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The CollectorHong Kong art gallery braves China censors for Shanghai collaboration

The partnership between Para Site and Rockbund is a test of strength for the former, an institution known for its wide cast of progressive, political artists

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The Ch’i-lin of Calauit (2005), by Yee I-Lann, will be shown at Para Site’s “An Opera for Animals” exhibition.
Enid Tsui
Para Site isn’t the most obvious Hong Kong art institution to partner with a mainland Chinese entity, especially now. At a time when we are all trying to get our heads around Beijing’s “Greater Bay Area” blue­print and wondering if more integration with the mainland will yield net benefits for Hong Kong, you would expect the progressive and critical non-profit art space to be treading warily.

A rush to adapt cultural content for the mainland’s restrictive environment could throttle voices of dissent and Hong Kong’s unique identity, and Para Site’s DNA is firmly cosmopolitan and political. There are also practical considerations. Its shows tend to involve a lot of artists, some of whose attitudes might not sit well with the authorities.

The tightening of the screw on free public discourse has come at a real cost to anyone trying to mount an art exhibition in the mainland, especially given the capri­cious behaviour of censors. In 2017, Shanghai’s Rockbund Art Museum called off a touring Guggenheim exhibition titled “But a Storm is Blowing from Paradise: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa” at the last minute. The Rockbund remained tight-lipped at the time but the abrupt cancellation led the art world to conclude that it was probably to do with the Beijing’s hypersensitivity to any association with the pro-democracy Arab spring uprisings that began in 2010. (The same show was cancelled in Istanbul, Turkey, too.)
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So it is curious that last month, Para Site announced a partnership with Rock­bund that involves the two insti­tutions collaborating and swapping on exhibitions. First up is “An Opera for Animals”, which is being put together by Para Site curators and will be unveiled in Hong Kong first, the week before Art Basel weekend (March 29 to 31).

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The preliminary curatorial statement sounds intriguing, even if it makes you wonder how a recognisable message can possibly emerge from the jumble of incon­gruous and eccentric themes that the exhi­bition seeks to address: parallels between over-the-top settings and performances in Chinese and Western operas and the way we live now; technology and colonialism both on stage and in real life; and how “the animal spirit” connects ancient beliefs with new fears.

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