Leeza Ahmady and Carol Soloman about the unique issues surrounding the exhibition and creation of contemporary art in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa. This conversation took place in conjunction with MAD's presentation of the 2009 Abraaj Capital Art Prize exhibition which featured: Nazgol Ansarinia, Kutlug Ataman, Zoulikha Bouabdellah.

Listen to Crossing Borders: Contemporary Art in Troubled Places