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They were There (no.1) (2020)

Single-channel video (Digital animation)
16:9 | HD | Colour | 10’26” | Silent

 

Hong Kong City Hall (Second Generation)

 

According to the plans in Hong Kong Public Records Office, in 1981, Hong Kong Museum of Art exhibited “Contemporary Hong Kong Art” at “City Hall Central Block”, which is indicated in the record. The Central Block was originally built as a banquet hall (Fig. 2), where socialising and dining would take place before performances in Concert Hall. In other words, the City Hall was built with public resources and the above facilities were mainly for the use of the middle and upper classes, while the library, the lobby, and the high-bay art gallery tended to be for the general public.

In 1981, Hong Kong Museum of Art curator Tam Chi-sing curated the “Hong Kong Contemporary Art Exhibition” in the City Hall’s “Central Block”. The banquet hall was transformed into a venue for art. With a tendency of being a white cube, the original tables and carpet were removed, and the concrete floor was revealed. In front of the opening speech platform, plants were lined up in pots to the corners of the white partitions and in front of the colourful oil paintings, the colours of the plants blended in with the paintings.