Thank you everyone for joining the inaugural exhibition of our curatorial project HOMELAND in TRANSIT in Basel last June where we discussed the notions of boundary, cultural identity, collective memory, story, history, diaspora, dislocation through works by eight Hong Kong artists. Transitioning into a fresh decade and a new lunar zodiac 12-year cycle with unknown possibilities, we look forward in 2020 to expand our community of family and friends and explore new forms of exchange: first with a Video Talks series planned for different locations including Switzerland, Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan and with upcoming exhibitions at Villa Meier-Severini Zollikon in March and Basel Old Town in June. We take this opportunity to wish everyone an auspicious Year of the Rat filled with creative energies!
2020 PROGRAMME
VIDEO TALKS
FEBRUARY 2020 / BASEL
We are very proud to present video works by Hong Kong artists May Fung and Law Yuk Mui in the first HOMELAND in TRANSIT Video Talks.
May Fung’s two works offer images of Hong Kong through a time tunnel from the 1967 Hong Kong riots to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests with footage drawn from the Hong Kong Government Record Service. Recordings of scholar Akbar Abbas’ lecture on the notion of ‘culture in a space of disappearance’ guides us through ‘Image of a City’ (1990) while the narratives of disappearance linger with a strong sense of self-identity-searching in ‘She Said Why Me’ (1989).
Law Yuk Mui’s ‘On Junk Bay, The Plant’ (1990-present) leads us to revisit the geographical history and transformation of Junk Bay, later known as Tseung Kwan O, a reclaimed-land area in Hong Kong where the artist used to live. Her lens not only captures the natural landscape of the area but also the history of its phenomenal land development through reclamation where foreign plants migrated, were transplanted and re-rooted. Through her investigation of Hong Kong cartography and passion in geology, the narratives delve deeper into the contemplation of migration, native vs foreign, borders and the relationship or negotiation between human and nature.
About the Artists
May Fung is a video artist at the forefront of experimental practice for over three decades in Hong Kong. She is also a filmmaker, curator and art critic. Her work often interweaves local history, cultural landscapes and politics.
Using image, sound and installation as her mediums of preference, and adopting the methodology of field study and collecting, Law Yuk Mui often intervenes in the mundane space and daily life of the city and catches the physical traces of history, psychological pathways of human, the marks of time and the political power in relation to geographic space. Law often digs beyond the surface, through which she would recover fragments of narratives and micro histories.
Limited seating of 30. RSVP is essential. First come first serve.
Location provided upon RSVP. Please bring a non-native plant.
In partnership with cmbb (culture matters beyond borders, Hong Kong)
EXHIBITIONS
MARCH 2020 / ZOLLIKON
The word ‘homeland’ evokes a physical and permanent form on the surface, yet when we dive a little deeper into our memories and emotions, the word urges us to reflect on its complex and shifting nature. The inaugural exhibition of the curatorial project HOMELAND in TRANSIT in 2019 channeled narratives of ‘homeland’ from Hong Kong perspectives: the floating islands, borders and boundaries with the motherland mainland, the untold histories of Chinese diaspora, the metamorphosis of cultural identity, colonial ideology and beyond. In the 2020 exhibition chapter with the German title ‘HEIMAT im WANDEL’, a curatorial partnership is formed between Martin Brauen and Angelika Li who attempt to interweave the different perspectives and experiences of Bern-based Tibetan artist Sonam Dolma Brauen and six Hong Kong artists Hung Fai, Lee Ka Sing, Leung Chi Wo, MAP Office, Lulu Ngie and Wai Pong Yu.
Organized by Kulturkreis Zollikon
JUNE 2020 / BASEL
More information coming soon.
