17 Jun 2015

Open Saturday, Asia Art Archive’s (AAA) day-long programme for the public returns for its second edition on 4 July 2015 with ‘Sea of Stories’ (SOS). This year’s programme lines up a wide array of activities at AAA and in the Sheung Wan neighbourhood ranging from a radio broadcast, bookmaking, pop-up storefront, screenings, performances, tours, and workshops to allow audiences to unlock secrets and re-imagine narratives.

Open Saturday begins with a thematic talk titled Word on the Street: Art in the Urban Playground to trace the legacy of ink art, calligraphy, and related forms like graffiti in contemporary art, exhibitions, collections, writing, street culture, and Hong Kong’s urban vernacular. Invited speakers include Aric Chen, curator of Design and Architecture, M+; Ocean Leung, artist; Elaine Lin, AAA Collection Manager; and Stan Wu, Co-director, HKwalls.

Hong Kong-based artist Frog King leads an interactive workshop Experimental Calligraphy Big Re-action to explore ink as a medium in the creation of art today. The workshop references the concept behind an experimental happening by the artist in 1977 with students from Hong Kong Polytechnic University. A sharing session on Frog King’s art practice and his personal archive in the AAA Collection will follow the workshop.

Sound and media artist Samson Young mines AAA’s collection of audio material to conduct live broadcasts from a radio station installed inside AAA called AAAFM99.3. The project will be documented by AAA’s e-journal Field Notes and is part of 15 Invitations, AAA’s 15-Year Anniversary programme.

PageNEXT, a group of AAA volunteers consisting of tertiary students and graduates, presents Summer Night Screening. Members of the public are encouraged to submit their original short films and videos to PageNEXT. Selected works will be screened in the evening of Open Saturday side by side with videos from AAA’s collection to begin new dialogues and stories.