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CUHK Team Organises Crossover Exhibition of Architecture, Literature and TheatrePresenting Contradiction between Urban Development and Performance Space
‘HETERO-HK’ is a cross disciplinary exhibition which explores the existence and possibilities of heterogeneous spaces under mainstream cities by a collaboration of architecture, literature and theatre. From an idea based on Writopia and the Spell of Disappearance, a novel written by Hong Kong writer Lawrence Pun, ‘HETERO-HK’ has been organised by a team led by Prof. Thomas Chung, Associate Professor of the School of Architecture at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), and Ms. Siu Man, a graduate from the School. It will be held at the Connecting Space Hong Kong in North Point, from 29 December 2017 to 4 January 2018 for the HK-SZ Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism⧵Architecture (UABB 2017).
After graduating from CUHK, Siu Man was awarded the Edwin S H Leong Hughes Hall Scholarship from CUHK, to study a Master’s degree at Cambridge University. She studied the concept of marginalised urban voids and performance space, which coincided with the theme of Writopia and the Spell of Disappearance. The novel imagines two parallel worlds ‘Sand City’ and ‘Writopia’, deeply original allegories of Hong Kong that reveal the unseen, heterotopic city beneath the apparent, conformist one. Exploiting the metaphor of sand to represent Hong Kong’s contemporary conditions of heterogeneity, disappearance and permanent transition, Pun’s award-winning novel loosely narrates the search for spellbound writers who disappeared into Writopia through invisible gaps and edges.
The architecture installations by Prof. Thomas Chung and Siu Man link the literary narrative to projections and representations of heterotopic settings of North Point. Using ephemeral elements which include paper, fabric and scaffolding, this spatial re-interpretation colonises the aptly named Connecting Space in North Point to explore an alternative cultural imagination in the city. Alex Tam, Director of Ronin Theatre, will conduct daily site-specific immersive performance that offers transformative experiences for visitors in their search for parallel meanings, at once in the novel, the self and the city.
Siu Man remarked, ‘This is a cross-disciplinary collaboration between architecture, theatre and literature. I am honoured to work with an experienced writer, theatre director and artists to read the city with a different lens. Writopia and the Spell of Disappearance is a perfect text to start with since it coincides with my research direction studying marginalised, heterotopic urban voids. These materials allow me to obtain comprehensive understanding of the rich layers of the city. In realising the project, I am able to understand the different facets of art production since I am involved in negotiations and administration, hands-on making, on-site filming and so on. These observations are invaluable and impossible to obtain by traditional ways of researching.’
Members of the public are welcome to visit the exhibition. Details are as follows:
Hetero-HK Cross-disciplinary Exhibition
Date: 29 December 2017 – 4 January 2018
Time: 11:00 am – 7:30 pm
Venue: Connecting Space Hong Kong, 18 Fort Street, North Point
Hetero-HK Cave Theatre – Immersive Theatre
Director: Alex Tam
Original Work: Writopia and the Spell of Disappearance by Lawrence Pun
Date: 30 December 2017, 1-4 January 2018
Time: 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm (30 Dec 2017 only), 8:30 pm – 9:45 pm (daily)
Venue: Connecting Space Hong Kong, 18 Fort Street, North Point
Literature, Theatre and Architecture Symposium
Date: 30 December 2017
Venue: Connecting Space Hong Kong, 18 Fort Street, North Point
Speaker: Prof. Desmond Hui, Prof. Leo Ou-fan Lee, Indy Lee, Sampson Wong, Prof. Sui Hung Chan (Lok Fung), Waitong Liu
“Builder Dweller” Installation
Date: 28 December 2017 – 4 January 2018
Venue: Back alley, 226 Electric Road
“Narcissus’ Lake” Dance Performance
Performer: Chan Wai Lok
Date: 1-4 January 2018
Time: 10:00 pm – 10:45 pm
Venue: Watson Road Rest Garden
Creative Team: Prof. Thomas Chung, Siu Man (Architecture), Lawrence Pun (Literature), Alex Tam (Theatre)
Venue Partner: Connecting Space HK
Supported by: Design Trust
Videography: Max Kin-Wai Lee
Dance: Chan Wai Lok
Website：https://www.facebook.com/project.heterohk/
Hetero-HK exhibition will be held from 29 December 2017 to 4 January 2018.
Siu Man’s team reconstructs the world of Writopia and the Spell of Disappearance with the scenery of North Point.
Siu Man’s team reconstructs the world of Writopia and the Spell of Disappearance with the scenery of North Point.
Cross-disciplinary exhibition between architecture, theatre and literature.
Scenes in the novel are reconstructed by Siu Man’s team using paper, fabric and scaffolding.
