Public Art in the Private City: Control, Complicity and Criticality in Hong Kong

Lara Van Meeteren,Bart Wissink

doi:10.1515/opphil-2019-0020

Abstract

Abstract Responding to Open Philosophy’s call ‘Does public art have to be bad art?’, in this paper we argue that this discussion should pay attention to the consequences of structural transformations that guide the production and presentation of public art in today’s increasingly private city. While entrepreneurial governance and corporate branding strategies generate new opportunities, they might also result in increased risk averseness and control over the content of public art, thus putting its critical potential at risk. That observation ushers in urgent questions about control, complicity and criticality. We aim to reflect on those questions through two public art projects in Hong Kong: Antony Gormley’s Event Horizon (2015) and Our 60-second friendship begins now (2016) by Sampson Wong Yu-hin and Jason Lam Chi-fai. After drawing conclusions on the justification of public funding for co-productions, the legitimacy for artists to sometimes not ‘follow the rules’, and the problematic nature of a narrow definition of professionalism as a means to discredit artists, our analysis underlines the urgent need to develop a framework that can guide discussions on the consequences of control and complicity for the critical potential of public art.

Highlights

Responding to Open Philosophy’s call ‘Does public art have to be bad art?’, in this paper we argue that this discussion should pay attention to the consequences of structural transformations that guide the production and presentation of public art in today’s increasingly private city
While entrepreneurial governance and corporate branding strategies generate new opportunities, they might result in increased risk averseness and control over the content of public art, putting its critical potential at risk
We aim to reflect on those questions through two public art projects in Hong Kong: Antony Gormley’s Event Horizon (2015) and Our 60-second friendship begins (2016) by Sampson Wong Yu-hin and Jason Lam Chi-fai

Summary

Introduction

What are the possibilities for critical public art in an increasingly private city? In response to Open Philosophy’s call for papers, in this contribution we argue that this should be one of the central questions in the discussion about public art today. This ‘new genre public art’ uses “traditional and non-traditional media to communicate and interact with a broad and diversified audience about issues directly relevant to their lives.”[5] It does not focus on the production of objects, but instead aims to employ art to reinvigorate the public sphere by attacking existing social boundaries, thereby affecting specific audiences While distinct in their approaches, these three practices have in common that they result in art that is visible in public space, where it engages a diverse, and often unexpecting audience. Our conclusion will underline the urgent need for a framework that can guide discussions on the consequences of control and complicity for the critical potential of public art in the private city

Art and the enrichment economy

Public art in Hong Kong

Critical public art in the private city

The public funding of co-productions

The legitimacy for artists to sometimes not ‘follow the rules’

The problematic nature of a narrow definition of professionalism