In 2015, the government made it a condition of the sale of land for the development that part of the new building would remain in government hands and that it would be turned over to the Arts Development Council (ADC).

The statutory body will move its administrative office there from rented premises in Taikoo, in Hong Kong’s Eastern district.

The headquarters include an information centre about the arts in Hong Kong, a 4,500 sq ft multipurpose exhibition hall with a double height ceiling, called Showcase, and ADC Artspace – a complex comprising 28 artist studios that will be rented out on two-year leases at below market rates.

While this is not the ADC’s first foray into Wong Chuk Hang – its first ADC Artspace, which existed from 2014 to 2020, was in Genesis, a building a couple of minutes’ walk from Landmark South – its headquarters is the first major cultural facility established in the neighbourhood by a public body.

“Our Showcase space can accommodate exhibitions as well as performances with seating for around 100 people. No such community facilities existed here before and the population is growing,” says Anne Chan, the ADC’s arts space, research and development director.

The ADC will present shows aligned with the organisation’s missions, such as promoting young talent. But mostly, Showcase will be made available to outside hirers at a daily rate of HK$8,000 (US$1,000), with discounts available to non-profit organisations.

“Marginal Notes”, the inaugural exhibition, is guest curated by Ying Kwok, senior curator at the Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts in Central, Hong Kong. It features art by 11 artists and artist groups based in Hong Kong, who were asked to create new works or adapt existing ones to reveal lesser known facts, myths and stories about Wong Chuk Hang.

On the face of it, the artists have responded to visual evidence of its history both ancient and more recent, such as a 3,000-year-old rock carving and the weathered remnants of a cigarette advertisement on the side of a factory building.

More broadly, the selection of work from artists as varied as ceramicist Benny To Kai-on, who has imagined relics ancient inhabitants might have used in religious rituals, and Tap Chan, who presents abstracted essences of 20th century capitalism, shows the tensions between old and new.

Of all the artists whose work appears in the show, Kong Chun-hei knows the area best, since he grew up in the public housing estate that was torn down in 2009 to make way for the MTR station.

His monumental Holders is a poignant reinstatement of what is lost: he has meticulously arranged thousands of suction cups all over the gallery’s floor-to-ceiling glass wall in a pattern that reminds him of the geometric breeze blocks in his childhood home.

Two activities will help visitors to the exhibition find out more about the area’s history. They can join Eastman Cheng’s on-site embroidery sessions to help make tapestries of old street maps.

There are also walking tours to the ancient rock carving – the only one found inland in Hong Kong – and bus tours organised by artist-writer and licenced bus driver Lam Siu-wing.

It is too early to tell what the impact will be of the ADC taking up permanent residence in Hong Kong Island’s “South Side”, says Fabio Rossi, who was among the first to set up a commercial gallery in the area 10 years ago.

“Marginal Notes”, Showcase, UG Landmark South, 39 Yip Kan Street, 12pm-7pm, Tue-Sun, free admission. Until October 1.