Dear Friends,
We are grateful and humbled by the support we have received this year, from artists and galleries in Hong Kong and abroad, who all believe passionately in art’s future and in the need for the spaces that nurture it to continue thriving. In this difficult year, we must not forget art’s unique powers to bring communities together, to foster dialogue, and to imagine a better future.
The annual auction has always been an integral source of support for Para Site, raising a large percentage of our yearly budget to ensure the continuation and development of our expansive roster of exhibitions, as well as our public and educational programmes, in Hong Kong and beyond. Thanks to the success of last year’s auction, some of the most ground-breaking, successful, and internationally recognised exhibitions to date were made possible, including the highly acclaimed major retrospective of one of Hong Kong’s major artistic figures, , mounted at Para Site at the beginning of the year and , on view in spring at our home, and staged later in the summer with great success at the in Shanghai, as the first step in a major institutional collaboration with our partners at , which will then see another exhibition realised together in Hong Kong in autumn of next year. Para Site’s presence beyond our home base in Hong Kong this year includes even more projects: the curation of the Hong Kong Pavilion at the in Indonesia entitled ; our attendance record-breaking exhibition from 2017 was shown this year at the , Taipei; premiered in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, as one of the first international exhibitions to tour from the country and will be shown later this year in Hong Kong; continues its international tour to , Norway, where it will open later this month, and at in Chiang Mai next spring; further to this, Para Site is the partner institution for the , planning an extensive interchange between Para Site exhibition and this major Asian event.
This stronger and broader global presence directly translates to support for the emerging generation in Hong Kong. This year we have organised an unprecedented number of exhibitions featuring young artists and curators, including and , two summer exhibitions that were continuations of our support of the next generation of curators from our region in having the chance to realise their first large-scale exhibition with all the opportunities Para Site has to offer: its space, experience, and budget; a solo exhibition showcasing newly commissioned works by Hong Kong artist at our booth at ; , Hong Kong artist ’s solo exhibition in Guangzhou; among others. Currently, , on view at Para Site, focuses on the works of an upcoming generation of artists working in Hong Kong and Greater China.
In addition to these exhibitions, we have grown our educational platforms, including our prestigious intensive (to which over 80 international talents applied this year!) from Hong Kong and abroad, held in conjunction with our annual —which was, yet again, a major event on the global art agenda, besides being a laboratory for the future of Hong Kong’s art.
All of these programmes have been mediated to our diverse audiences through a record number of public programmes, and multi-lingual tours for students and members of the general public. Alongside this, we have also invited and hosted numerous art professionals in residence with Para Site, to spend time exploring and conducting research in Hong Kong to cultivate long term connections with our city, resulting in long-term cultural exchange.
These achievements would not be possible without the tremendous generosity of our patrons and supporters.
All the while, Para Site has been a pioneering institution in the fair pay of artists, offering artists fees and work insurance to all its collaborators. As part of an effort to expand social protections for artists, this year, we will start covering medical insurance costs for all artists working for Para Site projects (including the ones working on donations for the fundraising auction), covering both the production and exhibition periods. And because we would like you to know exactly the figures behind these plans and how your support translates into our work, we are listing below a few examples of the costs that go into these projects:
We would thus like to thank again all of you for supporting us; to all the artists, galleries, and friends who have donated an unprecedented set of works and experiences, to our expanding family of Global Council Members, Founding Friends, Friends, and Associates, as well as to our Board and Advisors, who have made our past year possible. Special gratitude goes to our Auction Hotel Partner: the and to and ; our Auction Preview Venue Partner: and to , our Conviviality Partners: and , our auctioneer: , and event designer . We are also thankful to the following organisations for their support: , and . Last, but certainly not least, our heartfelt and special thanks to , , , and an anonymous donor for generously hosting the auction gala.
Executive Director and Curator Para Site
