Para Site Art Space is honored to bring warm hugs from China to Hong Kong. Strangers are invited to choose a person at random for a hug, which they will then do simultaneously with other couples, accompanied by music. The mass hugging performance is staged outside Everyone is welcome to show up and participate.
The group hug performance was first done in in 2000. Since then they have taken their big hugs to different public locations in countries like China, Germany and UK. The performance challenges the use of public space in Hong Kong. The project engages in the way public space is controlled and brings an intimate act into the public arena, and is connected with the development of In China its meaning is connected to the echoes and resonances of the effect of the in people’s behaviour. In 2001 invited the to perform their as part of , on this occasion the artists where famously banned from traveling and unable to attend their own performance.
The are based in Beijing and are authors of several published works, including They have been collaborating on installation, performance, sculpture, photography works and writing since the mid 1980s. They are well known for their politically charged art. Their work has been included in , etc. and is held in private and museums collections, including etc.
This project is part of a series of public performances initiated in January 2009 by.