Art Basel Announces Talks Programme For Hong Kong

Art Basel

The first edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong will be accompanied by the shows renowned talks program, which will include panel discussion with leading curators, collectors, gallerists, critics and artists from Asia and beyond, including Chow Chun Fai, Arin Dwihartanto, Noritoshi Hirakawa, Ou Ning, Pak Sheung Chuen, Wang Xingwei, Adrian Wong, Zhang Enli and Zhang Xiaogang. ‘Paper Rain’, an artist-led parade, will take place on Thursday, May 23, celebrating the opening of Art Basel’s debut show in Hong Kong.

Art Basel’s Conversations program will be officially launched in Hong Kong on Thursday, May 23, offering audiences first-hand access to renowned cultural speakers and opinion- formers from across the international artworld, and extensive opportunities to learn about the latest developments in contemporary art from across Asia and beyond. The series, presented in collaboration with Absolut Art Bureau, will open with the Premiere presenting the artist Zhang Xiaogang in conversation with Leng Lin, Partner and President of Pace Beijing and Founder of Beijing Commune, inaugurating a new series of panels entitled‚ ‘The Artist and the Gallerist‘. This will be followed on Friday, May 24, by a discussion on ‘Building Asia’s New Museums’, featuring Stephan Schütz, Partner of von Gerkan,

Marg und Partner Architekten, Berlin; Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, Architect, Principal and Co- Founder of Snøhetta, Oslo and New York; and Yang Zhao, Architect, Dali. On Saturday, May 25, a ‘Collectors Focus’ will include Marcel Crespo, Collector, Manila; Alan Lau, Collector, Member of Tate’s Asia Pacific Acquisition Committee and Board of Directors at Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong; and Dick Quan, Collector and Board Member, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia Foundation.

To celebrate the first series of panels in Hong Kong, Art Basel, the Asia Society and the Absolut Art Bureau will host a pre-show talk on Sunday, May 19, entitled ‘Homegrown Talent’, featuring a group of artists from Hong Kong: Chow Chun Fai; Linda Lai; Ho Sin Tung; Adrian Wong; moderated by Pauline J. Yao, Curator, M+, Hong Kong.

The Salon program will provide a platform for shorter presentations, such as artist talks, panel discussions, book launches and lectures. The series will feature a number of stimulating panels including on Thursday, May 23 the discussions ‘Who needs Critics? Does The Media Help Good Quality Art’, chaired by Jan Dalley, Arts Editor of The Financial Times; followed by a talk focused on Indonesian contemporary art, featuring Arin Dwihartanto Sunaryo, Artist, Bandung; Entang Wiharso, Artist, Yogyakarta; Enin Supriyanto, Critic and Independent Curator, Yogyakarta; and Matthias Arndt, Gallerist and Editor of ‘SIP! Indonesian Art Today’, Berlin. Friday’s program will include a panel dedicated to the younger ‘Diamond Generation’ of Chinese artists, while on Saturday a panel led by Hans Ulrich Obrist and including Ou Ning, Curator and Artist, Bishan/Shanghai; and Pak Sheung Chuen, Artist, Hong Kong, will discuss the legacy of Hong Kong’s renowned artist Tsang Tsou Choi, the ‘The King of Kowloon’. The Salon program will overall include 11 discussions, including artist talks and book launches with artists including Noritoshi Hirakawa, Li Liao, Kacey Wong, Wang Yuyang, Wang Xingwei, Wu Shanzhuan and Zhang Enli.

Conversations and Salon will be held daily from Thursday, May 23 to Saturday, May 25 in the auditorium at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), and will be open to the public and free of charge. For the full program please visit artbasel.com/hongkong/conversations and artbasel.com/hongkong/salon

Asia Art Archive

As the official cultural partner of Art Basel in Hong Kong, Asia Art Archive (AAA) will present a parallel program of panel discussions entitled ‘Unpacking Global’ taking place onsite at the show. The talks will explore the impact that notions of the ‘global’ have on artistic practice, featuring artists from around the world including Abbas Kiarostami, Byron Kim, Seher Shah, Shooshie Sulaiman, Vivan Sundaram and Wang Guangle. The AAA Burger Collection Keynote Lecture will feature the influential Delhi-based critic, curator, and scholar, Geeta Kapur. For the full program and registration details please visit www.aaa.org.hk/UnpackingGlobal.

Intelligence Squared Debate

Intelligence Squared will present the debate ‘The Market Is the Best Judge of Art’s Quality’ at the HKCEC on Friday, May 24. Featuring Amy Cappellazzo, Chairman, Post- War and Contemporary Development at Christie’s; Jeffrey Deitch, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; Matthew Collings, British art critic, broadcaster and artist; and Rirkrit Tiravanija, contemporary artist and professor of visual arts at Columbia University School of the Arts, the discussion will address different means by which the quality of art might be determined. For further information on the debate, please visit www.intelligencesquared.asia. Tickets can be purchased (HK$300 per person) from www.hkticketing.com

Paper Rain – Artist Parade

Further events taking place during Art Basel week include an artist parade on the Harbour Front, celebrating the public opening of Art Basel in Hong Kong on Thursday, May 23, from 5 – 7.30 pm. Entitled ‘Paper Rain’ and organized by Art Basel with artist and musician Arto Lindsay, the parade centers around the idea of cinema, and will feature contributions from artists, musicians, actors, and filmmakers from across Asia including Nadim Abbas, Haegue Yang, Angela Su, João Vasco Paiva, Korakrit Arunanodchai, Alice Ma, Enoch Cheng and Otomo Yoshihide. For further information on ‘Paper Rain’ and its route, please visit artbasel.com/hongkong/showguide.

Hong Kong Galleries and Institutions

Across the city, Hong Kong‘s galleries and cultural organizations will be hosting exhibitions and special events to coincide with the show.

M+, Hong Kong’s future museum for visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District, is presenting ‘Mobile M+: INFLATION!’, featuring six giant inflatable sculptures on the site of the Park at West Kowloon Cultural District. Participating artists include Cao Fei, Choi Jeong Hwa, Jeremy Deller, Jiakun Architects, Paul McCarthy and Tam Wai Ping. A performance piece by Tomás Saraceno will be staged on Saturday, 25 May.

The Hong Kong Museum of Art will showcase 37 Chinese artists from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas in their blockbuster exhibition ‘The Origin of Dao: New Dimensions in Chinese Contemporary Art’, curated by Professor Pi Daojian. Oi! a new government-run art space in Hong Kong will also open to the public, dedicated as a multi- disciplinary project space and incubator for young artistic talent. The opening exhibition ‘Embark! Beyond the Horizon’ Art Implosives’ will feature site-specific works by Cédric Maridet, Tang Kwok-hin, Tsang Kin-wah and Yuan Gong.

The growing not-for-profit sector in Hong Kong will also present a strong offer during the show: Spring Workshop will present a solo exhibition of Qiu Zhijie. Para/ Site Art Space will present `A Journal of the Plague Year. ‘Fear, ghosts, rebels. SARS, Leslie and the Hong Kong story`, an exhibition curated by Cosmin Costinas and Inti Guerrero

contributing to the discussion about Hong Kong’s recent history including the work of local and international artists, cultural artifacts and archival documents. Asia Society will present ‘Light Before Dawn: Unofficial Chinese Art 1974-1985‘, an exhibition providing insight into three different artists groups: Wuming (No Name), Xingxing (The Stars), and Caocao (Grass Society) through the work of 21 artists. Burger Collection launches ‘I Think It Rains’, a cross-disciplinary arts festival in collaboration with the artist-run organization 1a space, at the Cattle Depot Artist Village in Kowloon. The project features contributions by 25 artists, writers and prominent cultural figures from Hong Kong and abroad. It represents a further installment of the Quadrilogy, the Burger Collection’s exhibition and research program.

Hong Kong artists will be well represented not only at Art Basel but in galleries and organizations across the city: 24 Hong Kong artists will present their work at ‘Hong Kong Eye’ at Artistree at Taikoo Place, while a solo exhibition of Hong Kong based artist João Vasco Paiva will be on display at the Goethe-Institut Hongkong(Hong Kong Arts Center); On Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 May the Fotan Studio Tours will be hosted. For detailed information on the exhibitions Hong Kong galleries taking part in the show will be presenting in their exhibition spaces across town, please visit artbasel.com/hongkong/showguide.

Art Basel stages the world’s premier art shows for Modern and contemporary works, sited in Basel, Miami Beach, and Hong Kong. Defined by its host city and region, each show is unique, which is reflected in its participating galleries, artworks presented, and the content of parallel programming produced in collaboration with local institutions for each edition. In addition to ambitious stands featuring leading galleries from around the globe, each show’s singular exhibition sectors spotlight the latest developments in the visual arts, offering visitors new ideas and new inspiration.

The first edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong, whose lead partner is Deutsche Bank, will showcase 245 of the world’s leading galleries across four sectors. 50 percent of the exhibitors have spaces in Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, underscoring Art Basel’s commitment to the region. While the main sector, Galleries, will present premier established galleries from across the world, Insights is dedicated to presenting precise contextual and thematic presentations by many important artists from the art scene in Asia. The Discoveries sector will provide a platform for younger galleries and Encounters will show large-scale sculptural installations by leading artists from around the world.

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