藝評
Hong Kong’s Cultural District Saga
約翰百德 (John BATTEN)
at 3:11pm on 30th June 2009
, acrylic on board, 2008..jpg)
It has largely been forgotten, but the Hong Kong government’s plans for the US$2.8 billion West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) to be a self-financed property developer-led project came unstuck 5 years ago when respected Once Upon a Time in China Hong Kong film director Tsui Hark questioned the lack of public involvement in the project and criticized the vague plans for the four (originally proposed) museums and a variety of performing arts spaces on an undeveloped piece of West Kowloon peninsula property far from the established Tsim Sha Tsui shopping and commercial district. (1)
Tsui Hark’s criticism sparked a wave of media interest in the WKCD project and due to persistent criticism of government indecision led to an important full day forum involving the arts community opened by then Chief Secretary, now Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang. This forum was an early example of the arts community questioning the ‘software’ of the project e.g. the governance of the site, the importance of freedom of expression and the independence of participating arts groups, museums’ collection policy etc while the government preferred to discuss the easier topic of ‘hardware’, the physical buildings to be built for this ‘major infrastructure project’.
The original design plans for the WKCD were based on an open design competition won by the British architectural firm of Norman Foster & Partners, however the initial design parameters were deemed restrictive by the bidding property developers and they declined to be further involved on learning of the US$2.8 billion deposit needed to maintain their bids to be short-listed to design and build the project.
The next two years saw lengthy public consultations, reports from appointed advisory committees, blunt and sustained advice from members of the arts community and open enquiries from a special WKCD committee formed by Hong Kong’s legislative body, the Legislative Council. The Hong Kong Government ignored much of this advice and recently pushed through its preferred version of the WKCD Ordinance which sets up the legal entity to build and manage the project - now in place is an unwieldy management structure stacked with 21 government appointees to the WKCD Authority (with only one having relevant arts-industry experience) and supported by a conservative public service bureaucracy appointed as an overseeing secretariat.
As the protracted WKCD saga has played out over the last four years hopes by the arts community for a considered approach by government to this arts precinct have fallen as the focus continues to be on the physical buildings to be built and their ‘look’ rather than exploring important curatorial, collection and arts management issues. Particularly vexing is how the WKCD fits into Hong Kong’s cultural landscape and how Hong Kong’s two government-run museums, the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and their staff, will fit into Hong Kong’s museums structure after the new WKCD museum (temporarily named M+) opens.
Overseas institutions, such as the Pompidou Centre, continue to hover in the hope of playing a curatorial or operational role in this cash-rich project. But the planning of this massive arts project is mainly hindered by government reticence to not appoint a smaller and more flexible supervisory board (the WKCD Authority) and a staff of critical thinkers led by a passionate public figure who demonstrably loves the arts.
Hong Kong artists have generally watched the machinations of the arts bureaucrats from the sidelines, but recently Chow Chun-fai’s cutting video using a Hong Kong Government Information Services Department styled ‘promo’ about the WKCD that retains the original dialogue but uses a sequence of his own paintings makes a whimsical statement about the entire project. Likewise, Doris Wong Wai Yin uses the government’s initial open design competition to depict a series of museums using the individual artistic styles of well-known Hong Kong artists as inspiration; her ‘Hong Kong Artist Museums’ series of paintings are pure fantasy; but they contain the necessary spirit of passion and flair lacking thus far for a successful completion of this large project. (2)
In the middle of April 2009, well-known Hong Kong businessman David Tang organized ‘How we can make a success of it’, a seminar comprising eight invited art world luminaries that challenged government plans for the WKCD. As Tang explained, ‘I thought the best way to influence the government was to not talk to them (as I had been doing that already for 5 years)’. The seminar reiterated many of the practical ‘software’ issues previously highlighted by Hong Kong’s own arts community, but its timing may have come at the right moment, as media and public criticism continues of the government’s bulldozer approach to the project and its failure to look at quality arts and cultural delivery. (3)
It appears difficult to imagine that Hong Kong’s decision-makers will backtrack and unravel its own statutory appointed WKCD Authority and the provisions of the unimaginative WKCD Authority Ordinance, but until this happens then public criticism will continue and the only certainty in this saga is that the saga will continue.
Originally published in Art in Asia, May-June 2009, p 22.
Notes:
1. See: http://www.wkcdauthority.hk
2. Chow Chun-fai, “Repainting ‘A Cultural district in the making, the West Kowloon Cultural District’”, video, 1min20 sec, 2007. See: http://www.chowchunfai.com/artwork_videopainting_wkcd.html
and Doris Wong Wai Yin, ‘Hong Kong Artist Museum’, acrylic on board, 25 pieces, 50x50cm each, 2008 and ‘If you have money, build HK a museum’, sculpture & C-type prints, 2007 at: http://wwy.hk/index_eng.htm and http://wwy.hk/artworks.htm
3. David Tang quoted in ‘What’s On Your Mind?’, a South China Morning Post promotion video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ROHg9yd6U0 ; also see an excerpt from ‘How we can make a success of it’ seminar held at Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts Theatre on 18 April 2009 at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bpqGSxWtMY&feature=fvsr
Tsui Hark’s criticism sparked a wave of media interest in the WKCD project and due to persistent criticism of government indecision led to an important full day forum involving the arts community opened by then Chief Secretary, now Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang. This forum was an early example of the arts community questioning the ‘software’ of the project e.g. the governance of the site, the importance of freedom of expression and the independence of participating arts groups, museums’ collection policy etc while the government preferred to discuss the easier topic of ‘hardware’, the physical buildings to be built for this ‘major infrastructure project’.
The original design plans for the WKCD were based on an open design competition won by the British architectural firm of Norman Foster & Partners, however the initial design parameters were deemed restrictive by the bidding property developers and they declined to be further involved on learning of the US$2.8 billion deposit needed to maintain their bids to be short-listed to design and build the project.
The next two years saw lengthy public consultations, reports from appointed advisory committees, blunt and sustained advice from members of the arts community and open enquiries from a special WKCD committee formed by Hong Kong’s legislative body, the Legislative Council. The Hong Kong Government ignored much of this advice and recently pushed through its preferred version of the WKCD Ordinance which sets up the legal entity to build and manage the project - now in place is an unwieldy management structure stacked with 21 government appointees to the WKCD Authority (with only one having relevant arts-industry experience) and supported by a conservative public service bureaucracy appointed as an overseeing secretariat.
As the protracted WKCD saga has played out over the last four years hopes by the arts community for a considered approach by government to this arts precinct have fallen as the focus continues to be on the physical buildings to be built and their ‘look’ rather than exploring important curatorial, collection and arts management issues. Particularly vexing is how the WKCD fits into Hong Kong’s cultural landscape and how Hong Kong’s two government-run museums, the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and their staff, will fit into Hong Kong’s museums structure after the new WKCD museum (temporarily named M+) opens.
Overseas institutions, such as the Pompidou Centre, continue to hover in the hope of playing a curatorial or operational role in this cash-rich project. But the planning of this massive arts project is mainly hindered by government reticence to not appoint a smaller and more flexible supervisory board (the WKCD Authority) and a staff of critical thinkers led by a passionate public figure who demonstrably loves the arts.
Hong Kong artists have generally watched the machinations of the arts bureaucrats from the sidelines, but recently Chow Chun-fai’s cutting video using a Hong Kong Government Information Services Department styled ‘promo’ about the WKCD that retains the original dialogue but uses a sequence of his own paintings makes a whimsical statement about the entire project. Likewise, Doris Wong Wai Yin uses the government’s initial open design competition to depict a series of museums using the individual artistic styles of well-known Hong Kong artists as inspiration; her ‘Hong Kong Artist Museums’ series of paintings are pure fantasy; but they contain the necessary spirit of passion and flair lacking thus far for a successful completion of this large project. (2)
In the middle of April 2009, well-known Hong Kong businessman David Tang organized ‘How we can make a success of it’, a seminar comprising eight invited art world luminaries that challenged government plans for the WKCD. As Tang explained, ‘I thought the best way to influence the government was to not talk to them (as I had been doing that already for 5 years)’. The seminar reiterated many of the practical ‘software’ issues previously highlighted by Hong Kong’s own arts community, but its timing may have come at the right moment, as media and public criticism continues of the government’s bulldozer approach to the project and its failure to look at quality arts and cultural delivery. (3)
It appears difficult to imagine that Hong Kong’s decision-makers will backtrack and unravel its own statutory appointed WKCD Authority and the provisions of the unimaginative WKCD Authority Ordinance, but until this happens then public criticism will continue and the only certainty in this saga is that the saga will continue.
Originally published in Art in Asia, May-June 2009, p 22.
Notes:
1. See: http://www.wkcdauthority.hk
2. Chow Chun-fai, “Repainting ‘A Cultural district in the making, the West Kowloon Cultural District’”, video, 1min20 sec, 2007. See: http://www.chowchunfai.com/artwork_videopainting_wkcd.html
and Doris Wong Wai Yin, ‘Hong Kong Artist Museum’, acrylic on board, 25 pieces, 50x50cm each, 2008 and ‘If you have money, build HK a museum’, sculpture & C-type prints, 2007 at: http://wwy.hk/index_eng.htm and http://wwy.hk/artworks.htm
3. David Tang quoted in ‘What’s On Your Mind?’, a South China Morning Post promotion video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ROHg9yd6U0 ; also see an excerpt from ‘How we can make a success of it’ seminar held at Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts Theatre on 18 April 2009 at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bpqGSxWtMY&feature=fvsr
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