Fumio Nanjo presents Toyo Ito's Vanishing Caves, a maze-like sculpture made of layers of white fibreboard that allows visitors to admire its curves from the outside and walk through it to experience it from the inside. Close by, he has placed Ex-Garment, a three-piece installation by Lo Sing-chin, a local artist and fashion designer. Director of the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Nanjo introduces the pieces as part of Popping Up: Revisiting the Relationship between 2D and 3D, an exhibition at the Hong Kong Art Centre of works by artists from around Asia. 'This show is small, but it is multinational ... and includes different kinds of creations,' Nanjo says of his first curatorial effort in Hong Kong, which opens tonight. Featuring works by 13 artists, including renowned architect Ito, the exhibition seeks to break down the boundaries between two-dimensional and three-dimensional art. It's also the largest show to be held at the Art Centre in a decade, says its executive director Connie Lam, who approached Nanjo a year ago to curate the show. 'Hong Kong should have this kind of show more often. Many exhibitions in Hong Kong are [staged] only for Hong Kong artists,' she says. 'It sounds like it's the right thing to do from the government's point of view, but it's not good for Hong Kong artists.' Nanjo echoes Lam's sentiments. If you can put foreign and local artists on the same level to create a strong message, Hong Kong artists will become more visible, he says. 'But if you keep artists outside, they are not visible. So what you have to do is to make exhibitions which feature young local artists and foreign contemporary artists together. These foreign artists will then get to learn about Hong Kong art and they will talk about it.' Artists have been exploring the boundaries between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional for centuries. Renaissance artists tried to give the impression of three-dimensional space from a flat canvas, says Nanjo, while those from the pop art period simply glued objects onto a painting, something which 'is supposed to describe 3-D objects in a 2-D space'. 'But artists like to play with expression,' Nanjo says. 'Their question is: what you see in reality, is it real? What you are looking at in a conventional way is not always right.' The limited space and complicated layout of the Arts Centre is not easy to manage, says 61-year-old Nanjo. He aims to give the appearance of the three-dimensional from two-dimensional surfaces or materials, while blending art with daily life. Among his choice of exhibits are Untitled, Taiwanese artist Michael Lin's playful wood and steel structure, which visitors can enjoy by running or sitting on; and local artist Lee Kit's statement-daubed pieces of fabric which are used as tablecloths in the centre's fourth-floor cafe. 'What is the meaning of art? This one [Lin's piece] is put in a public space, and people can sit or play on it. Art is not just a painting. It can be part of our daily life, and something to be used by people,' Nanjo says. Recalling a visit by Hong Kong officials to the Mori Art Museum two years ago, Nanjo says they asked how the museum could stage exhibitions that were exciting but easy for audiences to understand. 'I said we do it intentionally,' says Nanjo, who is also an adjudicator for the Public Art Project - Tamar, the location for the new government headquarters. 'The audience [for contemporary art] is smaller than for the impressionists, but we try to educate people that contemporary art is more fashionable, more exciting and relevant to today's life. 'Impressionist art was created over 100 years ago in Paris, and has nothing to do with us today. 'That's why we try to access the audience and show things from a contemporary point of view,' he says. 'We want to create exhibitions that are thought-provoking and entertaining. Art exhibitions should be joyful.' Popping U: Revisiting the Relationship between 2D and 3D, Pao Galleries, Hong Kong Arts Centre, until October 22. Admission free
