The 53rd Venice Biennale Response Exhibition 2/2: Hong Kong Diary Press Release

~~

1i)l!

~ ~ m".

Press Release(013)

\iIIj

Hong Kong Arts Development Council

12 June 2010

To: News/CulturelFeature Editors (2 pages)

Hong Kong Diary - Response Exhibition of the 53 rd Venice Biennale Hong Kong Diary -Response Exhibition ofthe 53 rd Venice Biennale opened today at the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Jointly presented by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (ADC) and Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) and co-organised by the Para/Site Art Space and Hong Kong Museum of Art, the exhibition welcomes the public to enjoy the creative works of an acclaimed local artist PAK Sheung Chuen.

Using his previous works exhibited in the Hong Kong Exhibition at the 53 rd Venice Biennale, PAK Sheung Chuen reassembled his works and made them into this exhibition Hong Kong Diary, which demonstrates the artist's unique observations and thoughts on Hong Kong's daily life and his varied ways of artistic creation. Presented in a novel and spectacular setting, the exhibition focuses on the artist's works created locally and highlights the wondrous relationship between art and living. Hong Kong Diary selects elements radically different from the previous shows: rather than finished works, the show enables the viewer to explore the fringes of the creative process; the exhibits are intended as evidences and not works of art.

'Artwork is not in Art Museum,' Pak declares. For an artist who is concerned with people and the ways of art over objects and finished works, the creative process is a spiritual devotion of integrating art with the self. Under this notion, the artist will organise a number of workshops during the exhibition period to stir up audience's firsthand art experience.

The concept of Hong Kong Diary is an extension of PAK Sheung Chuen's Making (Perfect) World: Harbour, Hong Kong, Alienated Cities and Dreams in the 53 rd Venice Biennale held in Italy from June to November, 2009. Under the curatorship of Tobias Berger in association with Para/Site Art Space, Making (Perfect) World featured a series of philosophic and provocative masterpieces on the international arts arena. The response was so overwhelming that the total number of visitors reached over 130,000. One of the works entitled A Travel Without Visual Experience is now in the collection of the Tate Modem, a world-renowned British's museum of modem art. The news is very encouraging to the local arts and cultural sector as the Pak's work is one of the rarely chosen works from Asia-Pacific region in their collection.

Furthermore, with the aims of fostering art and cultural exchange between the artist and community, the response exhibitions are carried out in two halves enabling the audiences of Guangzhou and Hong Kong to see the promising works. The first part of the response exhibition was successfully held in Guangdong Museum of Art from March to April this year.

'ill'~~Jiilll979lt'1;i;;:i!lj:jHIJ~*JJ:*W 1il~ Tel:

2827 8786

14 if

14/F, East Warwick House, Taikoo Place, 979 King's Road, Hong Kong

wn Fax:2519 930112824 0585 liillJl: Web: htlp:l/www.hkadc.org.hk

Hong Kong Diary, the second part of the response exhibitions, will be run from 12 June until 1 August in the Foyer of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, Tsim Sha Tsui. The opening hours are lOam to 6pm on Mondays to Fridays and lOam to 8pm on Saturdays (Closed on Thursdays, except public holidays). Admission is free. For exhibition details, please visit www.venicebiennale.hk.

For exhibition details, artist's biography and images of the artwork, please download at: http://www.hkadc.org.hk/downIoad/vb2009 response exhibition.zip - EndPress inquiries: please contact Ms. Maggie Lam, Corporate Communications Officer, at 2820 1067.

~m:lR:!llill979ll'f::t:"'.l}j;fl]~*m:mw 14!Pi 141F, East Warwick House, Taikoo Place, 979 King's Road, Hong Kong 'i'il~ Tel: 2827 8786 il'l~ Fax:2519 930112824 0585 ~Jl1: Web: http://www.hkadc.org.hk