Stateless Mind Pavilion

The Stateless Mind Pavilion is an artist-led, mobile practice that operates through encounter, conversation, and shared presence rather than fixed programming or outcomes. It functions as a site of lived inquiry, where meaning and historical understanding emerge through participation, duration, and relational engagement. What follows is not a comprehensive account, but a record of a practice that remains intentionally open and unfinished.

 

Introduction

Stateless Mind Pavilion  initiated within Jambatan, a platform for cross-cultural exchange founded by Amir Zainorin and Pia Lund Poulsen.

Established in 2024, the Pavilion operates as a living framework for dialogue, collaboration, and exchange, without fixed programming or predetermined outcomes. Shaped by experiences of diaspora and displacement, it creates spaces where identity is questioned, shared, and continually negotiated. Through exhibitions, performances, conversations, and collective actions, the Pavilion brings practitioners and communities into shared situations across borders, where encounters can unsettle fixed notions of belonging and allow new forms of relational practice to emerge.

 

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The Stateless Mind Pavilion

The Stateless Mind Pavilion is both a structure and a concept — a mobile, adaptable space built from modular and recycled materials, and a symbolic platform that challenges the idea that only nations can claim a “pavilion.”
Instead of representing a state, it attends those who live between borders — migrants, diasporas, and the displaced.

Evolving from the Stateless Mind Festivals (founded in 2018), the Pavilion was first activated in 2024 at Kapallorek Artspace, Malaysia. That activation served as a prototype, presenting archives and testing the concept as a living platform. The Pavilion continues to grow, with new programs of installations, performances, and dialogues developed in response to each site.

The Pavilion emerged from a small act of refusal: when preparing a collateral event at the Venice Biennale, Amir Zainorin was told the word pavilion could only be used by national entities. By naming this work the Stateless Mind Pavilion, he reclaimed the term as a gesture toward those without official representation. Each activation transforms the Pavilion into both artwork and social space — a declaration of independence and a platform for reimagining identity beyond borders.

The Pavilion follows the principles outlined in Amir Zainorin’s Manifesto, yet moves as its own body — a collective extension of his practice. It listens, adapts, and sometimes acts independently, carrying those ideas into public space and shared encounters.

 

 

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A Dynamic Hub for Exchange

The Stateless Mind Pavilion is not only a space, but a site of ongoing interaction and dialogue that takes shape through shared presence. Rather than operating through fixed agendas or predetermined outcomes, it hosts gatherings such as artist talks, workshops, performances, and conversations as they emerge in response to each context.

Its orientation is grounded in staying with questions of belonging, identity, and displacement as they surface through practice. Guided by the presence and narratives of participating artists and curators, the Pavilion brings those involved into shared situations of attentiveness, where the complexities of existing between multiple worlds can be encountered without the need for resolution.

 

Stateless Mind Pavilion: Origins in the Stateless Mind Festivals

The Stateless Mind Pavilion emerged from the Stateless Mind Festivals, initiated by Jambatan, a platform co-founded in Copenhagen in 2008 by Amir Zainorin and Pia Lund Poulsen.

The name Jambatan—meaning “bridge” in Malay—signals a commitment to connection rather than fixed positioning. From its inception, the platform focused on creating pathways between artistic communities across Malaysia, Denmark, and wider transnational contexts, responding to gaps in representation, dialogue, and access. The Stateless Mind Festivals became a recurring space for exchange, foregrounding questions of migration, displacement, and belonging—concerns that would later be carried forward and reconfigured through the Pavilion as a mobile, evolving framework.

A Festival Reborn

After initiating early cross-cultural events (including the Malaysian Arts Festival in 2009), Jambatan reactivated its mission in 2019 by launching the first Stateless Mind Festival. These festivals—held from 2019 through 2023 in cities such as Copenhagen and Venice—served as immersive platforms to explore migration, displacement, memory, diaspora, and decolonization, particularly within Asian diasporic experiences and underrepresented artistic voices.

The Pavilion Emerges

In anticipation of a collateral event at the 59th Venice Biennale, Amir Zainorin collaborated with and later co-curated alongside PORT Perak, contributing to the groundwork that helped secure PORT’s participation. During the planning process, they were informed that the term “pavilion” could only be used by official national representations. This restriction became a point of friction and, ultimately, a catalyst. By adopting the name Stateless Mind Pavilion, the project reclaimed the term as a self-determined gesture—detached from national affiliation and oriented instead toward those who exist between, across, or outside state frameworks.

While the Festivals were time-limited gatherings that brought artists and communities together in specific locations, the Pavilion transforms that same spirit into a continuous, mobile framework. It is not a repetition of the festivals but an evolution: a long-term, adaptable platform for artistic research, co-creation, and transnational dialogue. Where the festivals celebrated temporary encounters, the Pavilion allows forms of collaboration and memory to continue, extending earlier initiatives into new contexts without fixing their outcomes.

First Activation and Re-framing

The Pavilion officially came to life during Amir Zainorin’s solo exhibition at Kapallorek Art Space. The presentation featured an archive of past Stateless Mind Festival activities, establishing the Pavilion as both a historical lens and a continuously evolving space for reflection, performance, dialogue, and exchange.

 

Ongoing Activations and Continued Movement

The Stateless Mind Pavilion continues to evolve and travel:

• 2018–23: Stateless Mind Festivals held in Copenhagen and Venice
• 2024: Activation at Kapallorek in Malaysia
• 2025: Reflection Mode, National Art Gallery, Malaysia
• 2026: Scheduled presentation at Museo delle Mura, Rome
• 2027 and beyond: Continued development and future engagements

These activations situate the Pavilion as a nomadic, transnational stage—one that refuses static definitions and embraces cross-border resonance.

 

Note from Jambatan

Jambatan—meaning “bridge” in Malay—is an initiative founded in 2008 by Amir Zainorin and Pia Lund Poulsen. Conceived as a platform for cross-cultural dialogue, Jambatan connects practitioners, curators, and researchers working across diverse geographies, generations, and disciplines. Through exhibitions, residencies, and collaborative projects, it explores questions of identity, displacement, and belonging.

Emerging from the Stateless Mind Festivals initiated by Jambatan, the Stateless Mind Pavilion extends this inquiry into a continuous, mobile form—adapting to each new context while sustaining an ongoing commitment to exchange and reflection.

Jambatan’s approach privileges exchange over hierarchy and process over product, operating fluidly between regions and institutions. Rather than seeking fixed outcomes, it foregrounds dialogue, collaboration, and the possibilities that emerge through sustained encounter.

 

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Profile at a Glance

 

 

 

 

Link to Manifesto

 

Amir Zainorin × Stateless Mind Pavilion
Two bodies, one movement. 

 

Acknowledgment
This project was made possible with support from:

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