Cultural
Study/ Art
Leung Po Shan
No.
of words: 60,000 (Chinese characters)
Year
of Publication: 2018
Synopsis
As the Hong Kong government
set out to develop the creative industries around the millennium, the arts were
suddenly transformed from an alternative culture into a solution to the social
and economic challenges Hong Kong was facing. Beyond the staggering prices at
art auctions, the art economy has taken on new manifestations in the art fairs
that fill the city’s event calendar, with the Art Basel Hong Kong held in March
every year putting the spotlight on “the world’s third largest art market”.
In I Love Art Basel, veteran art critic and art practitioner Leung
Po-shan takes the readers behind the glittering façade of Hong Kong’s art
scene. From the institutionalisation of the arts and its implications on the
discourse on creativity, the impact of bourgeoning art fairs on community art
initiatives, to the increasing marginalisation of independent artists and
freelance “art labourers” as a result of blooming cultural consumption, I Love Art Basel sheds light on the
different facets of an accelerating art ecology. An essential read for
long-time and aspiring art professionals and the critical readers.
Author
Leung Po-shan, Anthony
Belonging to the last generation of
university students under the colonial rule, Leung studied Fine Arts at the
Chinese University of Hong Kong but witnessed the Handover as a reporter.
Weaving through art and politics, she teaches, writes, researches, cooks,
meditates and takes to the streets. She was a member of Para/Site Art Space ,
In-Media (Hong Kong) and Hong Kong Culture Monitor. Her research interests
include, among others, artistic labour, city space and cultural politics. Her
essays and commentaries have been published in the Hong Kong Economic Journal, InMedia
(Hong Kong), City Magazine, Leap, Artco and etc. Publications edited by her include Modern Art in a Colony: Narrated by Hon
Chi-fan at the Millennium, Odd One
In: Hong Kong Diary (by Pak Sheung-cheun), QK – Specimen Collection of Chan Yuk Keung, The Red Twenty-years of Ricky Yeung Sau-churk, etc. She has
finished her doctoral thesis on art labour at the Chinese University of Hong
Kong in 2017. Her latest title I Love Art
Basel: On Art and Capital is well received in Hong Kong and Taiwan. She is
now a member of the art critic collective, Art Appraisal Club.
Recommendation
(In English)
“Are artists labourers? What do they have
to do to be recognized as artists? Is succeeding in the art market the only way
to be a successful artist? I Love Art
Basel looks into the art ecology of present-day Hong Kong to answer these
questions.” --Frank Vigneron, Chairperson and professor, Fine Art Department, Chinese University
(In French)
“Les artistes sont-ils des travailleurs?
Que doivent-ils faire pour être reconnus comme artistes? Est-ce que le succès
dans le marché de l’art la seule façon de devenir un artiste reconnu? I Love
Art Basel observe l’écologie de l’art du Hong Kong d’aujourd’hui pour répondre
à ces questions.”
--Frank Vigneron (Président et professeur
de FAA)
(In German)
“Sind Künstler Arbeiter? Was müssen sie tun,
um als Künstler Anerkennung zu gewinnen?
Ist der einzige Weg zur Anerkennung der kommerzielle Erfolg? "I
Love Art Basel" wirft einen Blick auf das Umfeld, in dem Künstler im
heutigen Hongkong arbeiten.”
--Frank Vigneron, Professorin und
Vorsitzende des Fine Art Department an der Chinese Univeraity of Hongkong
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