Laurent Gutierrez and Valerie Portefaix of MAP Office
The Sovereign Asian Art Prize is this continent’s largest and longest-standing art award, this year awarding a healthy USD $30,000 (HKD $232,683) to the most esteemed among a shortlist of 300 works from more than 25 countries. When the winner was announced last month, the check was handed over to Hong Kong’s MAP Office: the multi-disciplinary duo better known to their students as Laurent Gutierrez and Valerie Portefaix. The prize-winning piece focused on the voyage taken by a cargo ship from Shenzhen to Hong Kong. The two tell Sean Hebert about their craft, the intentions behind their work, and the city that inspires it.
HK Magazine: MAP Office is based out of Hong Kong, despite the fact that as its creators you originate from Morocco and France. What made you choose to work here and base your artistic projects around this city?
MAP Office: We both graduated in the mid-1990s, and with our diploma and newborn son we decided to see the world. Hong Kong appeared to us to be a dynamic and vibrant city from where we could experience and understand different logics of living in Asia. This was a major driver to immediately start projects on the city/territory. Hong Kong—as a subject of research—became our laboratory.
HK: Why do you think your award-winning work “Back Home with Baudelaire, No. 5.” appealed so much to the prize judges?
MO: We believe that besides the aesthetic aspect of the work, the meaning and deepness of issues being raised, such as identity, geography, crossing borders, fluidity and globalization patterns, are appealing to a professional jury essentially composed of curators.
HK: In 2003, you studied the urban and cultural impact of migrant workers in Shenzhen’s local labor forces. Did your experiences with this issue in particular influence or inspire this award-winning exposition, or are they unrelated?
MO: The studies of migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta were part of a similar approach to understanding territorial dynamics through their various productive economies. The migrant worker represents the productive side of one coin while the container is its result, as the consumer’s merchandise is distributed worldwide.
HK: You both split your time between academia and art. What is the relationship between these two disciplines, and how is presenting your findings by way of exhibition more or less effective than via a peer-reviewed article?
MO: We both teach at the School of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. From practice to theory, we focus on teaching our students to open their eyes to the environment and the society they are living in and think strategically. In that sense, art practice and design education share in common a focus on understanding and interpreting society around us.
HK: Your art incorporates many different forms of expression, from audio and video to photography, light, drawing, performance, text, and even Lego (a personal favorite). Do you have a preference for a certain communicative technique, or do different subjects require different approaches?
MO: Our preference for choosing such or such media is driven by how efficient the communication of the subject will be. The point is to first address an issue, not to produce another image. We do not want to be bounded or labeled by one mode of production.
HK: Congratulations on the esteemed honor; USD $30,000 can go a long way in the art world. What can we expect next from MAP Office?
MO: We have a couple of coming projects in China that include a solo exhibition at the renowned Beijing Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in April, as well as other exhibitions in Australia and Hong Kong. The prize will be immediately re-invested into our art and research practice.