The Asia Triennial Manchester 2011 included the curatorial laboratory, founded by Alnoor Mitha and Leon Wainwright in 2010 and hosted by partner organisations throughout Manchester. On Saturday 1st October, during the opening weekend of ATM11, Sally Lai (Director of the Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester) convened a special session entitled ‘ATM Curatorial Lab: Open Space’. Rooms were kindly provided at the Kanaris Theatre, Manchester Museum, the University of Manchester. The meeting brought together around 50 artists and curators from across Asia as well as the ATM curators, UK-based researchers, curators and artists. A short welcome was given by Alnoor Mitha (Director of Shisha and the Asia Triennial Manchester) and he outlined the significance of the event and how it built on previous ones. The format was deliberately fluid and became an opportunity to raise topics and ideas for discussion as the many participants saw fit. At times our documentation camera moved around to eavesdrop on conversation among clusters of speakers, before everyone finally shared the floor for a group discussion