ACC Fellows curate Hong Kong exhibition at 54th Venice Biennale
June 15, 2011
ACC Fellows curate Hong Kong exhibition at 54th Venice Biennale
Presented by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in association with the Hong Kong Fringe Club, Hong Kong is represented at the 54th Venice Biennale (Visual Arts) by an exhibition titled, “Frogtopia · Hongkornucopia” curated by Chief Curator and ACC fellow Benny Chia, ACC fellow Wong Shun-kit and co-founder of Para/Site Art Space, Tsang Tak-ping.
Featuring the work of local artist Kwok Mang-ho (a.k.a. Frog King), “Frogtopia · Hongkornucopia” is envisioned as a space ‘taken over’ by the artist with a forest of expanding installation pieces. The frenetic energy of the artists’ incessant outpour of creations mirrors the dizzying excesses of Hong Kong; from its sprawling skyscrapers to the clamor of sights and sounds that vie for the city-dwellers’ attention. His characteristic ‘frog’ motif is overproduced both as a creative impulse and statement, although he retains a playfulness that, as Benny Chia states: “is also a way of thumbing his nose at turgid self-importance and middle-class respectability.”
This is the Hong Kong Arts Development Council’s fifth exhibition of works by Hong Kong visual artists at the Venice Biennale. A new record of 87 national pavilions has been made this year and the biennale will include more than 40 collateral events that will take place at the main exhibition locations—the Arsenale and the Giardini—as well as throughout the city of Venice.
The 54th Venice Biennale is taking place from June 4th to November 27th, 2011.