Curatorial statement 展覽介紹

Our living space is a small box, and the rules of allocation of living space are also like distribution of boxes. People are keen to talk about the interior of our living space as boxes, but mentally people can be limited by boxes as well, as they fail to reflect upon the rationality and justice of the distribution of living space.

How should space be distributed? It seems reasonable to mark a price for living space if one chooses to ignore social justice. In Hong Kong, like many other big cities, the rules of the allocation of housing are odd. During the first half of the last century, people without the ability to acquire living space might build their own living spaces illegally, occupying some areas within or outside of the urban area. Are they rule-breakers or victims? Public housing in Hong Kong is social welfare, which are part of the effective governance and the implement of social justice. Of course the quality between public housing and luxury private housing could be dramatically different, but most residents of public housing should be grateful.

What about people who do not get this social welfare, people continue to suffer this unfair gap between the rich and poor. The people should complaint is the street sleepers who are unable to find a private living place at all.

So our exhibition focuses on the works of Hong Kong artists and presents three types of living spaces: squatter, public housing, street sleepers. The exhibition aims to explore the relationship between the citizens and their living space in Hong Kong, with humanistic care reflect upon the allocation of living space, the related legal provisions and social governance.

生活空間是個小盒子，也像盒子般根據種種規則被分配也像盒子。人們總是熱衷談論盒子裡的個體，思考上卻鮮有跳出盒子外，反思住房分配的合理性和公正性。

社會空間應該如何分配? 居住空間有價看似合理，然而當我們使用金錢分配空間的規則時，又就很難在規則中找到錯，如果我們放棄社會公義。

上世紀前半，沒有能力獲取生活空間的會“非法” 在城市空間建造房子，他們是違規者還是受害者? 公共住屋是社會福利，亦有助有效管治，體現了管理的人性和社會正義，儘管公共房屋與私人居所在質素上可以有天淵之別。

真正需要投訴的，是那些繼續在這貧富極端中掙扎的人，而無家可歸的街頭露宿者。

這展覽以集中香港藝術家的作品，展現三種居住空間:寮屋、公屋、露宿者術頭之家。展覽以文關懷提態度，探討思考香港人與居住空間的關係，反思居住空間的分配、相關法律條文和社會管理等問題。

After the Second World War, returnees and new immigrants came to Hong Kong after taking refuge, which led to a rapidly increasing population of Hong Kong. Due to the shortage of housing and the high rent, many new immigrants lived on hillsides or open land, using iron sheets and boards to build wooden houses. At that time, about a quarter of Hong Kong residents lived in wooden houses. The Mount Davis wooden house area appeared in the 1950s when some immigrants temporarily lived in Mount Davis on the westside of HongKong Island. They were penniless and could only rely on the Mid-levels to build simple wooden houses.

This work reproduces the scenes of the old Hong Kong squatters, portraying the squatters of the colonial era, and stimulates the audience’s understanding and memories of the life of the lower class. 

第二次世界大戰結束後，逃難後回流人士和新移民紛紛來港，香港的人口急劇增加。由於房屋非常短缺，連帶租金亦很高昂。很多新移民就地在山坡或空地上，以鐵皮及木板搭建木屋居住，當時約有四分一港人住在木屋區。摩星嶺木屋區出現在50年代，當時的部分移民暫居於香港島西面的摩星嶺，他們身無分文，只能倚著半山搭建簡易的木屋棲身。 

這件作品透過對老香港寮屋的情景再現，以殖民時代的寮屋寫照，激發觀眾對那段低下階層生活的了解和回憶。 

‘Concrete Stories‘ documented stories of inhabitants on the rooftop. These marginal groups make use of possible available space in a cramped city, even the living condition is tough. The scarcity of land leads to the pull-down of all the low-rise buildings, which in order to leave space to taller and more modern ones. However, the rooftop inhabitants are either totally unaccessible or well-secured to be accessed to the new building, so they will face losing their home.

《Concrete stories》紀錄了一個個舊區大廈天台的故事。在這些舊樓的天台生活著一群特殊住戶，在這城市的狹小空間夾縫中生存，度過酷暑嚴寒。在土地問題嚴重的香港，低層舊樓推倒重建高聳住宅的情況屢見不鮮。而清拆之時，新建築高昂的房價讓他們無法繼續居住 在原區，而他們最終面臨的可能是流離失所。

< How Heavy is the Night 夜未央 > 2016
Ma Yujiang 馬玉江
Installation

The artist Ma Yujiang spent more than a year collecting the receipts of the Mcrefugees in McDonald’s and turned all the receipts into an exhibition. The receipts not only show the poverty- stricken life of the Mai refugees from the economic perspective, but also show the stories behind, which show the tough living energy of them. The “box” where the Mcrefugees live has moved to a public space, which is no longer a private residential space. This marginal group “steal” the public temporarily to survive in the cramped city.

藝術家馬玉江花費了一年多的時間在多家麥當勞收集了麥難民們的消費單據，羅列成了一個展覽。單據上不只是從消費的經濟層面上展示了麥難民清貧的生活，裡面蘊含的人與人之間的的故事從另一個角度體現出了麥難民生命的柔韌性。麥難民居住的“盒子”挪移到了公共的空間裡，不再是傳統私密的住宅空間。喪失住房資源的邊緣人群借用城市的公共空間，在偌大的城市縫隙中苟且求生。

IX

< Record 9 紀錄 9 > 2011
Chan Wai Kwong 陳偉江
Photography | 227 x 151

Photographer Chan Wai Kwong said, “Recording is the basic of being a photographer. I just want to record things around me. The intention, content or password of the photo is upto the viewer to read.” The black-and-white footage of the lives of homeless people highlights how they are incompatible with Hong Kong’s booming economy. In the social environment, they cannot fit into any boxes (home) and had to live on the street with distress.

陳偉江講到，「記錄是作為一個攝影家的基本，我不過是紀錄身邊的事情吧(罷)了。而像片的用意，內容或密碼就由觀者去讀取吧。」 他用黑白影像記錄流浪者的生活，凸顯出他們與香港繁榮經濟格格不入的景象。在社會的大環境底下，他們融入不進任何一個小盒子(家)，無家可歸的他們倒街臥巷，窘迫與生活。