Film screenings at Para Site, co-curated with Venus Lau
The Floating Eternity Project takes its point of departure from a 2012 architectural proposal by BREAD Studio to create an offshore columbarium to alleviate the pressing concerns over Hong Kong’s critical land scarcity and greying population as well as the implications of these issues on the city’s economy of the afterlife. Taking into account Hong Kong’s belief systems, BREAD Studio conceived of a temporary platform that would contain over 350,000 niches of equal auspiciousness for individual human remains, vital to the concerns of the Chinese fengshui tradition and at an affordable price. This columbarium was planned to be anchored in the outer waters of Hong Kong and to return to the shore when needed.Through newly commissioned and existing architectural proposals, texts, videos and installations by Hong Kong and international artists, the exhibition explores notions of land scarcity, private and public spaces attributed to the living and the dead, and the formation of memory landscapes. The latter is informed by the traditions of death and mourning such as the Hungry Ghost Festival and the history of graveyards and burial rituals in Hong Kong. This history ranges from the establishment of the first unauthorized Chinese burial site on Cemetery Street (now Po Yan Street, on which Para Site is situated) in 1850 to the pivotal role Hong Kong played in facilitating the return of remains of members of past Chinese diasporas through institutions such as the Tung Wah Coffin Home from the late 19th century to the present.This exhibition is accompanied by a series of public programmes among which we would like to highlight the film screenings on 5 October and 19 October 2013 at Para Site exploring memory formation and space, as well as the representation of specters and the supernatural in Hong Kong film culture co-curated with Venus Lau.Curator: The Floating Eternity Project is curated by Qinyi LimFilm screenings: October 5 and 9, 2013 at Para Site, co-curated with Venus Lau
Artists:
BREAD Studio
Open:Sunday, 15 September 2013
Close:Friday, 22 November 2013
Address:Para Site, GF 4 Po Yan Street, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong
Mail:info@para-site.org.hk
Phone:+852 2517 6850
Web:http://www.para-site.org.hk
Photo credits:The Floating Eternity Project, Courtesy F+P
