Dates: October 5–11, 2015
Alongside this year’s Para Site International Conference, we will work with a group of emerging curators, writers, critics, researchers, and other arts professionals from Hong Kong and the region in a new educational programme that includes a series of closed-door workshops, seminars, and site-visits. The programme is designed to provide learning opportunities mediated by reputed speakers from Para Site’s conference as well as by art practitioners from across Hong Kong’s diverse institutional landscape. Working with the topics covered in the Annual International Conference, the programme provides a laboratory for experimentation, posing fundamental questions and ideas that challenge various models of curatorial practice. It will also offer opportunities for networking and for the development of systems meant to nurture the participants’ careers. Participants will be selected through an application process.
This year, the conference will be exploring issues pertinent to developments in contemporary art exhibition making, and divided into four larger sections: Exhibitions as part of the economy of artistic production, Exhibition as autonomous fictional realms, Exhibitions as tools for writing history, and Exhibitions as places for political action. The conference will look at the different roles of exhibition making and at the various methods of structuring them. The workshop participants will attend this three-day conference, and be invited to provide responses to the presentations given by the diverse panel of speakers. Speakers at the conference include: Osei Bonsu, Amy Cheng, Clara Cheung, Freya Chou, Iris Dressler & Hans Christ, Cosmin Costinas, Hendrik Folkerts, Chitti Kasemkitvatana, Vasif Kortun, Anders Kreuger, Brian Kuan Wood, Christina Li, Raimundas Malašauskas, Simon Soon, Lyno Vuth, Weng Xiaoyu, Chantal Wong, Yeung Yang, among others.
SCHEDULE:
October 5th: Closed-door session 1
Orientation and introduction by Para Site. Workshops lead by Freya Chou (Curator of Education and Public Programmes at Para Site) and Cosmin Costinas (Executive Director/Curator at Para Site); site-visits to other Hong Kong organizations.
October 6th – 8th: Para Site International Conference
October 9th–10th: Closed-door sessions 2 and 3
Workshops lead by Iris Dressler & Hans Christ (Co-Directors at Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart), Osei Bonsu (curator and writer based in London), Raimundas Malašauskas (curator based in Brussels, member of the faculty of 2016 Liverpool Biennial), Lyno Vuth (artist and curator based in Phnom Penh), Christina Li (curator, Director at Spring Workshop, Hong Kong), and Yeung Yang (Founder and Executive Director at Soundpocket, Hong Kong); site-visits to other Hong Kong organizations.
October 11th: Closed-door session 4
Workshops lead by Qinyi Lim (Curator at Para Site) and Inti Guerrero (curator based in Hong Kong); artist studio visits; concluding discussions.
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:
A proposal (max. 600 words) for a curatorial project, which includes the concept, list of artists, and the institutional/geographical context for the project. This can be a purely hypothetical project, but it should be realistic and considerate towards the context selected.
A description (max. 300 words) of another’s curatorial project that has made an impact on the applicant.
Curriculum Vitae, including an extensive description of relevant working experience.
One reference letter.
Applications should be submitted in English. Please send completed applications digitally to: application@para-site.org.hk
FINANCIAL PLAN
Participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation expenses. There is no tuition fee. Para Site will cover daily meals and local transportation for site visits.
TIMETABLE
Application Deadline: July 31, 2015
Announcement of Selected Participants: week of August 14, 2015
CONTACT
simmy@para-site.org.hk
Simmy Ling, Project Coordinator/ Curatorial Assistant
Para Site is Hong Kong’s leading contemporary art centre and one of the oldest and most active independent art institutions in Asia. It produces exhibitions, publications and discursive projects aimed at forging a critical understanding of local and international phenomena in art and society.
Para Site fully supports the democratic aspirations of the people of Hong Kong.
Para Site is financially supported by the Springboard Grant under the Arts Capacity Development Funding Scheme of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The content of this program does not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.