Hong Kong, July 2 – 11, 2016, http://www.connectingspaces.ch/
The exhibition consisted of a combination of photos of trash collected around Hong Kong and actual objects dug out from the trash. Mostly things were found on the beaches: bottle caps, parts of plastic dolls, lighters, etc. The artist collective (from Mexico) seemed to have attempted a cookie-cutter reproduction of their earlier trash projects. Or maybe it was their first attempt at making real their idealistic proposal tailored precisely to the specifications of the call for artists focused on the keyword “trash.”
On one hand, the fascination with trash is understandable, it is a twenty-first century counterpart to the romantic fascination with ruins. But getting personally high on rummaging through trash is not enough for an art exhibition. There is no doubt about TRES’ ability to shoot clear and focused photographs. Yet maybe this cool independent observer position is hard to reconcile with their intimate affection for trash. The difficulties mount if the whole project is presented within a cliché-laden eco-educational context of some foundation. Maybe TRES will proclaim that they themselves care about the environment and the future of their children’s children, but it’s hard to buy into that as it is not clearly readable from the photo-and-trash arrangements in the gallery.
A book published on the occasion shows the same issues: it is full of beautiful photographs of trash and Hong Kong. In the very back of the book in a specially separated part that looks like an afterthought there is a couple of essays by art curators and critics who are probably more versed in writing about aesthetic issues or simply dealing with art then about eco-social one’s. It is the lukewarm political correctness that makes the project melt away: no position, no demand, just an artistic romance with decay forced into a marriage out of reason with an eco-ideological agenda.
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