Art Basel Hong Kong is a perennial tour de force of modern and contemporary fine art masterpieces paired with installations and the exhibition of what could be referred to as outsider and emerging artists and new directions. The fair, installed at the Convention Center and accompanied along Hong Kong’s developing waterfront by the Art Central fair attracts a worldwide group of high end dealers, curators and collectors and provides an opportunity for the exposure of interesting new curatorial projects at off-site locations throughout the City.
I had the good fortune of attending one exceptional example of this at Para Site, a space located at 677 Kings Road (Quarry Bay). The subject of Para Site’s exhibition, titled “Afterwork”, was the world of migrant domestic laborers throughout the city and in the wider world writ large. Of note, the catalogue accompanying the show points out that this group is Hong Kong’s “largest minority group”. The creative forces unleashed by this theme were on full display; employing still and video photography and all manner of media, expertly and energetically rendered by such artists as Alfredo Jaar, Beatrix Pang, Koken Ergun, Sun Yuan & Peng Yu, and Xyza Cruz Bacani. The video work of Elvis Yip Kin Bon quickly brought me to tears. Kudos to the curatorial team consisting of Freya Chou, Cosmin Costinas (nice guy too), Inti Guerrero and Qinyi Lim. Excellent.
