ABOUT

EXPERIMENTA: an incubator for the arts

...a meeting point for artists, curators and writers from different subjects

...a testing ground or a starting point for graduates and young, emerging art practitioners

Introduction

The motivation for Experimenta is to produce shows and to instigate collaborations which would otherwise not happen, not because they are not worth making, but probably difficult to fit in the current structure of the art scene.

Experimenta provides a space for young, unknown, or emerging artists to exhibit their works. It is a place where they come together for meaningful discussion of their work-in-progress projects. “Experimenta” is a platform for in-depth discussion for on-going artistic experimentations, and to promote free exchange of ideas.

As a trans-disciplinary platform, we embrace all kinds of visual and media arts, and seek input from various disciplines such as literature, critical theory, cultural studies, history, technology and sciences.

In recent years, individual small studios is formed by students or young people in various places in Hong Kong, but there are no places where their works could be shown to an interested and relevant audience. There are also few places where academics researching for their Master’s degree or Ph.D. could share their work with an interested audience. Through the experience and network of the Experimenta team, we hope to invite audiences that are different each time, depending on the subjects to be presented, to start discussion for the artists’ work.

Experimenta plans to promote its activities and call for proposal mainly through its web site.

Three main types of events held :

1. OPEN FORUM: WORK-IN-PROGRESS
   
   Work-in-progress sessions at Experimenta give the young and aspiring or merely aspiring curators and artists to tell the world about their next great ideas. We at Experimenta will invite guests from relevant fields to participate these sessions. These artists can solicit views from an interested audience before the final publication of their works, or young curators with a maturing plan may talk about their concepts and generate opportunities to realize their exhibitions. Artists and curators are given a chance to take their projects a step further.
   
   
2. EXHIBITION TESTERS
   
   These are roughly 14-day long to month long exhibitions for first time artists and curators to present their artistic ideas which otherwise would not have a chance to showcase in Hong Kong. These ideas may be lesser known in the on-going independent art space but nevertheless worth examining. Experimenta wants to become a testing ground for these artists. But Experimenta is not about just providing a physical space for them. For these young artists, the Experimenta team would invite them for a workshop to develop their curatorial statement or to talk about their ideas before the presentation or the show. So in a way, Experimenta is like an incubator for new and young artists.
   
   
3. SHORT TOPICS
   These are short lectures for art critics, historians and theorists to present their writings-in- progress to solicit exchange.
   
   While more and more big and small venues are now available for publication/exhibition of works, our general sentiment is to make space for in-depth discussion, encourage dialogue across sectors of the art community, think out of the box of genre boundaries, and to turn inter-disciplinarity into realities.

If you have an idea or a project that shares our sentiments, contact us: gina@experimenta-space.net OR linda@experimenta-space.net

For questions on web content, please contact web-editor Linda Lai at linda@experimenta-space.net

People Behind Experimenta

LAI Chiu-han Linda

A Ph.D. in Cinema Studies (NYU) and full-time faculty at the City University of Hong Kong's School of Creative Media, Linda has been a writer, trans-disciplinary artist and independent curator for contemporary media art, and an active symposium speaker. Her works have a strong concern for language and micro/meta-narrativity, grounded in a feminist sensibility that integrates critical theory, film theories, visual ethnography and history-writing. She has taught a broad range of courses, including creative writing, cultural studies subjects, contemporary art, sonic art, generative art and literature, film history, narrative explorations and concept-driven workshops on video art and film theories. She had been a juror of IFVA, the Bloomberg Emerging Artists Program, and advisor to the Museum of Art and ADC's Media Art sector. She is the founder and currently Artistic Director of the Writing Machine Collective. Her video art, installation and digital works have been shown in funded exhibitions in Hong Kong and in art and film/video festivals in Paris, Oberhausen, Barcelona, Taipei, New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur and Kaohsiung. Of the various publications she has completed, her personal favorites are two art-books -- Crypto-glyph: Dialogues in Many Tongues in the Hidden Crevices of an Open City (2004) with Theresa Junko Mikuriya, and [Re-]fabrication: Choi Yan-chi’s 30 Years, the paths for interdisciplinarity in art (1975-2005) (2007) researched and created for Para/Site Art Space. In her capacity as a teacher and artist, Linda has worked with many young and aspiring art practitioners in Hong Kong. http://sweb.cityu.edu.hk/smllai/index.html

WONG See-yuen Gina

Yuen graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science and the University of Hong Kong. She lives and works in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Linda and Gina have very different experiences and background. The Experimenta team expects to build a broad network of talents and expertise in which various disciplines would intersect.