This sharing session invites organisers of the current edition of Wild Art Festival as well as members of Art Together in a conversation about artist collectives, a topic that deeply interests ‘2046’ participating artist Chung Wing Shan. The session will explore different perspectives within guerilla art, artist residencies, and community engagement, among other topics.
Chung Wing Shan (b. 1996, Hong Kong) formed Po-po-post Arts Group in the same year of her graduation. She believes artists working as collectives create a sense of camaraderie in the artmaking process, and that art should reflect its surrounding world and society. She is interested in the issues of borders, boundaries, and the power of space in Hong Kong, and wishes to explore the place and its history in her practice.
The Wild Art Festival was launched by students from the Department of Arts of Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 2017 and it is their fifth iteration this year. In every Wild Art Festival, they try to respond to different ‘restrictions’ with the creation of art. In 2017, its focus on campus creation responded to the space and regulations that happened that year inside the on-campus exhibition venues. In 2018, a happy creative process is highlighted in response to the evaluation and scoring mechanism of art education. In 2019, the Wild Art Festival expanded beyond the university campus to happen at Green Wave Art titled ‘Where do we have a little art entertainment’ and invited the community to respond to the limitations on the development of small and medium-size art groups. In 2020, social events and epidemics continued to ferment. ‘Art Guerrilla Anytime’ challenged the idea of ‘art as useless’, and uses creations to respond to the limitation of discourse power on space. By 2022, the free space of creation has been further narrowed, and the theme of creation, the content of the work, and artwork placement will face the suspicion of trial. When the city is full of fickle boundaries and restrictions on artistic creative freedom, this year’s ‘Skipping Boundaries!’ invited everyone to dance with borders and have fun with restrictions so artists can find and get the creative freedom of public space through the exploration of creation.
Founded in 2008, Art Together is a charitable cultural and arts organisation based in Hong Kong. It focuses on art projects in outdoor areas and public spaces across Hong Kong, aiming to connect the community through the infusion of art, reach more diverse communities, enhance the social and environmental awareness of the public, and promote education on art and culture. The ‘Breathe in the Nature’ Land Art Camp has earned it the Hong Kong Arts Development Council’s Award for Arts Education 2018 (Non-School Division). Art Together seeks to provide a platform for promoting creativity, art education and overseas exchange to achieve its cultural mission.
