PRACTICING PRACTICE(S)

At deCentral, we consider practice as an ongoing process rather than a singular act, shaped through duration, repetition, embodied knowledge, and situated relationships.

These conversations seek to challenge and provoke our assumptions of scale and speed in productivity, questioning the role of spectacle, towards a deeper understanding of what it means to ‘professionalize’ and give competency to our artistic landscapes.

Contemporary culture today fetishises the new, promoting “once in a lifetime experiences”, with popular statistics, to entice audience consumption. In this program, we will think about what it means to value artistic practices that are slow in generation, repetitive in occurrence, and often realized with people and places that may not be visible in our market oriented art worlds.

In ‘Practicing Practice(s)’ we ask how art can comprise a practice, of why such time and labor should be a site where new temporalities, politics, and affinities emerge.

‘Practicing Practice(s)’ is conceived and led by Ariane Sutthavong, with contributions by Zoe Butt.

Date: 25 April, 2026

Time: 10.30 am - 5.00 pm

Venue: Silpakorn University, Phra Phrombhichitr Architecture and Art Gallery

What is a ’practice’? Anchored in this deceptively simple question, this inaugural event opens a space for inquiry into the relationship between art, labour, and education.

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Date: 23 May, 2026

Time: 10.30 am - 5.00 pm

Venue: William Warren Library, Jim Thompson Art Center

What modes of pedagogy and knowledge production are valued in our contemporary art scene - can we imagine them otherwise?

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Date: 4 July, 2026

Time: 10.30 am - 4.30 pm

Venue: TCDC Chiang Mai

When artistic and curatorial labour unfolds beyond the exhibition and its artworks — through acts of convening, hosting, and enabling creativity. What does it mean to support others’ work, to create platforms, or to enable encounters?

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Related Engagement

Event #4 - Practicing Beyond the Institution

Across the artworld today we see an increasing number of artists whose practices engage and collaborate with the non-artworld, in spaces with communities beyond institutions of art (such as galleries, museums and biennials.) Bringing together artists whose work engages migration, labour, land, language, ecology, exchange, and collective experiences, this discussion explores how contemporary art moves between institutional frameworks and wider social worlds.

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Event #3 - Creating Collective Agency Through Practice

When artistic and curatorial labour unfolds beyond the exhibition and its artworks through acts of convening, hosting, and enabling creativity, what does it mean to support the work of others, to create platforms, or to facilitate encounters? Following the morning session, the afternoon discussion will explore the dynamics of festivals: how they produce specific modes of working, forms of attention, and relationships, and what traces or afterlives might persist beyond the event itself.

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Event #2 - Practicing Knowledge Otherwise

A day of study - reading with artistic practice and their methods

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Event #1 - How do we learn to practice?

What is a ’practice’? Anchored in this deceptively simple question, this inaugural event opens a space for inquiry into the relationship between art, labour, and education.

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Related Programs

PRACTICE RESPOND SUPPORT

A series of conversations with our creative community.

What does it mean to build and activate a ‘practice’ in the arts - as artists, curators and supporters?

Beginning March 2026

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