Asia Art Archive and Para Site jointly present an afternoon of programmes that frame Para Site’s current exhibition ‘Great Crescent: Art and Agitation in the 1960s – Japan, South Korea and Taiwan,’ co-organised by Para Site and the curatorial initiative A Future Museum for China, with Lesley Ma.

Choi Boong-hyun et al. Happening with a Plastic Umbrella and Candles. December 14 (4 pm), 1967, Seoul.
Choi Boong-hyun et al. Happening with a Plastic Umbrella and Candles. December 14 (4 pm), 1967, Seoul.
Copyright and courtesy Korean Art Research Institute.

Part 1 The Great Crescent
Time: 2.30 – 4pm

The Great Crescent



In this panel, curators and scholars share their research on the different historical contexts in Korea, Japan and Taiwan that have informed the exhibition. Panelists include curators Doryun Chong and Lesley Ma, and art historian Dr. MiKyung Kim. This panel is moderated by Cosmin Costinas.

Doryun Chong is Chief Curator at M+ Hong Kong. Previously Chong was associate curator of painting and sculpture at MoMA, where he acquired works for the museum’s collection, organised contemporary exhibitions such as ‘Bruce Nauman: Days’ (2010), ‘Projects 94: Henrik Olesen’ (2011), and ‘Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde’ (2012), and co-edited From Postwar to Postmodern, Art in Japan, 1945-1989: Primary Documents (MoMA, New York, 2013).

Cosmin Costinas is Executive Director and Curator of Para Site, Hong Kong. Amongst the exhibitions he has organised since joining Para Site in 2011 are ‘A Journal of the Plague Year. Fear, ghosts, rebels. SARS, Leslie and the Hong Kong story’ (2013) and ‘Taiping Tianguo, A History of Possible Encounters: Ai Weiwei, Frog King Kwok, Tehching Hsieh, and Martin Wong in New York’ (ongoing), which is currently on view at e-flux in New York.

Dr. MiKyung Kim is Director of Korean Art Research Institute (KARI) and Professor at Kangnam University, Korea. Exhibitions she organised include ‘Depaysement (Blooming the City, Korean culture and art phenomenon)’ in 2011. Dr. Kim is also the author of Meta critique on Korean Painting of 60 years (KARI ART, Seoul: Korea, 2008), Encountering Lee Ufan on the path of Mono-ha (Gonggan sa, Seoul: Korea, 2006), A historical sketch of Korean Modern Art-Reading with politics, economics and society (ICAS, Seoul: Korea, 2003) and Experimental Art in Korea (Sigong Sa, Seoul: Korea, 2003)

Lesley Ma is the Ink Curator at M+ and Managing Editor at Para Site, Hong Kong. At M+ she is developing exhibitions and building the museum’s ink art collection and related public programming. A PhD candidate in Art History, Theory, and Criticism at the University of California San Diego, Ma is researching postwar abstract painting in Taiwan.

 

Part 2 Left Out
Time: 4.15 – 5.30pm

Left Out



This panel takes ‘The Great Crescent’ exhibition as a point of departure for a consideration of the different social and cultural realities of 1960s Hong Kong, and explores how these forces shape artistic practices in that period. The panel includes political scientist Ray Yep, art historian Sophia Law and cultural historian Zheng Lei, and is moderated by Michelle Wong.

Sophia Law is Associate Professor of Visual Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong. Law’s recent work focuses on art and community. She has also conducted research on the Hong Kong calligraphy magazine Shupu, as well as the Hong Kong-based socialist realist painter Ma Jia Bao (1927-1985).

Michelle Wong is a researcher at Asia Art Archive. She leads the Archive’s research projects in Hong Kong, including the recently launched Hong Kong art history research pilot project, in collaboration with the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Trained in music and philosophy before pursuing art history, Wong’s research interests include mapping, magazines, and the intersections of sound, space and technology.

Ray Yep is Professor and Assistant Head of the Public Policy Department, City University of Hong Kong. He is a political scientist by training, specialising in the study of the political economy surrounding China’s reforms, late colonial governance of Hong Kong, and contentious politics. He is co-editor with Robert Bickers of May Day in Hong Kong: Riot and Emergency in 1967 (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009). Yep is also Research Director of the think tank Synergy Net.

Zheng Lei is currently Lecturer at HKU SPACE Community College, teaching Chinese general courses and Modern Chinese Literature. She completed her PhD at Lingnan University in 2012, researching Hong Kong modernist literature and literary thought in the 1950s and 60s, with a focus on the Hong Kong Modern Literature & Art Association.

 

 

This programme is jointly presented by Asia Art Archive and Para Site.

 

 

Relevant content

Great Crescent: Art and Agitation in the 1960s - Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan
Great Crescent: Art and Agitation in the 1960s - Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan
Exhibition Catalogue

Great Crescent: Art and Agitation in the 1960s - Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan

大新月: 六十年代的藝術與激盪 - 日本, 南韓, 台灣
2014