Teaching Labs | Sites and Situations: Understanding Public Art and Urban Space through Event Horizon Hong Kong

Talk and AAA Teaching Community Workshop around British artist Antony Gormley’s public art installation Event Horizon Hong Kong.

Event Horizon Hong Kong sets 31 life-size sculptures of the human body on the streets and rooftops of Central and Western Hong Kong for viewers to consider their own relationship to urban space. The large-scale public art project triggers controversial debates and prompts residents to reflect on the city’s public art needs. Using Gormley’s installation as a case study, AAA Teaching Labs presents a talk and Teaching Community session to help educators understand and analyse the cultural issues surrounding the exhibition.

Talk | Fri, 22 Apr | 5-7pm (Refreshment will be served starting at 4:30pm)

Moderator: Lau Tin Ming, Deputy Principal of Arts and Humanities Development, HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity
Speakers: Ingrid Chu, Public Programmes Curator, Asia Art Archive; Anthony Leung Po Shan, art critic; and Sampson Wong Yu Hin, urban researcher and independent curator
Language: Cantonese and English (with simultaneous interpretation in English)
Target: Teachers from all disciplines are welcome (Liberal Studies, Visual Arts teachers, and cultural educators in particular). Please indicate in the registration form if you would like to bring your students to the talk as seats are limited. The talk is also open to members of the public.
Fee: Free

What is ‘public art’? How is it interpreted and practised? How does public art relate to urban space? How does a sculpture placed in Hong Kong provoke its inhabitants to reflect on their relationship to the city? Exploring Event Horizon Hong Kong through ideas around ‘public art’, ‘urban space’, and ‘body and the surrounding’, the talk delves into the meaning and function of public art in Hong Kong and other cities—in addition to comparing the differences between government-led and self-initiated public art projects, widening the perspective through related cultural issues.