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14.12—21.12.2024

Experiments in making public(s). Artistic research practices by students of HKU Master of Fine Art

In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Wang Xue Sophia (left), Mirella Moschella (right) In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Mirella Moschella In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Wang Xue Sophia (foreground), Xiang Dong Li (back) In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Xiang Dong Li In the Works: Manuals and Mess In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Sohrab Kashani In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Mirella Moschella In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Janneke Venema (right: Chen Ran) In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Janneke Venema In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Janneke Venema In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Isabel Veganzones Belmonte (left), Janneke Venema (centre), Aisha Halima Hachem (right) In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Aisha Halima Hachem In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Isabel Veganzones Belmonte In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Isabel Veganzones Belmonte In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Mark Torochkin In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Sohrab Kashani In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Changli Luo (foreground), Hannah Fleishman (back), Fleur Carlier (right) In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Hannah Fleishman In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Fleur Carlier In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Fleur Carlier In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Fleur Carlier (left), Changli Luo (foreground), Zoë Sluijs (right) In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Zoë Sluijs In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Zoë Sluijs (left), Changli Luo (foreground), Chen Ran (right), Janneke Venema (background) In the Works: Manuals and Mess – Chen Ran In the Works: Manuals and Mess – opening speech by Aisha Halima Hachem In the Works: Manuals and Mess – opening ritual by Changli Cui

Exhibition
14.12 – 22.12.2024
Wed. – Sun. 13.00 – 18.00

Opening
Friday 13 December, 17:00

In the Works: Manuals and Mess features students’ works as a temporary constellation of divergent and crossing paths within the two years of the Master of Fine Art Program at HKU University of the Arts. The works show the ongoing process of the students’ research, leading up to the graduation exhibition at the end of the academic year. In their own ways, these works also serve as archives of dwelling stories, exchanges, partial connections, disconnections, and companionships formed along the way.

The organisation of this exhibition forms a study where the students exemplify and discuss modes of presentation, dissemination, and positioning through various spatial-temporal forms. Research practices are put forward as an artistic agency to experiment and act with different ways of sharing with the wider art- and cultural ecosystems. At the heart of all this is an attempt to make public(s) and to critically interrogate the roles of lecturer and student at the art education institution. The word ‘manuals’ in the title challenges how we understand artistic (research) practices as well as art education. As there is no user manual to life, there is no manual to artistic practice either. However, during the master programme the students develop ways of relating to this absence by feeling and sensing what their own and the others’ practices need to be sustainable and vital. In public presentations, such as In the Works: Manuals and Mess, they explore together how to materialise a multiplicity of visions in a shared public space. In this process, the students make a collective effort to listen to, appreciate, acknowledge, cross-reference each other, eventually becoming a shape-shifter.

The title of the exhibition was collaged from casual yet memorable sentences uttered in class by students and lecturers and collected by the group to eventually print on t-shirts.

Participating students
Fleur Carlier, Hannah Fleishman, Aisha Halima Hachem, Sohrab Kashani, Changli Luo, Mirella Moschella, Chen Ran, Zoë Sluijs, Mark Torochkin, Isabel Veganzones Belmonte, Janneke Venema, Wang Xue Sophia, Xiang Dong Li

Guidance and coordination
Nuraini Juliastuti and Falke Pisano

Programme of events
Friday 13 December
17:00-17:30: Can I Share with You a Story from My Mother’s Side? A Ritual by Changli Cui.

Saturday 14 December
14:45-16:30: Please dance happily and freely, dancing workshop hosted by Wang Xue Sophia (max. 12 participants). Info and RSVP: Link

Sunday 15 December
15:00-16:00: Tiny, Fluffy, Sweet (work-in-progress), lecture performance + after talk by Chen Ran.
16:00-17:00: Speculative rewilding; soundscape and storytelling, listening session hosted by Zoë Sluijs.

Saturday 21 December
Please dance happily and freely, dancing workshop hosted by Wang Xue Sophia (max. 12 participants). Time and location to be confirmed. Info and RSVP: Link

Sunday 22 December
16:00-17:00: Speculative rewilding; soundscape and storytelling, listening session hosted by Zoë Sluijs.

Ongoing
Performing Mafa by Sohrab Kashani, unannounced events at, around, and with the table, organised by students, lecturers, and the public.