Para Site: “A Hundred Years of Shame” – First Impressions

Para Site: A Hundred Years of Shame – Songs of Resistance and Scenarios for Chinese Nations. Mar 06 – May 10, 2015, 22/F, Wing Wah Industrial Building, 677 King’s Road, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong (link)

The inaugural show in Para Site’s new space opened yesterday. The title of the show followed the established format of a key phrase followed by an explanatory subtitle. The theme – related to (Mainland) Chinese ideology and politics was intriguing. The format of the show was similar to previous shows – a collection of many different media, small to medium format arranged in a certain narrative.

The Para Site exhibition looked well-researched and prepared, fitting into the line with previous Para Site shows. The new, bigger space seemed to come as a challenge to the curators. It seemed they applied the usual Para Site exhibition template – research-based, a lot of small artworks and reproductions – and only slightly enlarged it. They even built in separate “little rooms” for sections of the exhibition, which pointed towards the mental imprint left behind by the previous Para Site space in Sheung Wan (and not just there, as all space is small in Hong Kong). The high concentration of smaller-size works in a small space made sense, it was concentrated energy, an essence of what the curators had to say. However now in the bigger space the same strategy lost some of its persuasive power. It was still a great show with a narrative, and I am sure the very capable team at Para Site will manage to adapt their curatorial strategies to the new space and experiment a bit more with the exhibition architecture and artwork sizes and numbers in the upcoming shows.

The theme of the show – (Mainland) Chinese ideology and politics – was quite broad, and I can imagine it could be a lot more ‘provocative’. Most artworks stayed at the level of metaphors and historical references, making sure everything stays politically correct. Here I sensed certain limits of the show this time. I understand that using metaphors and historical parallels is the typical ‘Chinese way’ of speaking about politics, and maybe the curators were trying to emulate that, but given the international audience and location in ‘free speech’ Hong Kong, they could have been more daring. Or could the cautious selection be related to the list of wealthy individual and corporate sponsors located prominently at the entrance…? I acknowledge that this perception can be also a result of my own ignorance, where e.g. I did not really know how to relate to the contents of the fictional Kang Xi record label (an assembly of Chinese music relating to discontent). I also skipped some of the quite long and small-lettered explanation labels which could have contained some further information.

As most previous Para Site shows, A Hundred Years of Shame needs it’s time, and taking it in during the opening was a bit difficult. The show is inviting and aroused my curiosity to come back, at a more calm time. Then I may be able to decipher the subtleties which I probably glanced over at first sight.

P.S.: I returned to the show later, but my feelings stayed quite the same, here are two photos, one of the main space and one detail of Kwan Sheung Chi’s work.