Artist

Samson Young

Samson Young (Hong Kong, born 1979) is an artist and composer based in Hong Kong. Young’ diverse practice draws from the avant-garde compositional traditions of aleatoric music, musique concrète, and graphic notation. Behind each project is an extensive process of research, involving a mapping of the process through a series of ‘sound sketches’ and audio recordings. His drawing, radio broadcast, performance and composition touch upon the recurring topics of conflict, war, and political frontiers. Young was the inaugural winner of the BMW Art Journey Award at the Art Basel Hong Kong 2015. His recent solo projects include Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan (2015); Team Gallery, New York (2015); Para Site, Hong Kong (2016); Experimenter, India (2016); and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany (2016).

As a practising musician, Young is the member of multiple bands and has collaborated with ensembles and orchestras worldwide. He has participated in international music and performing art festivals including Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Darmstadt; Fusebox Festival, Austin; New York Electronic Art Festival, New York; Tonlagen Festival, Dresden; Transart Festival, Bolzano; and MONA FOMA Festival of Music and Art.

Curators

Guest Curator: Ying Kwok

Ying Kwok is an independent curator who is noted for her inventive curatorial approach, often centered on ‘boundaries of collaboration’ between curators, artists, and the wider community. She is the curator of the Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester in the UK between 2006 and 2012. Since 2013, Kwok became an independent curator working internationally. She co-curated Harmonious Society, as part of Asia Triennial Manchester 2014, From longing to belonging with Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art in Poland in 2014 and 2016; and recently No cause for alarm at La MaMa Galleria in New York 2016. In 2015, Kwok was awarded the Asia Cultural Council Fellowship to carry out a five-month- long research on participatory and engagement projects in the US. To encourage critical thinking and initiating effective discussions in Hong Kong, Kwok founded the Art Appraisal Club with a group of local art professionals in 2014. They first launch their biannual and bilingual journal Art Review Hong Kong in 2016. Apart from that, the group also provides regular exhibition reviews which are published in magazines and various cultural networks.

Consulting Curator: Doryun Chong

Doryun Chong is the Deputy Director and Chief Curator at M+, a museum of visual culture in Hong Kong. Chong oversees all aspects of curatorial activities of M+, including collection, exhibitions and symposiums, as well as learning and interpretation. Prior to joining M+, he held curatorial positions at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York from 2009 to 2013; the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis from 2003 and 2009; and at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. He served as the coordinator for the Korean Pavilion exhibition at the 2001 Venice Biennale and co-curated Tsang Kin-wah: The Infinite Nothing, Hong Kong’s participation in the 56th Venice Biennale.

Co‑Presenters

M+

Hong Kong’s museum for visual culture – encompassing 20th and 21st century art, design, and architecture, and moving image from Hong Kong, China, Asia, and beyond – M+ will be one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary visual culture in the world. Located adjacent to the Art Park on the waterfront, the museum building, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, is scheduled to open in 2019.
To find out more about M+, please visit www.westkowloon.hk/mplus.

West Kowloon Cultural District

Located on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, the West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong. With a complex of theatres, performance spaces, and M+, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances, and cultural events, as well as provide 23 hectares of public open space, including a two kilometre waterfront promenade.
To find out more about West Kowloon Cultural District, please visit www.westkowloon.hk.

Hong Kong Arts Development Council

Established in 1995, the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) is a statutory body set up by the Government to support the broad development of the arts in Hong Kong. The major roles of HKADC are to fund, promote and support the broad development of the arts including literary arts, performing arts, visual arts as well as film and media arts in Hong Kong. Aiming to foster a thriving arts environment and enhancing the quality of life of the public, HKADC is also committed to facilitating community-wide participation in the arts and arts education, encouraging arts criticism, raising the standard of arts administration and strengthening the work on policy research.

Major development strategies:

• Supporting promising artists and arts groups in the pursuit of excellence
• Promoting arts administration to improve the management of arts groups
• Focusing on the arts environment and proposing policy recommendations
• Enhancing public participation and exploring arts space
• Fostering strategic partnerships and bringing arts resources together

HKADC has taken part in the International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia since 2001, with an aim to enhance exchange and communication between Hong Kong and other countries in the world. About 532,000 people have visited the past eight exhibitions.
To find out more about HKADC, please visit www.hkadc.org.hk.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Samson Young (Hong Kong, born 1979) is a multidisciplinary artist with a background in classical music and composition. His works range from drawings, videos and mixed media installations, to multimedia walks and performances. For the 57th Venice Biennale, Young has created a new body of work that attempts to reframe the popularization of ‘charity singles’ – purpose-made recordings for charitable causes, featuring a super-group of artists – as a historic ‘event’ and a culturally transformative moment. Charity singles were most widespread in the 1980s, and coincided with the rise of neoliberalism and the global popular music industry. In 2014, Bob Geldof and a new group of artists attempted a remake of the iconic Do They Know It’s Christmas to support West African nations in their fight against Ebola. A perceived ‘out-of-timeness’ of the contemporary remake left a mark on Young’s consciousness, setting him on a course of research that informed this exhibition.

Through a deliberate repurposing and creative misreading of such iconic titles as We Are the World and Do They Know It's Christmas, the artist generates a series of objects, works on paper, and multi-room sound and video installations that together constitute a unique audio-visual experience. The exhibition is conceived of as an album unfolding in space to be experienced in person. In here, the logic of conventional charity songs are blurred or left behind, the coded conventions are upturned or abandoned. The artist is not presenting us with merely a critique of cultural artefacts. Rather, he is simultaneously exploring the troubling ideologies as well as the genuine affective qualities that these songs and their aspirations embodied, thus bringing together many political vantage points in a cross-cultural context.

Artworks

• 1

  Palazzo Gundane (homage to the myth-maker who fell to earth)

  Silk-screen print and felt tip pen on vinyl records, 3D-printed nylon, vitrine of found objects, movable curtain system, neon, video, animation and 10-channel sound installation

• 2

  We Are the World, as performed by the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions Choir

  Video and multi-channel sound installation

• 3

  Risers

  Neon and modular chorus risers (wood, water-resistant carpet)

• 4

  Lullaby (World Music)

  Video, soundtrack and stainless steel

Catalogue

Samson Young: Songs for Disaster Relief
Hong Kong in Venice

Authors: Doryun Chong, Seth Kim-Cohen, Ying Kwok, Anthony Leung Po-shan, Samson Young
Publisher: M+, West Kowloon Cultural District
ISBN: 978-988-16240-6-2
Language: English and Chinese
Retail Price: HKD 220
No. of Pages: 262

This illustrated catalogue was published in conjunction with Samson Young: Songs for Disaster Relief, a solo exhibition by Hong Kong artist Samson Young at the 57th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia. With contributions from Samson Young, Doryun Chong, Seth Kim-Cohen, Ying Kwok and Anthony Leung Po-Shan.

Visit

Blog

As part of its commitment to nurture local talent interested in working in the visual art field, M+ and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council have launched an internship programme for the 57th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, offering interns the chance to gain unique insight into the workings of the world’s oldest and most renowned international art exhibition. The programme will begin in May, and will be arranged in two divisions, inviting two technical and ten exhibition interns to join the M+ team.

Meet our interns and learn about their experiences while they work with us in Venice through their blog posts.

Venice Biennale

The Venice Biennale, founded in 1895, has been one of the most important cultural institutions in the world. Covering a wide range of disciplines, including art, architecture, cinema, dance, music and theatre, it aims to promote new artistic trends in contemporary arts. The documentation of its main activities is contained in its own Contemporary Arts Archive, which is a key point of reference for the study of contemporary arts.

For more information, please visit www.labiennale.org

Past Exhibitions

Since Hong Kong’s debut in 2001, the goal has always been to use the Venice Biennale as a platform to promote Hong Kong artists on the global stage. The past participating visual art artists include Lee Kit, Kwok Mang-ho (Frog King), Pak Sheung Chuen, MAP Office, Hiram To, Amy Cheung, anothermountainman, Chan Yuk-keung, Para/Site Collective, Ho Siu-kee, Leung Chi-wo and Ellen Pau.

The 57th Venice Biennale is the third collaboration between M+ and ADC, following the acclaimed reviews for Lee Kit - You (you). in 2013 and Tsang Kin-wah: The Infinite Nothing in 2015, on this representation of Hong Kong contemporary art at one of the most important international platforms.

Hong Kong Talk Series

This series of talks takes Samson Young’s artistic practice and his diverse influences as a starting point to expand public understanding about key concepts in contemporary art, as well as provide greater context for Young’s newly commissioned work for Venice.

An Album Unfolding in Space:
Conversation with the Curator
13.06.2017

Date: 13 June 2017 (Tue)
Speakers: Anthony Leung Po-shan and Ying Kwok
Moderator: Sonia So, Assistant Curator, M+
Language: Cantonese, with simultaneous interpretation in English
Time: 7:30–9:00pm
Venue: Miller Theatre, Asia Society Hong Kong Center, 9 Justice Drive, Admiralty, Hong Kong
Enquiries: 2200 0310 or angel.hui@mplus.org.hk
Free admission

Register now

Adverse Weather Arrangement

Programme will be cancelled if a black rainstorm warning or a typhoon signal no. 8 or above is still in force 3 hours before the event starts.
*The organiser reserves the right to change the programme and artists. All changes will be announced on the website.

About the speakers

Anthony Leung Po-shan

Belonging to the last generation of university of students under the colonial rule, Leung studied Fine Arts at The Chinese University of Hong Kong but witnessed the Handover as a reporter. Weaving through art and politics. She was a member of Para/Site Art Space and In-Media (Hong Kong). She is a PhD in Cultural Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and the founding member of Hong Kong Culture Monitor. Her research interests include, among others, artistic labour, city space and cultural politics. Her essays and commentaries have been published in the Hong Kong Economic Journal, InMedia (Hong Kong), City Magazine, Leap, etc. Publications edited by her include Modern Art in a Colony: Narrated by Hon Chi-fan at the Millennium, Odd One In: Hong Kong Diary (by Pak Sheung-cheun), QK – Specimen Collection of Chan Yuk-keung, The Red Twenty-years of Ricky Yeung Sau-churk, etc.

Ying Kwok, Guest Curator, M+

Since 2013, Kwok became an independent curator working internationally. She co-curated Harmonious Society, as part of Asia Triennial Manchester 2014, From longing to belonging with Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art in Poland in 2014 and 2016; and recently No cause for alarm at La MaMa Galleria in New York 2016. In 2015, Kwok was awarded the Asia Cultural Council Fellowship to carry out a five-month- long research on participatory and engagement projects in the US. To encourage critical thinking and initiating effective discussions in Hong Kong, Kwok founded the Art Appraisal Club with a group of local art professionals in 2014. They first launch their biannual and bilingual journal Art Review Hong Kong in 2016. Apart from that, the group also provides regular exhibition reviews which are published in magazines and various cultural networks.

Press Enquiries

West Kowloon Cultural District Authority

Louie Tong
Manager, Communications and Public Affairs
+852 2200-0716 / +852 6608-0909
louie.tong@wkcda.hk

Hong Kong Arts Development Council

Emily Hui
Manager, Arts Promotion and Communications Hong Kong Arts Development Council
+852 2820-1067
emily_hui@hkadc.org.hk

International

SUTTON
Sybil Kot
+852 2528-0792
wkcda@suttonpr.com

Press Releases

Samson Young: Songs for Disaster Relief, Hong Kong in Venice