Reviews & Articles

圖片說明: 
1. 觸感藝術節活動
2. Hiep Nguyen圓圈繪畫活動
3. BiG-i展覽
4. Bert Monterona，No To War，油畫，2002
5. SAORI編織藝術及活動 

(Please scroll down for English version)

社區文化發展中心（CCCD）成立於2004年，宗旨是促進和實踐社區藝術，因此我們的藝術家導師與社區/社群（功能或地理）合作，通過藝術和媒體來表達身份、關注和願望，同時建設文化能力和促進社會變革。 

我們是一個多媒體的藝術團體，踄獵不同藝術形式，包括視覺藝術、 音樂、戲劇、舞蹈等。我們主辦研討會和活動，重點是人人可參與（ 參加者透過參與釋放他們的創造力及進行創作）。 我們的藝術家 /導師作為專業藝術家也自己創作藝術作品和表演。因此，在各項的藝術形式中，我們都有兩隻翅膀 一是進行參與式的工作坊使越來越多的人能夠釋放自己的創作潛力，另外的翅膀就是我們/我們的合作者進行創作，透過展覽和表演展示作品，表達自己。多年來，除了社區音樂，社區戲劇，社區舞蹈和聾人電影之外，社區文化發展中心還專注於一些特別的領域 - 圓圈繪畫（圓圈藝術），殘疾人的視覺藝術，第三世界的視覺藝術，觸感藝術，行為藝術和SAORI編織。

圓圈繪畫是由越南裔美國人Hiep Nguyen開發的，他和參加者(可以幾個至過百人)一起在畫布繪畫圓圈並將它們用連接起來，這樣的做法提倡創作，合作和令人感覺歡樂。我們十年前把Hiep的圓圈繪畫介紹到香港，及後不少團體包括非政府組織，學校等邀請CCCD協助/主持圓圈繪畫活動進行團隊建設及慶祝活動等，如小童群益會慶祝成立70週年或嶺南大學文化研究系成立10週年。香港現在有不少能夠帶領圓圈繪畫的朋友，但CCCD邀請Hiep再次訪問香港，邀請了十多位藝術家參與另一次訓練，並且發展了圓圈藝術的概念，在香港理工大學賽馬會創新大樓舉辦了一個圓圈藝術節: 藝術家用不同的物體創作，如圓型越南草帽或CD，將圓圈繪畫進一步提升為圓圈藝術。

CCCD一直熱心推廣不同特質人士參與視覺藝術，因為CCCD相信每個人都有其文化權利去做藝術的消費者和創造者。CCCD與香港殘疾藝術家合作，幫助他們在香港、廣州、上海、武漢、台北、日本、新加坡和尼泊 爾等地展出，並參加國際比賽。CCCD幫助推廣由大阪BiG-i（現稱為日本基金會賽事）舉辦的高水準比賽。亦曾在JCCAC的 L1畫廊舉辦BiG-i展覽廣受好評。於2018年8月，BiG-i、CCCD和藝土民間的發現號畫廊將合作舉辦一個視覺藝術展，展出3個日本殘疾藝術家畫廊和4個香港服務有特殊需要人士機構成員的作品。 CCCD亦曾在2018年5月與新生精神復康會合作舉辦亞太無障 礙藝術節，邀請老撾、泰國、越南、澳門、台灣、馬來西亞和新加坡的參加者一同參與。 

來自亞洲及其他地區的視覺藝術家 – 多年來，CCCD展出了一系列來自亞洲和世界各地的視覺藝術家：孟加拉版畫家Amin Rashid、緬甸的攝影師Phu Mon及畫家Aye Ko、日本的新陶藝家Yohei Nishimura、巴西的畫家Leal、智利的畫家 /行為藝術家Perpetua Rodriquez，菲律賓畫家 Bert Monterona，尼泊爾的畫家Sanjay Bantawa等等。

Bert Monterona更在2015及2018年兩度來港舉辦展覽。他與菲律賓外勞一起進行繪畫工作坊，又引介了自創的竹筆繪畫。Bert展示了有強烈的棉蘭老風格的大型畫作，香港難得一睹。Sanjay Bantawa於2016年在港展出了他一系列描繪馬匹和喜馬拉雅山的畫作，表達他希望像馬一樣自由自在地奔馳，儘管他自己是一名輪椅使用者。於香港展出後，他在尼泊爾藝術委員會的協助下，與香港藝術家廖東梅（同為輪椅使用者）於尼泊爾加德滿都舉辦了一次聯合畫展。

觸感藝術：五年前，CCCD開始了第一個觸感藝術節（展示透過觸摸去欣賞的藝術作品），隨後該活動每年舉行一次，第五屆觸感藝術節已 於2018年3月在發現號畫廊圓滿結束。CCCD在香港開展了觸感藝術美學議題的討論，同時在韓國，日本和北京也有合作伙伴。多年來，觸感藝術能夠讓更多失明人士和視障人士在其中參與藝術創作。於第五屆觸感藝術節，CCCD在完全黑暗的環境中展出了10件大型藝術作品，每件作品都是由一位視障藝術家和一位健視藝術家共同創作。關於觸感藝術美學的討論仍將繼續，我們的夢想是香港有朝一日能擁有像東京和首爾那樣的觸感藝術廊/博物館。

行為藝術：CCCD及其姊妹組織亞洲民眾戲劇節協會（APTFS）在香港推廣行為藝術方面有著悠久的歷史。在我們的努力下，許多國際知名的行為藝術家在香港舉辦了演出和工作坊，其中包括：Boris Nieslony、Seiji Shimoda、Lee Wen、Roi Vaara、Shu Yang、王楚禹、周斌、黃銳、Kai Lam、王默林、Tomas Ruler、Waldemar Tatarczuk、Aye Ko及Chumpon Apisuk 等等 。CCCD和APTFS在香港亦舉辦了大小規模的行為藝術節，並裝造了許多讓行為藝術家交流的機會。

通過以往多年來的努力，香行為藝術家的數量顯著增加。最近的交流之一是去年五月，4位香港行為藝術家到波蘭的訪問，他們在三個不同的波蘭城市交流及演出，作為前年4​​位波蘭行為藝術家來港的回訪。 CCCD還邀請了幾位捷克行為藝術家在2015年到香港訪問，翌年6位香港藝術家回訪捷克，在不同的城市演出。 CCCD不時舉辦香港行為藝術的演出，例如6位行為藝術家及其他人士於2018年6月29日在JCCAC演出，以紀念六四事件， 李旺陽 和劉曉波。 2018年9月APTFS將舉辦(由香港藝術發展局資助)以民族主義主題的展覽/研討/展示活動，屆時將有多位海內外行為藝術和視覺藝術家參與。

SAORI編織藝術通常被看成一門手工藝，但在CCCD（從十多年前起不定時舉辦SAORI編織體驗，直到去年則變為常規活動），織布者（對編織有興趣的人）往往並非旨在製作出任何功能性產物，更多時候他們 製作的是藝術作品。過去一年裡舉行了各種展示SAORI藝術的大小活動：例如發現號的開幕展覽，在東區醫院推廣心理健康的展覽，另一次則是一個在西九龍商場的大型SAORI活動，不單舉行展覽和示範，還有甚受歡迎的時裝表演 - 香港和遠道從日本而來的模特兒穿著用SAORI編織的衣物和服裝演出。在我們3,339平方英尺的中心，我們闢了一個300平方英尺的空間用作SAORI編織室，以供對SAORI編織感興趣的人士進行更多SAORI創作，和展示作品。

挑戰與發展

CCCD已經運行了12年多。上述所描述的所有活動約佔我們工作的五分之一或六分之一。這些活動罕有得到足夠的贊助或補貼，它們的出現是因為藝術家/藝術行政人員的熱情和奉獻。

我們必須承認，我們在很大程度上依賴義工，我們的受薪員工收入亦不高。兩年前，我們成為藝術發展局的一年資助團體，雖然有用，但其實撥款很少。

我們的空間租金每月4萬元，我們必須有足夠的活動去賺取每月的租金和行政開支，這確實是一個巨大的挑戰，從第一天我們搬入香港藝術學院騰空的場地，我們已經知道這個挑戰。我們自4年半前開始駐紮在現時的單位，現在距離我們第二個3年合同的完結還有一年半的時間，目前我們不確定是否會有第三個合同 - 所以我們在推廣一些項目誠惶誠恐，例如，發展SAORI編織不能有較大較遠的目光。

我們永遠面對可持續性問題 - 贊助者不希望資助同一項目。所以我們面對的挑戰是如何繼續創新。

是否可以自負盈虧地舉辦我們的活動？一般不可能，只有一兩個例外。

到最後，是我們自己不想和不能夠商業化吧。

Visual, Touch and Performance Art Being Part of Community Cultural Development

by Augustine MOK Chiu Yu


The Centre for Community Cultural Development (CCCD), founded in 2004, is an organization that promotes community arts and as such, we are/have artist facilitators collaborating  with communities (functional or geographical) to express identity, concerns and aspirations through arts and communication media while building cultural capacity and contributing to social change.

We are a multi-arts organization and get involved in different art forms including visual arts, music, theatre, dance etc. But in every art form, apart from organizing workshops and activities that allow participation of the ordinary folks (which helps to unleash their creativity and to allow them to create), our artist-facilitators as professional artists will also create art works and performances. So in every art form, we have two wings – the workshops where the participants are helped to unleash their own creative potential and the exhibitions and performances through which we /our collaborators will show their artworks and express themselves. Over the years, aside from community music, community theatre, community dance and Deaf films, CCCD has focused on a number of areas – circle painting (circle arts), visual arts of persons with disability, visual  artists from the third world, touch art, performance art and SAORI Weaving.

Circle painting was developed by Hiep Nguyen, a Vietnamese American who devised this approach of painting circles on canvas and connecting them with squiggles as a means to engage people, large number or small to create, collaborate and celebrate. We introduced Hiep’s Circle Painting 10 years ago to Hong Kong, and CCCD has since often been asked to facilitate circle painting workshops by various institutions including NGOs, schools etc. for team building, and often too when they organized celebratory functions e.g. the 70th anniversary of the Boys’ & Girls’ Clubs Association or the 10^th anniversary of the setting up of the Cultural Studies Department at the Lingnan University. While indeed there are many circle painting practitioners, CCCD again invited Hiep to visit Hong Kong again and with more than a dozen artists as well as public participation, CCCD staged a Circle Arts Festival at the Jockey Club Innovation Building at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University where artists created works with different objects e.g. Vietnamese straw hats or CDs which take circle painting a step further into Circle Arts.

Visual arts of Persons with Disability have been something CCCD has been promoting as CCCD believes that it is the cultural right of every person to be a consumer of art and a creator of art. CCCD worked with Hong Kong’s artists with disability, helped them to exhibit in Hong Kong, Quangzhou, Shanghai, Wuhan, Taipei, Japan, Singapore, Nepal and to participate in international competitions. CCCD helps to popularize the high quality competition organized by Osaka’s BiG - i (now known as competition of Nippon Foundation). There was a BiG-i exhibition at JCCAC’s L1 Gallery popularly acclaimed and in August 2018, BiG-I, CCCD and ALPS’ Vessel Gallery will collaborate to stage a visual arts exhibition with the works of 3 Japanese galleries specializing on artists with disability and 4 NGOs in Hong Kong whose service users have special needs. In May 2018, CCCD also worked with the New Life Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association to run an Asia-Pacific Accessible Arts Festival with participation of Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore.

Visual artists from Asia & Beyond – over the years, CCCD has presented a string of visual artists from Asia and the rest of the world: printmaker Amin Rashid of Bangladesh, painter Aye Ko & photographer Phu Mon from Myanmar Republic, Yohei Nishimura, new ceramicist from Japan, Leal, painter from Brazil,  Perpetua Rodriquez from Chile, Bert Monterona painter from the Philippines, Sanjay Bantawa, painter from Nepal ...

Bert Monterona came in 2015 and 2018. He showed his large paintings with a strong Mindanaon flavour while he workshopped with Filipino migrant workers in bamboo stick painting, Bert’s own innovation. Sanjay came in 2016 to show his painting of horses and the Himalayas which express his desire to be free to go everywhere like a horse although he is a wheelchair user. After his exhibition in Hong Kong, he reciprocated by organizing a joint painting exhibition with Hong Kong artist Liu Tung Mui (also a wheelchair user) at Kathmandu under the auspices of Nepal’s Arts Council.

Touch Art：CCCD started the first touch art (art works to be appreciated by touching them) festival 5 years ago and the Festival has been taking place annually. The Festival finished its 5^th edition at the Vessel Gallery in March 2018. CCCD pioneers in Hong Kong the discussion on the aesthetics of Touch art while it has collaborators in Korea, Japan and Beijing. Over the years, the Festival has been able to involve more blind and visually impaired persons. For the 5^thTouch Art Festival, CCCD exhibited in total darkness 10 pieces of relatively large art works each of which was created by a pair of artists made up of one blind person and one seeing person. The discussion on the aesthetics of Touch Art continues and one of the dreams is that eventually Hong Kong has a Touch Art Museum like Tokyo and Seoul.

Performance Art：CCCD and its sister organization Asian People’s Theatre Festival Society (APTFS)have a long record of promoting performance art in Hong Kong. Through their effort, internationally famous performance artists have performed in Hong Kong and many have given workshops including Boris Nieslony, Seiji Shimoda, Lee Wen, Roi Vaara, Shu Yang, Wang Chu Yu, Zhou Bin, Huang Rui, Kai Lam, Wang Mo Lin, Tomas Ruler, Waldemar Tatarczuk, Aye Ko, Chumpon Apisuk and many more... CCCD and APTFS have staged small and large performance art festival in Hong Kong and set up many exchanges with Asian performance art festivals.

Through the effort of the past years, the number of performance artists have significantly grown. One of the latest exchanges was the visit of 4 Hong Kong performance artists performing and visiting three different cities in Poland in May last year. This was a reciprocation of the visit of 4 Polish performance artists the year before. CCCD also invited several Czech performance artists to visit and perform in Hong Kong in 2015 and 6 Hong Kong artists visited the Czech Republic to perform in different cities. CCCD organizes performance of Hong Kong’s performance artists every now and then e.g. 4 performance artists will be performing at JCCAC on 29^th June to commemorate June 4^th, Lee Wong Yeung and Liu Xiao Bo. In September 2018, there will be a gathering on the theme of nationalism supported by the Arts Development Council that will bring in several performance and visual artists.

SAORI Weaving maybe considered a handicraft but mostly at CCCD (which has been running irregular activities in SAORI Weaving from more than a decade ago to regular activities since last year), the weavers (simply people interested in weaving) do not target to produce anything functional. More often they produce what one considers as art works. Over the last year, there have been big and small events involving exhibition of SAORI art works – we were the Opening exhibition of Vessel, an exhibition to promote mental health at the Eastern Hospital and an exhibition cum fashion show with models wearing SAORI woven clothes and attires at Sham Shui Po''s Dragon Centre. A room of 300 sq. ft at the 3,339 square ft. premises at JCCAC is now used as the SAORI Weaving room for the creation of more SAORI works by interested people whose works will be displayed/exhibited from time to time.

Challenge and Development of the CCCD

The CCCD has been running for more than 12 years. All those activities described make up about one fifth or one sixth of our work. They were not affluently sponsored or subsidised and they happened only because of the passion and the devotion of the artists/art administrators involved.

We must admit that we relied heavily on volunteers and our paid staff are not particularly well paid. Two years ago, we became an ADC one year grantee and the grant was small although helpful.

We have a large space to run costing $40,000 in rental and trying to have enough projects to come up with a surplus to pay for the rent is indeed a great challenge from day 1 when we moved into the premises vacated by the Arts School of the HK Arts Centre. We have been stationed at the present premises since 4 and a half years ago. We are one and a half years into our second 3 year contract and we are not sure if there will be a third one - so our venturing in promoting some of the activities e.g. SAORI is necessarily being developed with a restricted view. 

There is always the question of sustainability - funders do not want to fund the same project twice. The challenge actually is how to continue to be innovative.

Is it possible to run our activities independently? No, with just one or two exceptions. 

In the last analysis, we don''t want to and not capable of commercializing ourselves.