Latest news with #ParaSite
Time Out
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Reframing Strangeness: Ha Bik Chuen's Motherboards and Collagraphs
To celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of Hong Kong artist Ha Bik Chuen, Para Site is hosting an exhibition on his printmaking practices. 'Motherboard' is what Ha calls his collagraph plates – a textured surface with materials attached that is inked and used to transfer designs onto paper or other mediums. Throughout his life, Ha created over 100 motherboards to produce more than 3,000 collagraph prints mostly during the 70s and 80s. His motherboards were kept from public view, until now. See Ha's creatures combined with ancient Chinese oracle bone script, modern Chinese characters, and the Roman alphabet on motherboards, displayed alongside their 'offspring' collagraphs and drawings.
South China Morning Post
10-06-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
As 2 Hong Kong art spaces seek new leaders, experts weigh in on the impact
Para Site and Asia Art Archive (AAA), two long-standing independent cultural institutions in Hong Kong, are simultaneously seeking new executive directors at a pivotal moment for the city's cultural scene. On June 2, Para Site in Quarry Bay announced that Billy Tang had stepped down as executive director and curator after concluding his three-year contract. The British-born former senior curator of Shanghai's Rockbund Art Museum took over from Cosmin Costinas – who had run Para Site for 11 years – in May 2022, just as Hong Kong lifted its Covid-19 pandemic ban on non-residents entering the city. Since then, the non-profit art space founded in 1996 has undergone major changes, such as embracing more environmentally friendly and longer-running exhibitions, and opening an additional exhibition space on the 10th floor of the building where it is based which has given emerging artists the chance to undertake more site-specific and interactive projects. Billy Tang stepped down as Para Site's director and curator on June 2, 2025. Meanwhile, AAA in Sheung Wan , which maintains an extensive art archive and runs regular public programmes and a well-used library, put up a job posting for a successor to Christopher K. Ho , who joined AAA as executive director in 2021.
South China Morning Post
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 explores new frontiers
Now in its 13th edition, Art Basel Hong Kong returns with 240 exhibitors from 42 countries and territories, including record-breaking participation in the fair's Kabinett sector. There are more than 20 new galleries joining the event at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre this year, with more than half of the participating galleries from around the Asia-Pacific region. Advertisement The event is expanding beyond its traditional showcase of galleries and artwork in a number of ways. The winner of the inaugural MGM Discoveries Art Prize, which aims to shine a spotlight on the talent of emerging artists from around the globe, will be announced on March 28 at the MGM Lounge inside the fair. Local institution Para Site is curating the film section for the first time, and new cultural partners include Tomorrow Maybe, Hass Lab and Design Trust. Angelle Siyang-Le, Art Basel Hong Kong's director aim to speed up the expansion of the fair. Photo: Handout 'During what we call the 'closet years' of the pandemic, we lost our sense of connectivity. Now we are rebuilding and we want to accelerate it, connecting beyond what we used to know as the art world,' says fair director Angelle Siyang-Le on the Art Basel website. 'We're building bridges with the worlds of the performing arts, fashion, music, architecture and design. We are growing beyond being an art fair to be at the centre of a cultural ecosystem in Asia.' The Encounters sector is arguably the most eye-catching part of this year's event. Dedicated to presenting large-scale sculptures, installations and performance works by leading artists from around the world, of the fair's 18 works in this section, more than half have been created specifically for Art Basel Hong Kong. These presentations of work 'transcend the traditional art fair booth' and are organised into four categories. Works in the Passage section foreground themes of cultural resonance, resilience and storytelling; Alteration examines the subversion of abstraction and materiality; The Return focuses on mythology, spirituality and 'the cyclical nature of existence'; and Charge looks at the intersection of the digital and physical realms. Advertisement This last platform is of particular interest to Alexie Glass-Kantor , who is in her last year as curator at Art Basel Hong Kong. Highlighted pieces include new works by Tokyo-based Chinese artist Lu Yang – who has designed a pop-up store selling artwork by Doku, a digital avatar – and Frank Wang Yefeng, who has recreated an abstracted garden inspired by nomadism and a trip to the Gobi Desert.
South China Morning Post
26-03-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Catch ghosts and cyborgs at this year's Art Basel Hong Kong screenings
Art Basel showcases art in many forms, from sculpture, painting, mixed media and photography, to performance, video and installation. And while many of these art forms have existed for centuries, film and video are still relatively new. Advertisement Korean-American artist Nam June Paik is credited with producing the world's first video artwork in 1965, the year he used a Sony Portapak (a portable, videotape analogue recorder) to film Pope Paul VI processing through New York. The footage was later shown at a cafe in Greenwich Village. 'I want to shape the TV screen canvas as precisely as Leonardo, as freely as Picasso , as colourfully as Renoir, as profoundly as Mondrian, as violently as Pollock, and as lyrically as Jasper Johns,' Paik wrote. Today, filmmaking artists are doing just that as digital innovations and technology push the genre even further. Art Basel Hong Kong's Film sector continues to be a highlight of the fair, especially since it is freely accessible to the public and curated for the first time by local independent art institution Para Site. 'It's been remarkable to see how Art Basel has evolved almost symbiotically with Hong Kong to develop and innovate new formats to support and showcase different types of art,' says Billy Tang, executive director and curator of Para Site. 'What's unique about moving image is its power to instantaneously connect various communities, geographies and languages through its ubiquitous nature and versatility as a medium.' Billy Tang. Photo: Para Site Titled 'In Space, It's Always Night', the Film programme features seven screenings and the works of 30 artists. The series was partly inspired by themes in Isadora Neves Marques' Vampires in Space (2022), which follows a family of vampires as they travel to an Earthlike exoplanet.
South China Morning Post
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Beyond Art Basel Hong Kong: free events at M+, Tai Kwun, HKCEC and Eaton HK
March is Arts Month in Hong Kong, the city drawing in the global art crowd with its most important art fairs of the year. But as we all know, art is not confined to just gallery walls and exhibition halls. From Art Basel Hong Kong's public programme to satellite installations across the city, there are plenty of other art-related events that are, best of all, freely accessible to the public. Here are just a few of the highlights. Art Basel public programme Going well beyond the show floor, Art Basel Hong Kong includes a curated schedule of film screenings, panel discussions, experimental presentations and off-site installations that are open to all, as well as the highly visible M+ digital facade that lights up the city by night. Advertisement Curated for the first time by local independent art institution Para Site – and presented in collaboration with cultural video channel Nowness Asia, as well as Videotage, a non-profit organisation dedicated to video art – this year's Art Basel Hong Kong Film programme features seven screenings and the works of 30 artists. Screenings take place throughout the week at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). Themes include ecological interdependence, resilience amid societal constraints, human desire, and the technology shaping our interconnected lives. For lively debates on the key topics shaping the art world today, don't miss Art Basel Hong Kong's flagship talks programme, Conversations. Curated by Stephanie Bailey, series highlights include how arts patronage is evolving in Southeast Asia, the role of tech and AI in the art world, and an exclusive talk with Ho Tzu Nyen, the artist behind this year's M+ Facade commission. All talks will be conducted in English, Cantonese and Mandarin, with simultaneous translation available. On the move? Drop by Exchange Circle at Art Basel Hong Kong, located at HKCEC's Level 1 Concourse, for short and experimental presentations including artist talks, discussions, lectures, signings and workshops. Or take a break from shopping at Pacific Place at the off-site Encounters installation – a blend of sculpture and performance art inspired by metamorphosis called Lanternfly Ballet, by Zurich-based artist Monster Chetwynd. M+ and Tai Kwun M+ museum of visual arts will highlight film during Art Month. Photo: M+ Over in West Kowloon, the M+ Facade will showcase Night Charades by Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen every night from Saturday, March 22, for three months. Co-commissioned by Art Basel and M+, the work pays tribute to the golden age of Hong Kong cinema and will be continuously edited in real time by an AI algorithm. In addition, M+ will screen five of Ho's most seminal films during the month of March.
