"Mumbai Art Exchange" Documentary Exhibition" a documentary exhibit after participating in [en]counters 2013: powerPLAY at Mumbai in Jan 2013

《印度孟買文化藝術交流》文獻展覽 (請往下方閱讀中文介紹)

Presented by:C&G Artpartment

Participating Hong Kong Artists:

LEUNG Mee Ping, CHUNG Wai Ian, LO Chi Kit(Lock),

LEE Chun Fung, CHEUNG Clara, CHENG Yee Man(Gum)

Exhibition Opening: 5pm, (Sun)24 Feb, 2013

Artist Sharing:5:30-7pm, (Sun)24 Feb, 2013

Exhibition Period:(Mon) 25 February to (Thu)28 March, 2013

Exhibition Time: 2:00 - 7:30pm, Thur to Mon (Closed on Tue, Wed and Public Holiday)

Venue:C & G Artpartment, 3/F, 222 Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Prince Edward, Kowloon, Hong Kong (Exit B2, Prince Edward MTR Station, Behind Pioneer Centre)

About this exchange art trip in Mumbai

Six Hong Kong artists went to Mumbai, India in January, 2013 to participate in [en]counters 2013: PowerPLAY organized by Art Oxygen and Asia Art Projects. The special brackets in the title embraces multiple interpretations of the title. One of the goals of the program is to encourage different parties in the city to communicate and exchange with each other throughout the art programs in different public sites.

“[En]counters” is an annual art event started up by Art Oxygen in Mumbai in 2010. A different theme is chosen each year. For this year, the subtitle of [en]counters: “powerPLAY” invites participates to play with different kinds of “power” and “energy.” Claudio Maffioletti, co-founder of Art Oxygen, said India’s contemporary art scene has more focus over the commercial art gallery sectors, but is lack of attention to public art or art in the public. Due to this, Art Oxygen specially designed and launched different art programs in the public space, despite the lack of financial support. The previous [en]counters mainly involve artists from India, while this year’s programs were co-organized with overseas art organizations: including Satellite Art Project from Australia, C&G Artpartment and Wooferten from Hong Kong, in order to encounter artists from different places.

Hong Kong artists’ works had different dregrees of interaction with Mumbai’s audience. LEUNG Mee-Ping bought a number of “made in India” products in Hong Kong and invited Mumbai’s children to “reproduce” those products with clay in a workshop. Those “made in India” products were then given to the children as souveinors. One participant surprisingly said, “Interesting! We can’t even buy this product here.” In his “Star” project, Lock LO Chi-Kit invited different locals who worked around Studio X, Mumbai, to draw out their stars on paper. Lock then mapped out everyone’s star according to his/her location in the city, and exhibited this map of stars from the earth at Studio X afterwards.

Ian CHUNG Wai-Ian had great exchanges with children in a slum village. Over the empty space where the children play crickets everyday, Ian initiated to paint the cricket field boundary line. During the process, some children happily joined in. Afterwards, they even took the rest of the paint to work on another cricket field on the other side of the village, and added “No Parking” besides it. LEE Chun-Fung conducted an exchange scheme of old batteries and light bulbs in the same village. LEE bought some new batteries and light bulbs at the community, and exchange the new ones with the villagers’ used ones. In the end, he used the remaining energy of those used batteries to light up a series of light installations.

Clara CHEUNG applied electrolysis with Mumbai’s seawater and aluminum cans in her light installation, with the help of many young students and interested passersby. Gum CHENG Yee-Man learnt a few basic steps of a classical Indian dance from a professional dancer: Professor Jeroo Mullaor, and then performed those steps in the form of stop-motion animation. Gum also conducted a workshop with children about doing classical Indian dance in stop-motion animation

Carter Road Promenade was one of the major exhibit site toward the end of [en]counters 2013. Many works were exhibited here during the last weekend of the program. Similar to West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade in Hong Kong, this is a gentrifried area along the seaside, with a number of expensive apartment buildings However, less than 400 meteres away is the slum and fishermen village. According to the organizer, these two communities are so close, yet so far away from each other. It is not easy to see exchanges amongst the two. This year’s [en]counters specially invited audience from different social classes to visit the artworks or participate in workshops at Carter Road Promenade, in the hope of opening up more exchange plateforms for everyone. Many audience or passersby were interested in the artworks, and actively take part in different parts in various projects or asked the artists questions. Another nice part was that there was not any intervention from the authorities during the exhibition at this public site. Compared to the required registration and extra fences over the entrance of the “Freespace Fest” at West Kowloon last year, [en]countes 2013 provided even more freedom. After all, one crucial factor for the officials to help art development is to have less intervention during art activities.

All participating artists from Hong Kong had positive feedbacks about this exchange. In spite of the lack of funding: no artist fee and no material fee, everyone worked professionally. Since art exchanges between Hong Kong and Indian artists are quite rare, C&G Artpartment would like to share this precious experience with the Hong Kong audience through the current documentation exhibition of the Hong Kong artists’ works during [en]counters 2013: powerPLAY. On the opening day of this show, an artist sharing session will be hosted at the exhibition venue. Besides sharing their interesting stories in Mumbai, the artists will also discuss different aspects of art and cultural exchanges Hong Kong artists encounter recently.

The exhibition will have its opening on (Sun)24 February, 2013, and run until (Thu)28 March, 2013. It will be free for the public. For any enquiries, please contact 23909332.

Special thanks to organizers of [en]counters 2013 powerPLAY: Art Oxygen and Asia Art Projects

The traveling fee of the project is “supported by the Arts Development Fund of the Home Affairs Bureau, Government of the HKSAR”

主辦: C&G藝術單位

參與藝術家:梁美萍、鍾惠恩、羅至傑、李俊峰、張嘉莉、鄭怡敏(阿金)

開幕時間:2013年2月24日(星期日)，下午5:00

討論會:2013年2月24日(星期日)，下午5:30 - 7:00

展覽日期:2013年2月25日(星期一) 至 3月28日(星期四)

展覽時間:下午2:00-7:30，逢星期四、五、六、日、一，(星期二、三及公眾假期休息)

展覽地點:香港 九龍 太子 西洋菜南街222號 三字樓 C&G藝術單位 (港鐵太子站B2出口，始創中心後) 關於《印度孟買文化藝術交流》文獻展覽

2013年1月10日至21 日，六位香港藝術家赴印度孟買，參與由當地組織: Art Oxygen(暫譯為「藝術氧氣」)主辦，題為「[en]counters 2013: PowerPLAY」的藝術活動。Encounter 意為遇上、遭遇。主辦單位特意將[en]放在括號中，刻意請觀者留意字的組成包含了「counter」（意為對立、 反擊）。隱喻希望透過藝術，讓社會中不同的對立面互相溝通、了解。

「藝術氧氣」自2010年起，每年一月在孟買的公共空間，都舉辦這系列當代藝術活動，每年有不同的副題，今年是PowerPLAY，鼓勵參與者把玩「能量」及「權力」。主辦者說，印度的當代藝術領域側重商業畫廊的發展，在公共空間進行的藝術活動實是少有。之前幾年主要是印度藝術家參與，今年特別邀請外地藝術單位合辦（有澳洲的Satellite Art Project, 香港的C&G藝術單位和活化廳 ），讓不同地區的藝術家在當地與大眾相遇、交流。

香港藝術家的創作都特意與當地觀眾互動。梁美萍從香港帶了一批「印度製造」的產品，請兒童用陶泥把物品複製，並把這些「印度製造」的產品贈送之。有參加者道：「有趣，我們在本地也買不到這產品！」羅至傑則邀請當地人在紙上畫星星，然後再把各人繪畫的星星，根據各人的地理位置，製作人間星際圖，在Studio X展出。

鍾惠恩在一貧民窟與當地小孩交流，在他們經常活動的空地，為他們畫上板球的球場界線。過程中，小孩都高興地參與，而完成後，更主動地用剩下的油漆，自行畫另一球場界線和「嚴禁泊車」的字樣。李俊峰在同一村落進行交換電芯及燈泡計劃， 以在當地購買的新電芯及燈泡，與居民交換舊電芯及燈泡， 集合回收到的電芯之僅餘電力，通電照亮一燈飾裝置。

張嘉莉利用金屬電解產生電力的原理，分別以鹽水及海水進行了為當地年輕學生而設的工作坊和裝置作品。 鄭怡敏（阿金）向當地舞蹈家，學習基本的傳統印度舞，以單格動畫方式完成一段30秒的跳舞錄像，及帶領當地兒童，以同樣方式完成簡單舞步。

Carter Road Promenade是活動尾聲的重點展區，不少作品都於週末時在此展出。這地點有些像西九海濱長廊，是個仕紳化的海旁區域，周邊有不少貴價住宅。有趣的是在距離不到400米，便是另一社群： 貧民區及小漁村。主辦者說，這兩個社群既近且遠，不容易有交流。是次活動，特意邀請中產以外的社群到此參觀作品及參與工作坊，希望設立開放平台，讓各方交流。可喜的是，當地不少觀眾都十分樂意參與，及主動發問，向各藝術家了解作品的來龍去脈。而管理當局在各操作層面上也沒有任何干預。回想起去年十二月在西九舉辦的「自由野」，需要入場登記及加上額外保安和圍欄，比較之下，是次[en]counters是更加開放、親民。其實，官方在推動藝術時，其一要訣是盡量減少干擾藝術家和參加者的活動，另一要訣是採取合作態度。

各香港藝術家對是次交流都有正面回應。雖則資金短缺：沒有藝術家酬金和製作費，但大家都以專業的態度，精益求精地創作。其實，本地藝術家到印度參與藝術活動的確比較少有，因此，C & G藝術單位特整輯是次藝術計劃香港藝術家參與部分，作為文獻資料向公眾展出。另外，展覽開幕當日，設一藝術家討論會環節，將由參與是次印度交流活動的藝術家主講，除了分享其創作經驗外，亦會談及香港近年對外交流的趨勢。

展覽於2013年2月24日開幕，展期至3月28日，費用全免，歡迎各界人士參觀。如有任何疑問，歡迎致電239093232查詢。

特別鳴謝:Art Oxygen and Asia Art Projects

(本計劃之旅費由「香港特別行政區政府民政事務局藝術發展基金資助」)