3. Attitude | Position page 76- 97

POSITION #Attitude

POSITION POSITION

#ATTITUDE Independent critical thinking the weapon of retaliation is selection

Stay no Reference Distanced to the stereotype Proactive gesture on selecting like-minded artists Experimenta is not interested in artists who seek a conventional career path in art. It seeks for oddity, a sense of adventure and most of all a vision that extend beyond the immediate art scene.

Criticizing issues on capitalism many exhibitions at Experimenta critique on the post-capitalism era and the new shift in geopolitics. iTrust.HK ( Lugwig Schmidtpeter) , the Personal and the Political ( Lam Hoi Sin and Wong See Yuen) and The Trilogy Project ( Gabriel HoĹĄovskĂ˝ ) are examples.

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To watch this interview,download the WedCam app, place your Smartphone over the photo.

POSITION #Attitude

POSITION

Free Rider Sylbee Kim, Susanne BĂźrner, Wong Ka-wing Mixed Media Show : 23/3 - 20/4/2011

Carols of Cockayne

is a 1-year-research project on the mediated visions of war, consisting of 3 phases rendered in different media such as digital print, oil painting, video installation and more.

Free Rider

Free Rider is the last phase of Carols of Cockayne. It is an analysis of the Internet culture and creating a new story through the construction of an alternative language. The artist Sylbee Kim highlighted social media networking movements, the free culture, copyright issues, censorship and information control.

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POSITION #Attitude

POSITION

“The tiny Experimenta gallery space had a unique architectural structure that made it more intimate.

Experimenta met with Sylbee Kim in Berlin in 2014, to reconnect and to talk about the show in 2011.

We did not divide the space between artists in our exhibition, but we ended up having our independent corners.

We showed very different works, but there was a curatorial red line going through us, somehow our works were about the idea of internet as a platform, or how data transferred has been influencing our lives, making art, or even our reception of art.

I think it was a critical show that you had to take time to observe all the details.

Even through the artworks were not in a big scale,

it was an ambitious show.�

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Vanishing Point: How to disappear in China "Vanishing Point: How to disappear in China" is an instruction manual on how to disappear from society in China. It was carefully researched and a brilliant handy book full of information on the existing laws in identity , schools, government records, banking transactions and surveillance cameras.

It gives you ideas as to how to disguise oneself and how to behave in various circumstances. It is a good manual to

have whether you are escaping from the government, your debtors, leaving your family or simply would want to have a new identity.

The book advocated disappearance as opposed to a possibly forced disappearance by the authorities. Based on an anonymous and unattributed mass of text culled from futurist posts online, the book is an exercise in the absurdity of content generation, drawing models native to new media into the contemporary art system.

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POSITION #Attitude

POSITION

" YOU DO NOT WANT TO CONTROL. YOU FIND OUT HOW MUCH YOU CAN AND YOU CANNOT CONTROL. "

“Experimenta could react quickly to different needs; it could change its form according to what is necessary.

Experimenta met with Susanna Bürner for breakfast at her Berlin apartment in 2014.

As there wasn’t much artist residencies in Hong Kong, it was a great experience not only in the city, but also at the heart of a creative and vibrant neighborhood, where you could easily meet different people and immediately feel blended in.”

“I am currently working on an unindustrial landscape project in France, where production is no longed functioning in the area and people are living in their past memory and idealization of the land.

One interesting aspect of this area was that their production was outsourced from Lyon then later exported out of France, which I could related to what happens in Asia.”

Jasmine Ka-wing was a young graduate in 2011 and this is part of Experimenta’s initiatives in giving a new artist a chance to partner and learn from more experienced practitioners from outside of Hong Kong. At that time, Ka-wing has not had a chance to travel in his 21 years except to Taiwan. It was an invaluable opportunity to connect with artists from Berlin.

The original idea of his installation is from an art publication he had read in his youth. Experimenta and guest curator Nana Seo helped kawing to realise his project.

“That feeds through the essential concept of my work, which is the new revolution and the new online media and how that affects people’s life. It’s about changing a country.

My installation includes building a brick wall, and putting a map of Guangzhou on that wall.

Then I used red threads to connects 20 different points.

I went to these 20 locations to exchange information with people.

That will be outside of government surveillance.“

Wong ka-wing’s part of the exhibition is the start of the Experimenta’s internship program : www.experimenta.hk 8

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POSITION #Attitude

POSITION

Artists and Curators

Sylbee Kim

Susanne Bürner

Sylbee Kim was born in Seoul; she has

Susanne Bürnerwas born in Ellwangen,

lived and worked in Berlin since 2005. She

Germany. She lives and works in Berlin,

has a Bachelor of Arts at K-Arts, Seoul and

Germany.

Meisterschüler degree in experimental media at UdK Berlin.

She has a Bachelor of Arts in Media Art from the Karlsruhe College and Master’s of Arts in Fine

Sylbee’s works are based on studious

Arts at the University of California Los Angeles

subjective readings of reality and are given

(UCLA).

form through the immateriality of video, temporary installations and performances, multifaceted 2D and 3D objects. Her solo shows took place in Seoul at Project Space Sarubia, Space O’NewWall, and participated in group shows at Seoul Museum of Art, Volksbühne Berlin, and Real DMZ Project.

Her work deals with the representation of virtual space; and comprises of video, photography and books. She had exhibited at the South London Gallery, Temporary Kunsthalle Berlin, Galerie Giti Nourbakhsch Berlin, Goethe-Institut Hong Kong, Prague Biennale, Busan Biennale and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art.

Wong Ka Wing

Nana Seo Eun-A

Wong Ka Wing was born in Hong Kong

Nana Seo Eun-A is an art researcher and

and spent his childhood in Guangzhou. He

curator born in Busan. Nana Seo has been

graduated from the Academy of Visual Arts,

working on various international projects in

Hong Kong Baptist University.

museums, creative art spaces, and art festivals

His work explores human relations and social

in Asia. Her selected works are included at 8th

phenomenon; mainly in forms of performance, conceptual work and photography.

Gwangju Biennale 2010; APAP 2010; October Contemporary 09’; LOOP Video Festival 09’; 3rd Guangzhou Triennial 08’ and many more. Her writings have been featured in art IN ASIA, art in culture and ISSUE magazine. She has been selected as ‘Global Korean’ curator in 2011.

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POSITION #Impact POSITION

IMPACT POSITION

#IMPACT Inspires and Develops a Unique Space for Artists Almost every artist who has worked with Experimenta has become successful in their own right. This book is not merely an archive for the exhibitions, but it is a live avenue to engage our readers to what these artists are working on and where they are now living. A series of mini interviews on our online channel, shot in Berlin, Fukuoka, London and Hong Kong, can be found throughout this book. Please click on the QR code.

Promote Independent Spirit The space has inspired many of those who have seen the shows. Many artists have gone on to start their own collectives , others have started making films.

Our programs and screenings has encouraged numerous new intellectual exchanges and experiments on film/ video art and new media.

Ultimately, the space strives to redefine how art can be produced and be exhibited. We are accustomed to the western narrative of how an art ecology should be formed. It is perhaps time to write our own rules.

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POSITION #Impact

IMPACT

Who’s afraid of Rights, Art, and the Left?

Ann Wu L. Installation, writings and performance Show : 01/01/2010

There is no evidence that this exhibition had taken place.

This is what we remembered of it 5 years later. It is a record of how hard we all had fought.

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A “non-opening ”on the first day of the Chinese New Year 2010 The show lasted 3 weeks Installation, writings& performance.

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POSITION #Impact

IMPACT

Ann is Not to be Disturbed

not having anybody at all. At the end, we concluded that even nonopening needs a third party witness.

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t took us almost nine months from the inception to the execution of the show. The curators, Ann and I, and the artists devised three separate parts for the show, over a three-week period.

When the day came, it was a grey wintry February day. There was absolutely no one around the Hollywood Road area, as most Chinese traditional shops are closed and the expatriate community seemed to have disappeared too.

When the show opened, we did not want an opening. We wanted an anti-opening. Openings were tiring, the same crowd usually attends and they are mostly a social event. They are part of the dance as it were, part of the art scene politic. Although openings do serve their purposes, we hated them at the same time.

So what's a good time to hold an non-opening? At the end, we chose the first day of the Chinese Lunar New Year. That was one day when everything, most shops and restaurants were closed. Many people take the whole week off and travel. If there is one day in the year that you would not choose to open your art exhibition, it would be the first day of the Chinese New Year.

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I remember checking to see the red rose on the ground ; and low and behold somebody moved it!

As the date approaches, we worked even harder to set out the logistics and to prepare the space.

I remember I put up a lot of things on the wall, all according to Ann's instructions.

At the end, we felt that we wanted some evidence that people attended our nonopening.

How ?

Ann decided that she would make a rose, a very large rose with individual petals, to be taped on the grounds in front of Experimenta.

Ann has to be one of the most amazing friend, artist and collaborators of Experimenta. She is fiercely independent, and defiantly true to herself. She is outside the so-called art scene or power play in pretty much of any scene. Yet, she had been one of the major inspirations for Experimenta.

We would instruct people who came to move one of the petals. So when we came over to check it, we would see a different shape. That would be evidence that some one came to the non-opening. I wonder, however, if a true non-opening would involve 17

POSITION #Impact

IMPACT

not just a shop selling books. The curator and owner holds and sway public opinions.

Consider the Trouble Very little record of the exhibition or the three essays that Ann wrote was preserved. The energies from Ann and her art, however, has permeated our social fabric and fundamental changes in the livelihoods of women that Ann envisage will one day become a reality.

The enlightened thinking and actions by people like Ann would transcend beyond our immediate generations, long after this art scene has gone.

Book store owners could disappear without trials in Hong Kong today.

Potentially, they are locations for revolutions.

Ann had persevered despite the lack of funding and support. In 2015, Consider the Trouble decided to take an indefinite hiatus. I have a feeling this is merely a pause while Ann is brewing up more and bigger trouble very soon.

Get in Trouble!

THESE ARE SOME RANDOM TITLES FROM HER BOOKSTORE , ONE FOR EACH YEAR :

17/01/2015 UNSPEAKABLE: THE STORY OF JUNIUS WILSON! 10/04/2014 LESSONS IN TAXIDERMY: A COMPENDIUM OF SAFETY AND DANGER 12/12/2013 SWEATSHOP WARRIORS: IMMIGRANT WOMEN WORKERS TAKE ON THE GLOBAL FACTORY 30/10/2012 THE COMFORT OF QUEER FAMILY WISDOM 04/10/2011 IT LOOKED DIFFERENT ON THE MODEL, LAURIE NOTARO

Since the show, Ann and her sister Bing started a feminist independent bookstore called Consider the Trouble .

Hong Kong should thank these women for this specialist bookstore.

For as we know now, a bookstore is

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POSITION #Impact

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IMPACT

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POSITION #Independent #Demand

POSITION

INDEPENDENT

Experimenta Internship Program

MINI–Art Space

the smallness of the space is a necessity but it is also an act of defiance.

It is almost to show that we should not have existed, yet we do.

Sometimes, our small compact location has more activities than Hong Kong’s large cultural sites.

IRREGULAR–Opening Hours

the fact that the space is closed is part of that resistance.

Logic tells you that one should utilise the space to its maximum.

The neighbouring commercial galleries had told us we sholuld be staying open every day; that would maximise your chance of receiving clients and hence make a transaction. Staying closed when we do not have exhibitions is in itself a show of our stance.

NON–Profit

It is crucial that the space does not sell any art work.

That is the only way where the curatorial direction would maintain its integrity and independence.

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DEMAND Artistic Advisory Support & Curatorial Mentorship Most of the exhibitions are new work that was made especially for the site.

Experimenta's curator and director was very involved in some of the exhibitions, but in others gave the artists (more) freedom to present their

people to use film as a medium. It has been democratised. Underground films at the Internet stage will be distributed online; it will create a different viewing experience than the traditional cinema. Experimenta is now developing a new online channel for experimental video and art in 20162017.

Gender Liberation Gender Liberation is an important cause for the space; for most of the art produced in history has mostly been about and for men. The artists, collectors, patrons, critics, auctioneers, academics used to be mostly skewed

work.

towards half of the population.

Moving Images orientated (Film+Video)

Hong Kong needs Experimenta!

Film has always been an important medium in Hong Kong. The crossgenre of film, video and art has been an inevitable movement in the past few decades. Now, we are at an age where it is possible for a larger proportion of

every summer from July to August, Experimenta is closed and will give the space to recent graduates in art and film to work, to day dream and hopefully produce an exhibition after the summer ends.

Wong ka-wing’s part of the exhibition is the start of the Experimenta’s internship program. Since 2011, one recent graduate from the art and film disciplines would have a chance to work and live at the space for up to one month during the summer months.

Experimenta is closed every year from 1st July to 31st August for this program.

The details of the other interns who had played, stayed and worked at Experimenta could be found on our website www.experimenta.hk

Hong Kong does not yet have a contemporary art museum, it has only a handful of non-profit art space for a population of 7.6 million. In fact, we need at least a dozen, maybe two dozen or more independent art spaces.

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