HK landscape to see creative surge
Print Edition
HONG Kong will see a creative surge as Art Basel comes to town, but there’s a push for a more permanent change to the visual landscape of the city better known for its business hustle than its art scene.
Asia’s largest art fair unveiled its first preview yesterday and has boosted Hong Kong’s artistic credentials since it first launched in the city four years ago.
A vibrant, wide-ranging “art week” of free exhibitions and events has grown up around the fair.
But for the rest of the year some feel the city puts too much emphasis on selling, rather than viewing, with the focus on commercial galleries rather than publicly accessible shows.
Hong Kong lacks a world class art museum, and marquee exhibitions rarely make a stop in the southern Chinese city.
“Everything is about the (commercial) galleries — everything is about it being expensive and if you can afford it,” said Nadia Cuvelier, 22, who works in event production and grew up in Hong Kong.
“There’s a couple of walls and a few murals, but it’s so contained.”
Freelance photographer Jaffa Ho, in his 50s, agrees.
“Seeing more art would be better — Hong Kong would have more culture and innovation, more joy and an atmosphere of creativity,” he said.
The highest profile public art show to come to Hong Kong in recent years was British sculptor Antony Gormley’s internationally renowned Event Horizon, a touring outdoor exhibition of shadowy, life-size male figures which were scattered around the city, some perched on its towering rooftops.
It was a landmark show and a big hit with the public, but organizers say Hong Kong needs to reduce the red tape.
While it does have a specific arts body, the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, observers say a more efficient approach to holding public exhibitions is needed.
It took six months to receive approval for the Gormley show and one statue required multiple applications to several government departments, Hong Kong-based coordinator Levina Li-Cadman said.
She likened the procedure to applying for a full building extension. Cities like London and New York have their own public art departments to streamline the process, she added.
Hong Kong art commentators say authorities are also hesitant about the physical challenges of installing art in the densely packed city, says art pundit John Batten.
“The approach to public art is sort of like: okay it has to be safe, second it can’t get in the way,” he said.
One of the top shows coming to Hong Kong during Art Basel is a collection of early paintings and drawings by the late Iraqi-born British architect Zaha Hadid to be housed at ArtisTree — a huge space for visual and performing arts which is part of a commercial complex owned by property developer Swire.
A large-scale installation by German multimedia artist Julius Popp, in which a curtain of water droplets forms different words, will also be on show at Swire’s Pacific Place mall as it says it wants to help incorporate art into everyday life.
The Hadid exhibition is being brought to Hong Kong by London’s Serpentine Galleries, whose chief executive Yana Peel says collaboration between public and private sectors is key to improving the “political and physical” space for art and ideas to thrive.
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