countercurrent × gmtc - Making Space: Relations, Sustainability, and the Work of Art Platforms
The panel discussion Making Space: Relations, Sustainability, and the Work of Art Platforms is organized by countercurrent in collaboration with gmtc, hosted by Accent Sisters. countercurrent is a publication focused on in(ter)dependent spaces; gmtc is a newly established performance laboratory in Chinatown, New York. Bringing a publication and an art space into conversation, the panel will share how different art platforms begin and sustain practice, and reflect on how care, commitment, and long-term thinking shape art spaces as they take form. Rather than mapping a field or proposing models, the discussion stays close to lived experience. It considers how questions of sustainability and responsibility engage with the everyday work of making space, and how emerging platforms think through these concerns together while remaining responsive to artists, communities, and cultural contexts.
Participants
Yindi Chen (she/her)
Yindi Chen curates, writes, and does research. She studies how nature is perceived and constructed in different times and cultures; her approach to words and exhibitions is informed by queer ecology and critical fabulation. She holds an M.A. in Curatorial Practice from School of Visual Arts, New York. She is a founding editor of the publication countercurrent.
Yutong Shi (she/her)
Yutong Shi thinks a lot about time and space, often through curating, writing, walking, and watching movies. She is drawn to practices that grapple with the tenderness of our being. She is a founding editor of countercurrent, and currently a curatorial assistant at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Daedalus Li (they/them)
Daedalus Li is entranced by the surface, its connotations, expansion, depth, construction, and association; as well as the residues they carry, articulated between the ghostly present and the ideal, imagined past. They are the designer of the publication countercurrent.
sunmi yong (she/her)
sunmi yong does, sees, and feels everything that revolves around performance, trying to enfold it in her performance lab, gmtc. her role includes the curation and production of performance-making and translation, which is a critical medium for her to understand performativity embedded in language. she holds an ma in performance studies from tisch, nyu.
hebin rachel shin (she/her)
hebin rachel shin looks at the spaces people occupy, whether tangible or online. as a creative manager at gmtc, she moves between physical production and building digital infrastructure, treating both as sites of performance.
Organizers
countercurrent
countercurrent is a publication dedicated to uncovering in(ter)dependent spaces that exist beyond the confines of the mainstream art scene. We celebrate the fluidity and rebelliousness of non-traditional spaces—collective, artist-run, and small-scale venues—that challenge the increasingly industrialized condition of the art world. Through amplifying voices that nurture creativity and support diverse communities, we recognize their vital contributions to shaping culture without relegating them to the status of “alternative.”
gmtc
gmtc - golden monkey trading company 金猿商社 is a newly established performance laboratory located in chinatown, new york. founded by sunmi yong in august 2025, this physical space aims to enfold the ephemerality inherent in moments, memories, and movements, while shedding light on migratory artists and practitioners navigating a lack of resources, networks, and supports in the land of new york.
Accent Sisters
Accent Society was founded in 2018 New York by Na Zhong and Jiaoyang Li. Initially a writing community for diaspora writers working in English, it has blossomed into an Academy offering creative writing classes and consultations, a Bookstore carrying multilingual literary and art books, a bilingual Publishing House discovering original, imaginative, and authentic voices, and an Art Gallery with a focus on multidisciplinary art.