connecting spaces hong kong
Eisa Jocson is interested in the particular body language of male and female pool- and striptease dancers. The artist-dancer searches with her very precise choreographies the fine lines in between male or female connotations and stereotypes. In her lecture she gave us an insight in her artistic work.
https://eisajocson.wordpress.com/
To explore a culture one can start with the question about local people growing older and the way they are treated by their surrounding. Our group, consisting of Mayumi ARAI, SUN Shih-Ting and Tobias Fandel, was seeking for some impressions about this matter by interviewing various elderly people in the streets, inside a retirement home, on a cemetery, in a park and even in a taxi.
9. Sep. 2015 on the road from the retirement home in 133 Tai Hang Road/大坑道 to Hong Kong Cemetery (1 Wong Nai Chung Road/黃泥涌道)
Due to the importance of economical and financial issues for the Hong Kongers, the elderly generation needs to balance the stressful environment for example by doing Tai-Chi or traditional Chinese dancing in the parks, especially early in the morning.
10. Sep. 2015 Kowloon Park/九龍公園, Tsim Sha Tsui/尖沙咀
by Marumi Arai, Tobias Fandel
Idea:
Go to a spot in Zurich (Limmatplatz).
Note what you see and hear, using your own disciplinary method and the ones of your group members. In the end, everyone will have a couple of observations, noted in both professional and amateur ways.
Development:
All group members analysed the material together and determined one aspect of the material as a focus/topic for the next steps. This topic is “gestures of waiting”.
After that, every group member develops her/his own material further, using her/his artistic methods. In this way, four personal artistic statements emerge: a dance performance, a sound installation, a photography work and a video installation. In the end, the four works are combined with each other. They are presented in the same format, which mixes elements of performance and exhibition.
observing at Limmatplatz
the final presentation
by Eva Lin, Benjamin Ryser, Tina Sun, Dorothy Wong
Our research on humor started in an excessive demand by the city itself. As we tried to find something humorous in a metropole that seems to be driven by anything else than that we were confronted with the idea of creating our own funny moments.
So we used escalators. The wrong way. We bought a lot of Bananas and an Eggplant. Carried them through the streets, took photos with ‚em. Watching how people react, exploring what the banana does to us, how the eggplant makes us feel.
This ongoing process of research ended up in a 30 minutes performance, where one of us, wearing a mask, was standing completely still in a crowded public place. This human sculpture was accompanied after 10 minutes by another performer, moving around, constantly laughing. Finally after 20 minutes the third person went in, trying to behave normal, taking pictures. All of it was caught on video and is used as material for our subsequent group work.
by Ana-Maria Negrea, Bruce Liu, Simon Dietersdorfer
Exploring the stylish side of Zürich we visited places like the „Letten“, „Idaplatz“ and „Bullingerplatz“ to interview people about their reasons for being there, their opinions on different looks and corresponding prejudices on people around them. To our surprise it turned out that many of the interviewed people criticized their environment and didn’t openly identify themselves directly with their style nor the place. It seemed like they were just pretending to be as they were by chance.
In a further Interview the Director, Writer and Comedian Patrick Karpiczenko presented this phenomenon as something recognizable as „typically swiss“. Particularly the people of the art scene would love to live in their own little „bubble“ where they feel special and safe, ignoring the fact, that everyone else is also living in that „bubble“ of imaginary individualism. Therefore, the result is that nobody’s special anymore.
Consequently we came up with the idea of creating a fictional character, someone who could be anybody else, as special as every special person wants to be. Inspired by the famous song of Freddie Mercury we called him: „The Great Pretender“.
by Bruce Liu, Simon Dietersdorfer, Jude Liu
The mouth mouffle is a tool which is, at least in Hong Kong, usually used to prevent the dispersion of diseases. In addition to that, it is also a common tool for workers such as cleaners or industrial painters which work in somehow unhealthy or unhygienical environments. In these contexts, the mouth mouffle has the function as a border to rather prevent the body from the environment or the environment from the body. Nonetheless, there are severeal other functional and also political, economical and aesthetical aspects of the mouth mouffle as a tool. Personalized, well designed mouth masks do not only serve health-political issues but also dissolve the border between the aesthetics of the state of emergency and the regular state of being. It’s political effect is to claim the state of emergency to a regular state from a aestehtical perspective. Another political effect is its side effects to protect the face and also hide it. Therefore protesters can (and did, for example in Hong Kong, 2014) use mouth mouffles as a tool for an activist practice and protection against tear gas.
Our research includes a small typology of web-material, a crazy self-experiment, an observation about the situations and places of buying/selling the mouth mouffle, a street research and some short interviews with people from the streets.
by Eva Lin, Philipp Spillmann, Larissa Holaschke
With more than 300,00 foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong, Their Roles in Households have far-reaching social, economical and cultural impact. We set out into the streets of Hong Kong to speak with them and Their Employment agencies. Behind a veil of a seemingly undervalued lab class, we discovered a convoluted situation did grapples with many elusive social issues.
by Fabian Gutscher, Jew Liu, Liane Mah, Isabelle Sprenger
Starting from the topics streetlife, empty spaces and public space, we find out that: „The biggest crime in Zurich is sitting on a bench doing nothing“. We wondered what people do on benches and how long they’re staying there. So we filmed benches in different places.
Questions that came along were: Are you waiting or spending your time? Who has a lot of time? Are you the audience or an actor when sitting on a bench?
We focused on the topic „Time“ and made a installation with different clips from benches all over Zurich on six screens. The text below was on two ipads in front of the installation. There was also a live-camera installated which was transfered to another screen. So the audience was part of the installation and played with the topic audience/actor and time.
Time
Time passed the bench, where a little boy sat.
Time wanted to sit, but he have to walk away.
The boy invited him to seat, but Time gently refused.
“I have to keep walking“, Time explained, “and so should you.“
The boy sat still.
For a moment he thought of remaining on the bench, but he have to go, too.
Time was right.
I have to leave, the boy thought, but the bench will be empty.
He stood there for a while, stuck a gum under the bench and left. The cleaner arrived later, and wiped the gum away.
“All bullshit.“ He muttered.
by Ana-Maria Negrea, Shang-Chiao Li, Isabelle Sprenger
Looking for possibilities to learn Swiss folk dance in Zurich, we consulted youtube videos, online dance archives and we visited a folk dance groupe course of the Volkstanzkreis in Zurich – a quite exotic experience for both of us.
Kreuzfassung vorne © Mayumi ARAI & Nina Willimann, 2015
In the frame of our research we made a series of experiments in deconstructing the formal elements of Swiss dance we had learned. This procedure revealed to us, how much Swiss dance – often used for the representation of swiss national identity – has always been inspired by foreign cultures, as it is actually hugely constructed by steps borrowed from German, Austrian, Eastern European dances.
Hüpftanz verboten! © Mayumi ARAI & Nina Willimann, 2015
Swiss Folk Dance Gymnastics © Mayumi ARAI & Nina Willimann, 2015
By Mayumi Arai, Nina Willimann
Hong Kong’s 2014 Umbrella Movement, calling for a more open procedure for vetting candidates for its first exercise in universal suffrage in the election of its Chief Executive in 2017, does not have an explicit “feminist” agenda. However, initial research shows that over fifty percent of participants in the movement are female. Although underrepresented in visible leadership roles and in media reports on the demonstrations, women have played an essential part in all aspects of the movement. Moreover, they suffered from sexual harassment by counter-demonstrators intent on intimidating them and infringing on their right to public assembly. As Mirana Sze-to’s preliminary analysis shows, women activists shaped the physical space and quotidian operation of occupying Central, Causeway Bay, and Mongkok in very visible ways—from redecorating public bathrooms and crafting agit-prop artworks to running supplies and operating “democracy” study halls. They drew on various transnational cultural icons and ideas to support their political aims with nods to female artists such as Yoko Ono as well as noticeable ties to global LGBTQ rainbow movements.
During the demonstrations, women media artists took up cameras to record events and document their active participation in the political process. This presentation examines how these filmmakers see themselves as women with cameras observing as well as confronting Hong Kong’s political deadlock in relation to broader questions of the role of women in democratic movements globally. The talk highlights the diversity of the female media artists, coming from North America, Europe, Vietnam, mainland China, and elsewhere, who helped to put the Umbrella Movement on screen for world audiences. Their motion pictures illustrate the transcultural, cosmopolitanism at the root of transnational feminist theory today, and how this plays a critical role in depiction of Hong Kong activism for international audiences.
Gina Marchetti teaches in the Department of Comparative Literature, University of Hong Kong. Her books include Romance and the „Yellow Peril“: Race, Sex and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction (1993), Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s INFERNAL AFFAIRS The Trilogy (2007), From Tian’anmen to Times Square: Transnational China and the Chinese Diaspora on Global Screens (2006), and The Chinese Diaspora on American Screens: Race, Sex, and Cinema (2012). Information on her project on Hong Kong women filmmakers can be found at https://hkwomenfilmmakers.wordpress.com/.
Tuesday, September 15 – 5:30pm
University of Hong Kong, Rm 404, Run Run Shaw Tower
It was quite a surprise for chinese students that swimming being such an important part in everyday life of people in Zurich. We focused on objects that relate to swimming culture in Zurich.
The research material consists of a lot of photographies of objects lying around at Zurichs swimming spots and sounds recorded from some of the spots. The group decided to use the form of short looping film to exhibit the outcome of the researching topic.
We focused on the selected still images, and mixed them with some old swimming video in order to build the connection between the past and the present within the subject.The short looping film was supposed to create an atmosphere and an environment which provokes the thinking of swimming as an important part that exist in everyday life in Zurich.
by Wu Jiaru, Ma Haijao, Larissa Holaschke
Topic – (Human) Connection
The questions at the beginning of our research were: What do we expect from this program? How do we connect? What could we do to make this „transcultural connecting“ really happen? How can we think out of the box? How do we hide our self from the uncomfortable questions? Where do we see structures that are preventing us from getting to the ground of things?
The answer was: we dig a tunnel. A real connection. We all could recalled that child in us, that was believing in the possibility of the impossible. We imagined a tunnel in real where people could actually travel in enormes speed from Zurich to Hongkong. We thought about the troubles that occur in such a project. We thought about all the money it would need. We thought about all the people that would be against it and all the fears that would come up in the minds. So we decided to dig. 12 hours to destroy the concrete structure of the city to get connected!
It’s hard to dig a hole – 12 hours’ performance
Entry Point: 47.393027, 8.504534
Exit Point: 22.289611, 114.196736
Participants: Liane, Lan, Nico, Fabian
Action: Dig a hole in hard ground, 12 hours long, from 9 pm to 9 am.
Presentation: The spectators arrive in the morning and discovers the performers still working
„It’s hard to dig a hole. We wanted to dig a hole. As a common experience with people we don’t know. So we did. We had a hard job. The ground was much harder than expected, fast as stone. The first impressions : excitement, we are at night, on this huge place that belongs to us for a while, shouting, energy, desire, impatience.
The lights of the city surrounded us.
The place is a special art place.
It’s hard to dig a hole.
Surprise. Hard ground. Really hard. Smiles, but contracted smiles. We break many times the tools. Desillusion, the Gods won’t offer anything, we have to work hard. The weight of the tool in my hand, the sound when you hit the ground, this metallic sound. Earth and stones jump in your face, in your mouth, in your eyes, on your hairs. Full version show, with sensations, smell, taste, fireworks sometimes when the pickaxe hit the rock. We film everything. One after an other we hit and dig, and only scratch the surface. No hole. The first moments of discovery gone, the absurdity appears clearly: it’s too hard, we don’t have the right tools, it’s not the right place, … A lady comes trough the night and gives us what we need. We continue.
Jokes, breaks, the work doesn’t progress that much.
We make a real break and lie down for some small talks. It doesn’t bring anything, I fell incredibly sad.
Suddenly Fabian stands up and start to dig again. After a short while, three of us are at work again. Without a word, without a joke. Just digging in silence, giving the tools, watching the others, hearing the music of the hits one after an other.
Working is so beautiful, I could watch it for hours.
And it happens. We dig together, we are united around the project, digging a hole in an urban desert. Nice moment. Three people have the same goal, to dig a hole. Sounds like harmony. And there is also this spiritual moment when you knee down to extract off the hole the little bit of earth and stone that you managed to excave. Like a ritual. You take the earth in your hands and throw it away from the hole. That’s what you get. That’s what the hole gives you.“
by Liane Mah, Lan Ziyan, Nicolas Müller, Fabian Gutscher
In 1995, Lev Manovich wrote: „The genre of music video has been a laboratory“. While Manovich dealt with music videos as a „constantly expanding textbook for digital cinema“, this talk will focus on transcultural aesthetics, symbols, and narratives in the audiovisual laboratories of pop culture – from sophisticated to decidedly non-sophisticated ones, from underground to mainstream, from American heavy metal to Ghanaian gospel porn rap. In place of an overview, the genre itself, this hybrid of various media – film, music, text –, will be portrayed as a genius loci for transculturality.
Jörg Scheller (*1979), PhD, is an art historian, journalist, and musician. He has been tenured lecturer in art history and head of photography at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2012. In 2013, he was the curator of the Salon Suisse at the 55th Venice Art Biennale. From 2009–2012, he was the coordinator of an international research project on the Venice Biennale (focus Eastern/Central Europe) at the Swiss Institute for Art Research, Zurich. In parallel, he was assistant professor at the University of Siegen, Germany (until 2013). Besides, he had teaching assignments at the University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe, at the Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, at the University of Strasbourg, and at the University of Arts in Poznan, Poland (ongoing). In 2011, he was awarded his PhD for a dissertation on the myth of Arnold Schwarzenegger (supported by a scholarship from the German Research Foundation, 2007–209). His research is focused on bodybuilding, exhibition history, and popular culture. Latest book publications: Anything Grows. 15 Essays zur Geschichte, Ästhetik und Bedeutung des Bartes (2014, ed. with Alexander Schwinghammer); Arnold Schwarzenegger oder Die Kunst, ein Leben zu stemmen (2012); No Sports! Zur Ästhetik des Bodybuildings (2010). He is a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines such as Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Schweizer Monat, frieze d/e. www.joergscheller.de
Wednesday, September 09 – 7pm
Connecting Space Hong Kong
Certain things can be regarded as prisms in which the world reveals itself in the play of their global refractions. Seventeenth-century Persian ceramics, for instance, which imitate Chinese porcelain. Or the „Black Madonnas“ that travelled to Haiti with Polish mercenaries at the end of the 18th century.
Objects like these need to be regarded in a way that places less emphasis on their discreteness than on their place in the design of things: they are parts of a historical and political network of relations. This relational network – a tableau comprising colonial wars, Oriental fantasies, a genuine love of special items and trading monopolies – has still to be examined in depth.
Tuesday, September 01 – 7pm
Jacobs Museum Zurich
One of the most unsettling challenge in the experience of transculturality is the task of self-awareness. As a consequence quite a number of fundamental questions and problems arise concerning the terms and phenomenon of the individual, subject, person, artist or author… in the context of global politics. The lecture will expose some aspects and questions as “the subject between west and east”; “the self and identity”; “the individual, power and politics”; “the artist as a migrant” etc.
Prof. Dr. Jörg Huber studied art history, literature, modern history and philosophy in Berne, Berlin, Paris; professor for critical theory and asthetics; head of the Institut of Critical Theory and professor at the Master of Arts in Fine Arts at the Zürich University of the Arts (till october 2013). Publications in the fields of critical theory, theory of art, aesthetics, theory of viusal culture. 
Thursday, August 27 – 6pm
Toni-Areal, Zurich
![IMAG0925[1]](https://blog.zhdk.ch/transculturalcollaboration/files/2015/08/IMAG09251.jpg)
Monday, August 24 – 1pm
Toni-Areal, Zurich
