2015.08.12 Wed, by
Hong Kong’s Spring Workshop Appoints Christina Li as Director

Spring Workshop is pleased to announce Christina Li as new Director/Curator. She begins her role in August 2015 after ten years as an independent curator and writer in Hong Kong and the Netherlands.

Mimi Brown, Founder of Spring Workshop, says: “I am delighted to welcome Christina Li back to our city this year to experiment with the possibilities of what Spring’s arts initiative can be. She is a wonderful curatorial talent who is not only internationally engaged, but also deeply rooted in her hometown of Hong Kong.”

During her one-year tenure at Spring Workshop, Christina will present a program based on an exploration of the boundaries of support and hospitality, ideas that comprise a key part of Spring’s vision.

“Since its inception, I have been impressed with Spring’s program, open character, and willingness to take risks with the possibilities of what an arts organization can be,” says Li. “I aim to build on Spring’s commitment to supporting and creating spaces for artistic process and new conversations. Spring’s extraordinary vision and pluralistic program have been terrific examples of how an art space and residency can take shape within an intimate setting, and I am excited to experiment further.”

Her upcoming fall program “Des hôtes: a foreigner, a human, an unexpected visitor” draws attention to the roles of host and guest. Over a three-month period, Spring will present artist-devised tours, chocolate-readings, hypnosis sessions, and zoological lectures within the exhibition space. The exhibition and events feature international artists Milena Bonilla, Kasper Bosmans, Toshie Takeuchi, Luisa Ungar and others, and will create a web of relations that magnify the nuances and politics mired in hospitality.

In the past two years at Spring Workshop, Christina Li initiated and launched with co-editor Heman Chong the annual publication project Stationary; co-curated with Lee Ambrozy, Amira Gad, and Xiaoyu Weng the Stories and Situations conference (2013) in the two-year Moderation(s) project in partnership with the Witte de With; wrote for Moderation(s) both as Witness and as a contributor to A Fictional Residency (2013); and curated the group exhibition Days push off into nights (2015) featuring artists including Moyra Davey, Elmgreen & Dragset, Cevdet Erek, Lee Kit, Job Koelewijn, Jewyo Rhii, and Magdalen Wong.

Li says: “Spring has been pushing the boundaries of how art and culture can be nurtured, while presenting a way for the public to interact with this process. I look forward to joining Spring’s wonderful team.” Brown says: “We want to bring people together to experiment with the way we relate to art. As the Spring family grows into a global network of artists, art lovers, curators, art newbies, writers, dancers, musicians, theatre makers, farmers, film makers, and architects coming through our doors, I can imagine no one more ideal than Christina Li to lead the ongoing adventure at Spring.”

Christina Li, photo credit: Mia Haggi

Christina Li, photo credit: Mia Haggi

ABOUT CHRISTINA LI

Christina Li graduated from the University of Hong Kong with a degree in Fine Arts (Art History) and Comparative Literature, and completed de Appel Curatorial Programme in 2009. She was involved with the research and project management of the international contemporary art and research project FORMER WEST between 2011-2012 and was the co- curator for the 3rd FORMER WEST Research Congress, Part One: Beyond What Was Contemporary Art in Vienna (2012). Li was part of the editorial team of SKOR’s debut public program: Actors, Agents and Attendants: Speculations on the Cultural Organisation of Civility (2010) and curating the accompanying artist projects and film program. At Spring Workshop, Li has been involved as Witness for Moderation(s) (2012-2014) and co- curator of its symposium Stories and Situations organized in partnership with Witte de With. Also at Spring, she launched Stationary, an annual collection of short stories, with Heman Chong, and curated Days push off into nights (2015). Her other curatorial projects include: The Goethe- Institut’s Pyongyang Reading Room: Between Object and Shadow, Goethe-Institut Amsterdam, 2013; A Map of Misreading, TENT, Rotterdam, 2012; Icarus 13: Cinematic Narratives from Elsewhere, BAK, Utrecht, 2011; Prologue – Speculations on the Cultural Organisation of Civility, SKOR and various locations, Amsterdam, 2010; Not Yesterday, Not Tomorrow, Cable Factory, Helsinki, 2009; and Weak Signals, Wild Cards, De Appel, Amsterdam, 2009. As a writer, she has contributed to catalogues and publications such as Yishu Journal of Contemporary Art, LEAP, and Artforum.

She previously worked as a curator of Para/Site Art Space (Hong Kong) between 2005-2008, and was the assistant curator of Making (Perfect) World: Harbour, Hong Kong, Alienated Cities and Dreams, the Hong Kong Participation of the 53rd Venice Biennale.