For Hong Kong, colluding with ‘foreign forces’ is a must on the cultural front
Vivienne Chow says Hong Kong’s artists and film directors seem to have forgotten what they used to do best – working with overseas partners to reach the world
Recently at Art Basel in Switzerland, people crowding into the exhibition hall full of monumental artworks were startled by the ethereal songs of birds echoing in the air.
Curious folk looked up to see an Asian man dressed as a Hong Kong police officer standing high up on a perch, whistling behind a “sound cannon”, a long-range acoustic device. It beamed the sound across to the other end of the hall, where visitors could “hear” and see the meaning of the sound.
This artwork, Canon, by Samson Young, was on show next to those by some of the world’s best-known artists. Young impressed many of the 95,000 visitors, including representatives of more than 300 institutions, private collectors and critics. And, at a party held during the fair week, Art Basel’s director Marc Spiegler raved about Young’s talent in front of over 100 international VIPs.
About an hour away from Basel, in Bern, works by Hong Kong artists such as Chow Chun-fai and Tsang Kin-wah were on show at Kunstmuseum Bern and Zentrum Paul Klee in “Chinese Whispers – Recent Art from the Sigg and M+ Sigg Collections”, an exhibition of works from Swiss Uli Sigg’s collection and those he donated to West Kowloon museum M+.
Success of Art Basel proves Hong Kong can be a viable cultural hub
Hong Kong has a lot to offer culturally. While politicians accuse each other of “colluding with external forces” to stir up trouble in the city, collusion with “foreign forces” is a must on the cultural front. This proved a successful formula in the 1980s and 1990s, during the heyday of Hong Kong cinema, when the city’s unique cultural offerings were exported through foreign distributors, festivals and critics.
