Over the last few years, the city has become an art market hotspot, welcoming more and more art galleries and hosting Art Basel Hong Kong since 2012. In the face of this avalanche of investment and transactions, what position are Hong Kong artists taking? Living in the temple of liberalism and surrounded by materialism, many develop a kind of resistance toward the system and capitalistic values. This resistance does not take the form of either denial or open conflict, it is rather a quest for new values and the posing of questions on the role of the artist in society. This talk explores some of the strategies developed by the artists to move against the grain and to oppose their creative own path to the mainstream.

About the curator

Caroline Ha Thuc is a French Hong Kong based independent art writer and curator, currently a PhD candidate at CityU Hong Kong. Specialized in Asian contemporary art, she contributes regularly to different magazines such as ArtPress in France and Artomity/Cobo Social in Hong Kong. Prior to moving to Hong Kong, Ha Thuc spent two years in Tokyo and published ‘Nouvel Art Contemporain Japonais’ (Nouvelles Editions Scala 2012) about the post-Murakami Japanese art scene. Her book ‘Contemporary Art in Hong Kong’ (Asia One, 2013), which was first published in France (Nouvelles Editions Scala, 2013), provides essential keys to apprehend the city’s vibrant contemporary landscape and exposes the countless links between art, history, culture and identity. She also published a book about Chinese contemporary art analysing the interactions between the art scene and China’s rapidly changing society (‘After 2000: Contemporary Art in China’ published in French and English (2015). She is now working on a book focusing on research-based art practices and the emergence of alternative modes of knowledge production in Southeast Asia.