Para Site

Jun 21, 2016 – Jun 23, 2016

20 Years of Para Site: 2016 International Conference

Founders of Para Site (From left to right) Patrick Lee, Leung Chi-wo, Phoebe Man Ching-ying, Sara Wong Chi-hang, Leung Mee-ping and Tsang Tak-ping (not in the picture, Lisa Cheung) | Para Site創辦人(由左至右） 李志芳，梁志和，文晶瑩，黃志恆，梁美萍，曾德平（張思敏，未入鏡）

Para Site is proud to present the 2016 edition of its International Conference, a three-day gathering in Hong Kong of practitioners from around the world. On the occasion of Para Site’s 20th anniversary, the speakers in this edition will discuss the different waves of change that have shaped the art landscape of Hong Kong and the world in these past twenty years.

Taking each decade in which Para Site’s work was present, the 1990s, the 2000s, and the 2010s as the starting point of a separate day in the conference, we will suppose that this imperfect and conventional periodisation can nevertheless help us understand the deep transformations of this timeframe. The discussions will be looking both from the perspective of Hong Kong and China, and from that of the rest of the world.

Speakers at the conference include: Tobias Berger, Roger M. Buergel, Amy Cheng, Freya Chou, Cosmin Costinas, Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Leung Chi-wo, Carol Yinghua Lu, Ute Meta Bauer, Joanna Mytkowska, Lucas Ospina, Pi Li, Russell Storer, Phoebe Wong, Sara Wong Chi-hang, Frances Wu Giarratano, Anthony Yung, and Tirdad Zolghadr.

FOR REGISTRATION: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/20-years-of-para-site-2016-international-conference-tickets-25642584661

The International Conference is free of charge to the public.

Live stream is available during the conference , and video documentation will be published online after the event.

The 2016 International Conference is a Para Site project, co-presented by Asia Society Hong Kong Centre.

Special thanks to Spring Workshop

Media Partner: ArtAsiaPacific

The 1990s: Amy Cheng - The Post-Martial-Law Era (1987-2000) and the Age of Curating in Taiwan

The 1990s: Ute Meta Bauer - A derive through memories of the art world

The 1990s: Conversation moderated by Anthony Yung

The 2000s: Pi Li - The Plight of Post-Olympic Chinese Art

The 2000s: Russell Storer - From here to there and back again: the fluid terrain of biennales in a global age

The 2000s: Roger M. Buergel

The 2000s: Joanna Mytkowska

The 2010s: Sofia Hernandez Chong Cuy

The 2010s: Lucas Ospina - Art in Latin America: Art Fair Boom, Local Colour and New Questions

2010s: Tirdad Zolghadr - What Can Contemporary Art Learn from Student Activists

2000s: Leung Chi wo in conversation with Cosmin Costinas

2000s: Conversation moderated by Cosmin Costinas

2010s: Tobias Berger - Let’s Talk About Space

About Para Site

Para Site is financially supported by the Springboard Grant under the Arts Capacity Development Funding Scheme of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The content of these activities does not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

June 21, 2016

2:00 pm – 6:30 pm

"The 1990s: Identity in the times of the handover and the age of the biennial"

Presentations by Phoebe Wong, Carol Yinghua Lu, Amy Cheng, Ute Meta Bauer
Conversation moderated by Anthony Yung

The 1990s may have been regarded in many parts of the world as the thriving years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11, when democratisation was on the march and an age of a global community seemed possible. But for Hong Kong, this was the age of uncertainty, proceeding its handover to Mainland China, and the local art community was striving to seek alternative voices to express their anxiety. In response, Para Site was founded by a group of insightful local artists in 1996. In the first day of the Conference, we will look closely at one of the most recurrent themes in Hong Kong and around the world, the issue of identity and its politics, supported by the decade’s developments in theory and discourse.

Schedule:
14.00 – 14.20 Introduction
14.20 – 15.00 Phoebe Wong
15.00 – 15.40 Carol Yinghua Lu
15.40 – 15.50 Break
15.50 – 16.30 Amy Cheng
16.30 – 17.10 Ute Meta Bauer
17.10 – 17.20 Break
17.20 – 18.30 Conversation moderated by Anthony Yung

June 21, 2016

2:00 pm – 7:00 pm

"The 2000s: The rise of China and the global art world"

Presentations by Pi Li, Russell Storer, Roger M. Buergel, Joanna Mytkowska
Sara Wong Chi-hang & Leung Chi-wo in conversation with Cosmin Costinas
Conversation moderated by Cosmin Costinas

The 2000s brought the discussions of the post-colonial world closer to the forefront of an institutional landscape that expanded beyond the former centres of power along the North Atlantic. Globalisation started shifting the geography of the art world, particularly enhanced by the growth of Asia’s economy. Alongside a growing number of biennials, landmark regional exhibitions were taking place around the world, often controversially attempting to frame these areas in relation to Western perspectives and established art historical narratives. In Hong Kong, many of the previous discussions about identity in the 1990s morphed into attempts to associate, integrate or relocate within the Mainland Chinese art scene and the narrative of its boom experienced in that decade.

Schedule:
14.00 – 14.40 Pi Li
14.40 – 15.20 Russell Storer
15.20 – 15.30 Break
15.30 – 16.10 Roger M. Buergel
16.10 – 16.50 Joanna Mytkowska
16.50 – 17.00 Break
17.00 – 17.40 Sara Wong Chi-hang & Leung Chi-wo with Cosmin Costinas
17.40 – 19.00 Conversation moderated by Cosmin Costinas

June 23, 2016

2:00 pm – 6:20 pm

"The 2010s: Booms and crises in the age of art fair"

6:30 pm – 7:30 pm

Plenary discussion

Presentations by Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, Lucas Ospina, Tirdad Zolghadr, Tobias Berger
Conversation moderated by Frances Wu Giarratano

The 2010s seem to us to be the decade of multiple crises, be it the crisis of state funding for the arts in Europe or the overall crisis of confidence on that continent, punctuated by various moments and places of booms in the art world, of which Hong Kong is a prime example. The biennial as the main forum for negotiating a global condition seems to have been replaced by the art fair, an obviously imperfect replacement for a claimed international civic space, making the boundary between art value/profits and aesthetics/political paradigms murky and blurry. The relation between the Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese art scenes became more complicated, due to various political crises, but was also helped by the renewed confidence in the former’s own expanding art scene.

Schedule:
14.00 – 14.40 Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy
14.40 – 15.20 Lucas Ospina
15.20 – 15.30 Break
15.30 – 16.10 Tirdad Zolghadr
16.10 – 16.50 Tobias Berger
16.50 – 17.00 Break
17.00 – 18.20 Conversation moderated by Frances Wu Giarratano
18.20 – 18.30 Break
18.30 – 19.30 Plenary discussion

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