1a@Beijing Part 2 HONG KONG: open the pages, you see me seeing you.
Jan 29, 2011- Feb 28, 2011
@1a space
Presented by│1a space
Partner│Beijing Kubrick Bookstore
Supported by│Hong Kong Arts Development Council
“Open the pages, you see me seeing you” is a collective project forming the basis for an extended study of art in Hong Kong vis-a-vis China. The project comprises exhibitions, critical writing, cultural exchange and a forum between Beijing and Hong Kong.
The “Open the pages” of the title is a translation of a quotation from Deng Xiaoping, 「打開本子」, literally “opening a file”, inferring that matters relating to Hong Kong should conducted according to the rules. The cultural and artistic histories and trajectories of Hong Kong-China, or China-Hong Kong, are interrelated but exist in parallel, varying in terms of distance and sameness from time to time. Founded on the premise that no examination of art in Hong Kong can take place without reference to art in China, “You see me seeing you” (你看我看你) proposes a new self-reflexive context for Hong Kong art by inviting participants to create new works specifically for a Mainland audience. In so doing, the project will explore the possibility of redefining Hong Kong’s position within the cultural vicinity of China, as opposed to its position as a commercial and financial centre.
The project will commence with an exhibition involving seven well established Hong Kong artists together with writers and art critics. The exhibition places as much emphasis on works of art as well as on the expansion and exploration of the text by writers as part of the extended investigation into art in Hong Kong vis-a-vis China. The exhibition will take place in two locations, at 1a Space at Cattle Depot, Hong Kong and as well as at Kubrick’s new location in Beijing. Whilst not a formal exhibition venue, as the bookstore of choice for critical readers, Kubrick provides an ideal discursive environment for the artworks created for the project.
Curator CHOI Yan Chi
Beijing Exhibition Part 1: 20 Nov 2010 – 28 Jan 2011 (Kubrick, Beijing)
Beijing Exhibition Part 2: 29 Jan 2011 – 28 Feb 2011 (Kubrick, Beijing)
Hong Kong Exhibition: 29 Jan 2011 – 28 Feb 2011 (1a space, Hong Kong)
Seminar: 26 Feb 2011 (1a space, Hong Kong)
Exhibition opening : 29 Jan 2011 (Saturday), 3.30pm – 5.30pm, 1a space
Participated artists: HO Siu Kee, Lam Wai Kit, CHING Chin Wai (Luke), WAN Lai Kuen (Annie), CHEUNG Hong Sang (Enoch), LAU Ching Ping, TAM Wai Ping (Lukas)
Participated writers: Longtin, CHAN Ning, LEUNG Chin Fung (Jeff), LEE Chiu Hing (Bono), LO Yin Shan (more writers will join the event later)
Curator: CHOI Yan Chi
The following programs are the extension of “1a@Beijing”, which will be holding after the end of “1a@Beijing”:
Beijing Exhibition: 1 Mar 2011 – 15 Apr 2011 (Kubrick, Beijing)
Hong Kong Exhibition: 28 Feb 2011 – 12 Mar 2011 (1a space, Hong Kong)
Seminar: April 2011 (Kubrick, Beijing)
Seminar: May 2011 (Hong Kong)
Venue
Kubrick, Beijing: Block 2, Dangdai MOMA2 North.1, Xiangheyuan Road, Dongzhimen, Dongcheng, Beijing
「城市遊學」聯校學生作品展
Mar 19, 2011 - Apr 24, 2011
@1a space
Please refer to the Chinese version.
I am here beside Kai Tak waiting for you !
May 20, 2011 - Jul 20, 2011
@1a space
I am here beside Kai Tak waiting for you ! -- China Contemporary with Hong Kong
Impression
Curator：Janet Fong
Artists：Ge Fei + Lin Zhen, Hua Jun , Xin Yunpeng , Zhao Chen
Opening Reception： 7 p.m., 20 May 2011 (Fri)
Dialogue with artists and curator (To be Conducted in Cantonese and Mandarin): 21 May 2011 (Sat), 2:30pm
From the fraternal hatred and passions of Hui Man-keung and Ting Lik in the classic television series “The Bund”, to the rivalry between Alan Tam and Leslie Cheung that dominated the music world, to king of the nonsensical Stephen Chow . . . movies, television, and popular music are for generation after generation the imprints that mark the passing of years. In the same way, Kai Tak Airport has been an important window onto the growth and development of Hong Kong since its economic boom, bearing witness to the joys and sorrows of waves of mass migration in 1990s, until its “glorious retirement” after re-unification. Today, it awaits its transformation to become a cruise terminal and new tourism attraction. The Kai Tak Airport is not only an important mark of the times; it is also the meeting point between Hong Kong and the outside world where all of the anticipation, fear, and imagination intersected.
Mainland China and Hong Kong have an inseparably close relationship, both economically and politically. For historical reasons, Hong Kong’s social norms, education and legal systems are totally different from that of the Mainland. The resulting cultural and intellectual divergence has often meant that the two cultures stood as opposites against each other.
However, since the reform and opening up of the Mainland since 1980s, as the dominant popular cultures, Hong Kong and Taiwan culture swept across the Mainland, bringing to the new generation of youth a great culture shock. Hong Kong and Taiwanese movies, television series, popular music, and stars accompanied this new generation as they grew up. During the journey of their maturation, the influence from Hong Kong culture stood as an exquisite panorama that grabbed attention and provoked thoughts.
The five emerging Mainland artists represented in this exhibition were born between 1970 and 1985. Although they grew up in different environments, they share one connective pen stroke, which is their relationship to Hong Kong popular culture. The curator, Janet Fong said, “Our various experiences from youth to adulthood formed our current personalities and ideas. Of the five artists participating in this exhibition, a commonality is their remembrance and records of memories and experiences that relate to Hong Kong.
This exhibition is held in the Cattle Depot Artist Village at To Kwa Wan, near Kai Tak Airport. Standing near this historical and cultural window of exchange, the five artists not only will show their stories, conceptions and imagination of Hong Kong, they greatly hope to have face to face interactions with the people and the culture of Hong Kong. Some artists will invite members of the public to participate in creating an artwork; others have plans to create a unique experience for each visitor. Through numerous methods, this exhibition tries to connect to memories of the popular culture, so as to construct an impression of contemporary Hong Kong.
In addition, this exhibition will also have an “Art Education Corner”, where through the artists’ saved childhood objects, pictures and words, more visitors will understand the impact Hong Kong culture has had on the generation who grew up after the Reform and Opening of the Mainland in 1980s, as well as its importance in this unique time-period of history.
HK International Art Fair 2011
May 26, 2011- May 29, 2011
@1a space
1a space, as an independent, non-profit making contemporary visual art organization and art venue, has been playing an active role in local art and culture. Following the success from last year, 1a space will conduct, at ART HK 11 Hong Kong International Art Fair this year, two seminars and two concurring exhibitions plus Artist Guided Tours open to general public.
The seminars will be held on 27 May. The noon session are titled “Success of TLC: A case study on Contemporary Art Education”. Teachers, students, parents and artists from “Travel to Learn in the City” (“TLC”) will share their experience and insight in the learning of contemporary art. Through a series of study trips and school activities guided by local visual artists, TLC program is an attempt to construct a new and sustainable model for visual arts teaching at high school level. The project was launched with big success last year.
TLC is pleased to be collaborating with ART HK 11 as Schools Partner for the second year in a row. In addition to providing tailor-made workshops for an in-depth understanding of art in context, TLC also hopes to promote contemporary art to educators in secondary schools. Same as last year, TLC will develop and produce Education Packs for teachers and school groups, and host the Artist Guided Tours for the TLC program participants.
The afternoon session of the seminar will be a forum on the topic “From ‘Anticonformista’: Retrospective Debate after HK-Beijing Cultural Exchange”. Art / Culture Critics from the recent Hong Kong Beijing Cultural Exchange Exhibition “Open the pages , You see me seeing you” will provide self-reflections on their dialogues with the Art Scene in Beijing. The forum will help to shape a local cultural contextual reference to the concept of 'Anticonformista' (in chinese tèlìdúxíng).
At ART HK 11, 1a space will showcase works from both Hong Kong and Chinese Young Artists. Visit the installation work of HK Artist Trevor Yeung titled “System 01” at 1a’s Booth at HKCEC. Also take a free ride to the 1a space venue at Cattle Depot Artist Village to meet the works from five upcoming Chinese Visual Artists in the joint exhibition with the theme of “I am here beside Kai Tak waiting for you !” Free Shuttle Bus service from ART HK 11’s (HKCEC) to Cattle Depot Artist Village will operate in afternoon on 29 May.
Programme details:
Seminar --- “Success of TLC: A case study on Contemporary Art Education”
Time: 27 May (Friday), 12:30 – 1:30pm
Venue: N211, L2, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
Moderator : Choi Yan Chi
Speakers: CHUI Heun Lan(Program Director), TSE Yin Mo(Researcher), LEUNG Man Ting(HKSYC & IA Chan Nam Chong Memorial College), Peggy KWAN(Tang Shiu Kin Victoria Government Secondary School), Lam Mau(Munsung College), Carmen Kwok(SKH Lam Kau Mow Secondary School)
Guided Tours --- contemporary art introduction for visitor school groups
Registration: www.oneaspace.org.hk/TLC or www.hongkongartfair.com
Enquiry：edu@oneaspace.org.hk
Hotline : 23339136 (Thu–Sun, 12-7pm)
Culture Forum --- “From ‘Anticonformista’
Retrospective Debate after HK-Beijing Cultural Exchange”
‘Anticonformista’ (in chinese tèlìdúxíng), a classical Chinese term to describe the uprightness of an intellect, now becomes a sensitive term in China after the arrest of Ai Wei Wei. Coincidently 1a was using the same term as topic for discussion in Beijing. The title was immediately substituted with ‘Art Individualism’. This sharing session is the participants’ introspection of the state of contemporary art and culture in Hong Kong.
Time: 27 May (Friday), 2:00 – 4:00 pm
Venue: N211, L2, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
Speakers: CHOI Yan Chi, Long Tin, CHAN Ning, TAM Wai Ping, HO Siu Kee, WAN Lai Kuen Annie, LAU Ching Ping, CHEUNG Hong Sang Enoch, LAM Wai Kit
Exhibition 1
“System 01” --- An installation work by Trevor Yeung
Time: 25-29 May (Wed-Sun)
Venue: Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
(Hall 3B-3E, Booth X1，next to Information Center)
Exhibition 2
“I am here beside Kai Tak waiting for you !”
Joint Exhibition of new Chinese Visual Artists
Time: 20 May – 30 Jul
Venue: 1a space, Cattle Depot Artist Village
Visiting Cattle Depot Artist Village
1a space will provide Free Shuttle Bus service from Art HK 11’s (HKCEC) to Cattle Depot Artist Village at 2:30pm on 29 May.
IN SEARCH OF NEW CHINA
Sep 20, 2011 - Nov 10, 2011
@1a space
Opening Reception: Thursday 29 September 2011 7PM
On 2003, 1a space had presented a solo exhibition of Danny Yung – ‘Tree. Man’. After 8 years, 1a space is greatly honored to present Danny Yung again in our Hong Kong Masters Series to recognize his significant contribution to the arts development in Hong Kong and international cultural exchange.
Danny Yung manipulated a historic photograph taken in 1962, featuring Mao surrounded by China’s top leaders. Yung's first attempt was in 1992, a series of six Photoshop work was published as supplement to Photo Arts Monthly of Hong Kong which was subsequently banned in China. In 2001, Yung experiment the series further into six painting stretched on canvas, the work was chosen by Hong Kong Arts Biennial. In 2002 Yung produced a video work and used in his theater work. All through the years, Yung explored three generations of "In Search of New China" in different presentations.
In the year of celebration of 90th birth of Chinese Communist Party, the Photoshop technology has also grown much more sophisticated. At this timely moment Yung would like to further develop the concept of this work, continue his experimental exercise in manipulating the images, which is to be the fourth generation of his "In Search of New China”.
YUNG, Danny N.T.
Recipient of the Merit Cross of the Order of Merit on Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany
Danny Yung began his life-long devotion in all aspects of the arts, including experimental films, cartoons, conceptual art, installation, video and performing arts from the late 1970's. He is one of the founding members and now artist director of Zuni Icosahedron. In the past 30 years, Yung has been involved in over 100 theatre productions as director, scriptwriter, producer and stage designer.
Yung has been appointed by government the founding member of the Hong Kong Arts and Development Council (HKADC) and is sitting on the board of West Kowloon Cultural District Authority and the Hong Kong Design Centre. He is currently sitting on the Management Board of HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity and the advisory boards of the School of Design of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Cultural Studies of Hong Kong Lingnan University, School of Drama of Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, and the Centre for Civil Society and Governance of the University of Hong Kong.
In 2009, Yung was bestowed the Merit Cross of the Order of Merit on Ribbon of the Federal Republic of Germany by the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany for his achievement and contributions on the front of cultural exchanges between Germany and Hong Kong.
Detour 2011
Nov 25, 2011 - Dec 11, 2011
@1a space
DETOUR 2011 – USE-LESS
Organizer: Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design
Participant: 1a space
Exhibition: Travel to Learn in the City
Curator: Mr CHAN Kam-shing Chris, Ms CHUI Heung-lan
Dates: 25 Nov – 11 Dec, 2011
Hour: Sun to Thur 11.00 – 20.00 / Fri and Sat 11.00 – 22.00
Venue: Former Police Married Quarters, Hollywood Road, Central
Rapid developments recently in Hong Kong have brought up debates about over-consumption and over-development as well as cultural conservation and the environment. Although our city is like a fast paced concrete jungle, if we pay careful attention to it, we could still find plenty inspirations and resources hidden within it. Even wastes and refuses, or old and abandoned objects could be transformed into source of inspiration, regeneration and new energy for the community.
As one of the participants in DETOUR 2011, 1a space will showcase artworks developed by students who have participated in “Travel to Learn in the City”, an experimental art education scheme presented by 1a space during 2010 – 2011. The scheme has brought practicing artists, secondary school teachers and students together in different workshops that encouraged students’ creativity and expression. Curated to correspond to this year’s theme “USE-LESS”, the pieces in this exhibition will reflect the concerns of these youngsters to their communities, how they re-think about their living environment and their new perspectives on regeneration, resources, and their city.
The exhibition will be held in the Former Police Married Quarters, Hollywood Road, Central.
Participating Schools: SKH Lam Kau Mow Secondary School, Immaculate Heart of Mary College, Munsang College, CCC Mong Man Wai College, HKSYC & IA Chan Nam Chong Memorial College, Arts and Technology Education Centre, TWGHs Mrs Fung Wing Fung Ting College, CCC Kei To Secondary School, St. Peter’s Secondary School, Ko Lui Secondary School, Kwok Tak Seng Catholic Secondary School
For more information about DETOUR 2011 : http://www.detour.hk/
One Suitcase Per Person
Nov 23, 2011 - Jan 31, 2012
@1a space
Artists: David Diao, Ken Lum, Hiram To
Curated by Davina Lee
Executive Director, M+ of the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority
Officiating guest: Dr. Lars Nittve
Opening Reception– 23 November 7.00pm - 8.30pm
Artist talk will be held on Saturday afternoon 26 November at 1a space
One Suitcase Per Person presents three ‘generations’ of Chinese artists, David Diao, Ken Lum and Hiram To, who began making art between 1960s and 1980s, and whose practices span Abstract Modernism, Conceptual and Post-conceptualism.
Taking the title of a painting by David Diao as a starting point, One Suitcase Per Person is an interpretation of a public notice seen by Diao before boarding the plane as a child as he fled the turmoil of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. The exhibition questions whether the nature of identity is fluid and interchangeable, shaped by cultural circumstance and upbringing, or whether identity is static and non-negotiable.
One Suitcase Per Person brings together three artists whose histories are disparate but ultimately sharing a common sensibility, particularly in their choice of aesthetic and conceptual goals. With cultural trajectories spanning China, Hong Kong, United States, Canada and Australia, Diao and Lum, in particular, are groundbreaking pioneers in their practices, essentially they are ‘Chinese contemporary artists’ before such a term was coined, or accruing particularly cultural meanings and significance as we know of today.
Referencing physical migration, the many permutations of cultural migration and acculturation, One Suitcase Per Person presents Diao’s series of paintings Da Hen Li House, Lum’s photographic series Schnitzel Company and To’s new photo-based pieces Fortune Landscapes.
The works by these artists are untypically ‘Chinese’ in what the public today may assume ‘Chinese art’ to be. Exposing Hong Kong audiences to this wider debate, One Suitcase Per Person will also offer the Hong Kong public unprecedented access to the works of these internationally renowned artists and to the artists themselves by bringing them to Hong Kong to participate in the exhibition and a talk that is being planned.
About the Artists and Works
David Diao
In a career that spanned over 40 years, New York-based David Diao has been described as a ‘legendary abstract modernist’. Diao began his art practice as an Abstractionist in the Greenberg tradition, exhibiting with Paula Copper and Leo Castelli in 1969, followed by participation in several Whitney Biennials in the 1970s. With an evolving career questioning the roles and histories of Abstraction and Modernism, since the 1980s, his work has been marked with both a sense of dry wit and humour. More recently, he turned to his family heritage, producing works that are both biographical and about the social conditions he experienced.
Diao’s recent works dealt with the emotional loss ensuing from his family’s hurried departure from the family’s home in Chengdu in 1949 on the founding of the People’s Republic of China, resulting in works that combine references to architecture, memory and Chinese language.
Ken Lum
One of Canada’s foremost conceptual artists, Ken Lum’s complex body of works relate to the construction of identity within the politics of assimilation. Lum’s highly charged, emotive works make use of advertising-like imagery and language, exposing the politics of nationality and internationality. Recently, his blend of photographic ‘portraits’ and installations increasingly moved into the realm of public art, where large-scale billboards become his communication tool.
Lum’s Schnitzel Company first appeared as a series of billboards in Vienna in 2004, in collaboration with the Vienna Chamber of Labour. His tongue-in-cheek fictive Schnitzel Company tackles the feel good factor of the Employee of the Month as satire, questioning the dynamics of ethnic groupings, social interactionand corporate expectations.
Hiram To
Using imagery from the 1955 film Soldier of Fortune— the first Hollywood film released in the United States which was shot in Hong Kong— To creates new landscapes teeming with the lost romance of the Orient. Merging with views of the Peak Tram overlooking Hong Kong. Born in Hong Kong, Hiram To left the city in his teens, spending extended periods between Scotland and Australia before returning as a resident. During his time in Australia, To’s unique and often unexpected installation works gained recognition, which led to invitations to exhibit at the Camden Arts Centre and The Winnipeg Art Gallery, making him one of the first Chinese-origin contemporary artists to be mounting solo shows at a British contemporary art museum and a Canadian state gallery. To's work tackles the nature of changing identity and its coded relationships with the mass media and personal/public interface. Taking references from a wide variety of sources such as literature, film, music, popular culture and art, he creates multi-layered works that embrace and challenge the way that identity is constructed or fragmented.harbour and Aberdeen floating with sampans are images of flower arrangements, To’s Fortune Landscapes not only depict a bygone era, but also references faded aspirations and the artists’ own familial recollections.
About the Curator
Davina Lee is an independent curator, writer and founder of Diorama Projects, an organization based in Hong Kong which develops and realizes a variety of cultural and art-related events, including Diorama Projections, a series of screenings and discussions and exhibitions including Distance Decay (2009), The Mother of All Journeys (2009), Proxemics (2009), Chroniques Hongkongaises (2010), Simulated Alternate Realities (2010) and 30 Lux (2011).