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Small Acts / New Flows
Para Site The Alternative School/
Workshops for Emerging Arts Professionals

小步.新流
Para Site 界外學園/新銳藝術人才工作坊

Presented by Para Site

​The Alternative School: Small Acts (7 September–6 October 2024)
Workshops for Emerging Arts Professionals: New Flows (23–30 September 2024)
Small Acts / New Flows – A Public Gathering (29 September 2024)

界外學園:小步(2024年9月7日至10月6日)
新銳藝術人才工作坊:新流(2024年9月23至30日)
公眾分享會(2024年9月29日)

How can the arts participate in developing practices and cultures of sustainable worlding? The global ecological crisis is amplifying the interconnectedness of all living things, as the planet’s ecosystem strains under the weight of historical capitalism and geopolitical conflict. But discussions and interventions across geographies and disciplines responding to this era of polycrisis are often perceived as remote, as governments and corporations seemingly prioritise profit over sustainability and everyday struggles. Small Acts / New Flows reflects on that problem by considering small steps as actions that embody the common saying: the only way out is through.

 

Taking a fluid and networked approach to the act of learning, Small Acts / New Flows unfolds across three interconnected parts: The Alternative School, a four-week syllabus of workshops designed and led by invited artists and collectives focusing on ecology; Workshops for Emerging Arts Professionals, a one-week programme of close-door exchanges exploring the politics and ethics of institutional labour and sustainability in the arts; and Public Gathering, a forum convened by participants in both programmes.  

 

The Alternative School: Small Acts (7 September–6 October 2024) foregrounds communities exploring issues of ecology through art and urban design via public engagement activities intended to activate a multi-sensory experience of knowledge transfer. Workshops, guided tours, and field trips anchored to the themes of ‘Learning from The Ground Up’, ‘Interspecies Coexistence’, and ‘Grounding in Daily Practices’ will be led by artists, art practitioners and designers including Hong Kong Soil by TMML, Urban Diary, Chris Michael Owen, Fredie Chan Ho-lun, Hong Kong Bird Watching Society, Theadora Leung, Wong Pik-kei, Catherine Clover, Yip Kai-chun, Wayla Amatathammachad, Dr. Tommy Hui, Brian Wong and Wanwu Practice Group. Taking place in Para Site’s tenth-floor annex Learning Space and Hong Kong’s outlying islands, participants will learn to take small steps to connect to the living environment and with other species, resituate themselves within the ecosystem, and consider how to translate their experiences into everyday habits.

 

Workshops for Emerging Arts Professionals: New Flows (23–30 September 2024) is a laboratory for emerging arts professionals to reflect on the arts ecosystem and their role and agency within it. Adopting a circular model of exchange, leading figures in the field will host exchanges and workshops in Para Site’s Learning Space alongside off-site visits, interrogating the ethics of art work, diasporic solidarity, collaborative models, institutional forms, and sustainable futures. Facilitators include Adeline Ooi, who has directed initiatives to position Hong Kong, and Asia more broadly, into a crucial art world meeting point; Mai Abu ElDahab, director of Mophradat, a non-profit association supporting artists from the Arab world, generating inventive approaches to funding, commissioning, collaborating, and gathering; Guangzhou-based artist collective BOLOHO, now participating in CHAT’s Seed to Textile programme; Cem A, the artist behind @freeze_magazine; and Sakiya, a progressive academy connecting art, science, and agriculture in Palestine and beyond. Throughout, participants will consider the idea of professionalism after professionalisation and explore ways of practising together.

 

Small Acts / New Flows – A Public Gathering (29 September 2024) functions as both a culmination and point of departure. The Public Gathering is an afternoon forum that invites Alternative School and Workshops for Emerging Arts Professionals participants and facilitators to share ideas and learnings that have emerged throughout both programmes with the public, connecting ideas of collective institution building and community engagement with ecological practice. 

 

Para Site Alternative School / Workshops for Emerging Arts Professionals 2024: Small Acts / New Flows is generously supported by the S. H. Ho Foundation Limited. The programme is curated by Alice Wong and Stephanie Bailey in collaboration with Billy Tang, Celia Ho, Jessie Kwok, and Stefan Luk of Para Site.

 

藝術如何能夠參與可持續性全球化的實踐與文化發展?全球生態危機正持續強化物種之間的聯繫,與此同時,地球的生態系統在歷史性資本主義與地緣政治的威脅下岌岌可危。然而,當管治者與企業似乎將盈利置於可持續發展及日常挑戰之上,應對當前多重危機的跨地域、跨學科討論與介入彷彿遙不可及。「小步.新流」從以上命題出發,思考微小的行動如何實現「前進是唯一出路」這格言。

「小步.新流」將以流動、互聯的學習方式,在三個相關連的章節中展開:為期約一個月的「界外學園」將透過一系列由藝術家及團體帶領的工作坊,聚焦研習生態議題;為期八日的「新銳藝術人才工作坊」將在連串閉門交流中,深入探討機構勞工的政治與道德,以及藝術生態的可持續性;以上兩個項目的參加者將於計劃尾聲舉辦一場公眾分享會。

「界外學園:小步」(2024年9月7日至10月6日)關注透過藝術與城市規劃探討生態議題的社群——他們致力透過公眾參與活動,推動涉獵多重感官的知識傳遞。計劃中的工作坊、導賞團及田野考察將圍繞「從根本學習」、「跨物種共存」、「植根於日常」三個主題展開。參與藝術家、藝文工作者及團體包括透明未來「香港土磚」、城市日記、Chris Michael Owen、陳浩倫、香港觀鳥會、梁瑋庭、黃碧琪、Catherine Clover、葉啟俊、Wayla Amatathammachad、許天欣、黃肇鴻及萬物實踐社。以上活動將於Para Site鰂魚涌的十樓學習空間以及離島進行。參加者將學習以微小的行動與自然環境及其他物種進一步連結,重新認識自己在生態系統中的角色,並思考如何將是次經歷體現於日常生活。

「新銳藝術人才工作坊:新流」(2024年9月23至30日)為實驗工作坊,旨在為新銳藝術人才提供契機去反思藝術生態,以及藝文工作者在當中的角色與作用。工作坊採用循環交流的模式,由來自行業內的導師將於Para Site學習空間帶領交流討論及工作坊,同時透過到訪其他藝文場域,探討藝術勞動道德、流散社群連結、協作模式、組織建構與可持續未來。導師與主持包括透過不同倡議行動將香港及更廣泛亞洲地區打造成藝術界重要聚集點的黃雅君;致力推動資助、委約、協作與集結的創新模式,以支援阿拉伯語藝術家的組織Mophradat總監Mai Abu ElDahab;現正參與CHAT六廠「種學織文 2024」的廣州藝術家團體菠蘿核;@freeze_magazine迷因帳戶創辦人、迷因製作者兼藝術家Cem A;以及Sakiya,連結生態及藝術實踐的巴勒斯坦先進學院。期間,我們邀請參加者思考專業化後的專業性,藉此探索共同實踐的模式。

「小步.新流」公眾分享會(2024年9月29日)既為上述項目的總結,亦是一個新的出發點。活動邀請「界外學園」及「新銳藝術人才工作坊」參與藝術家、導師及參加者向公眾分享他們在項目期間的心得與學習成果,連繫集體建構機構、社區參與以及生態實踐。

「Para Site 界外學園/新銳藝術人才工作坊:小步.新流」由何善衡慈善基金會有限公司贊助,並由白慧怡、黃嘉淇聯同Para Site團隊曾明俊、何思穎、郭芷凝、陸其叡合作策劃。

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