Platform Issue - 01
Exhibit 1
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As determined to bring a new experience of art and lifestyle to Hong Kong, as well as to provide a platform for local artists and art activities, the future of H Queen’s is definitely interesting to watch. On the website of Cl3, it reads “Dedicated to art businesses, restaurants, and retail, H Queens will transform the urban environment by creating a new focus for art and entertainment in dialogue, with its location in Hong Kong’s historic Pottinger Street.”[6] Also, on the official press release, it also reads that “H Queen’s has been dedicated to supporting the local art scene, and offering the public opportunities to engage with creative ideas right in the centre of Hong Kong.”[7] The word “local” and the term “local art scene” appear more than once, however, except for Galerie Ora-Ora, all the tenants are “non-local”. Besides the galleries, other tenants already announced include luxury watch group Audemars Piguet (this long-time main sponsor for Art Basel takes 2 floors), high-end restaurants such as the first Asian outpost of La Petite Maison, tenant architects including Selldorf Architects and Kengo Kuma, more “international” than “local”, all made it a bit difficult and confusing to link H Queen’s to Hong Kong’s local art scene and the identity of Hong Kong.
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The Boom of Hong Kong’s Art Market
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Before Art Hong Kong launched in 2008, Hong Kong was not even on the map of contemporary art world while mainland China at that time was already showing the world its huge potential in the contemporary art market. In the year of 2008, the financial crisis of 2007–2008 was still around, however, it did not seem to stop the uprising of Chinese contemporary art market and when buyers from the West may have been chilled by the economic crisis, collectors from China and Asia stepped forward. April 9, 2008, at Sotheby's biannual Hong Kong sales, Chinese contemporary artist Zhang Xiaogang's "Bloodline: The Big Family No. 3" fetched HK$47.37 million ($6.06 million) including the buyer's premium after brisk bidding. Same generation artist Liu Xiaodong’s politically charged “Battlefield Realism: The Eighteen Arhats” fetched HK$61.92 million ($7.83 million), almost tripling the previous world auction record for the artist and broke the Chinese art records at Sotheby's HK auctions.[8] In the same year, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, also known as the First Great Sichuan earthquake or Wenchuan earthquake, occurred on May 12, and over 69,000 people lost their lives in the quake. Charity art auctions was being held all around the China and almost all the big names in the art world participated and at this probably the darkest moment for Chinese in decades, the growing art market began to show its power as a social platform. Also in 2008, Central Government announced that all museums open admission-free to the public. Later this year, the 2008 Beijing Olympics showed the world a brand new China and the Olympics Games as an international platform itself, also did a China a favor of the best promotion ever. China was officially, on the global map.
And this strong growth of art market in China and the empowerment of Chinese contemporary artists set up the perfect platform for Hong Kong to boom as an art centre. In just over a decade, Hong Kong’s art market has grown to the third-largest in the world, behind only New York and London,[9] while China narrowly overtakes the United Kingdom as second largest market and US retains position as the largest market, and regains ground with an increase in sales of 16% year-on-year.[10] At the same time, in recent years, there has been a boom in the constructions of art museums in China with an unpredicted grow of art collectors, some of them have already become mega collectors and are among the most powerful art people in the world. To build a private museum and to found an art foundation is the new game for China’s top wealthy. In order to found a museum and to maintain the running of the museum, you need artworks, lots of artworks and continuous purchase. That’s why in this year’s Art Basel Hong Kong, a trend is that many of the most welcomed faces are not simply buying works for their own interest, but buying for their own art spaces. All these contributed to the growth of Hong Kong’s art market.
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“I have the platform for you, but can you afford it?”
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“The possibility that in today’s global phase the extension of capitalist relations has its own distinct mechanisms and that these need to be distinguished from older national and imperial phases.”—Saskia Sassen (Beyond Inequality: Expulsions)
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H Queen’s Hong Kong: What a (rich) platform!
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If you have been to Chelsea in New York, where top galleries are neatly located along the streets and aligned next to each other, now try to imagine to turn the streets 90 degrees around and make it vertical. Can you imagine that? If you find it difficult, no worries, just pay a visit to Hong Kong, where this crazy idea has just become real.
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The year of 2018 marks the 5th year of the biggest art fair in Asia – Art Basel Hong Kong since Art Basel bought out Art Hong Kong in 2013[1] and in this March, gallerists, collectors, artists, buyers, art lovers, as well as a growing number of new art lovers/buyers from different industries seem to be much more excited than last year as if this were the very first year of the fair. Everyone is here to see it and experience it, not the fair itself, but the very first vertical terrarium of art in the region, probably in the world too – H Queen’s (to quote from its architect William Lim) “a 24-storey purpose-built stacked gallery building, custom designed for the growing art industry and the dense Hong Kong urban environment, it will be a new vibrant art and lifestyle destination.”[2] Developed by Henderson Land LTD, the building was initially a commercial project (I guess it still is), when the architect, as well as an art collector himself William Lim came up with this concept of providing a new experience for art and lifestyle – a new type of platform.
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A New Typology
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Decades ago, developers in Tokyo invented the typical Ginza style buildings – vertical shopping malls due to the very unique topology of the city: the high density, which cities like Hong Kong share, and today, Hong Kong shows the world a new typology of urban buildings. In a conventional mall, each group of shops is linked by interconnected walkways. This pattern is repeated even when the mall is spread over several or many vertical floors. H Queen's has revolutionized this idea and has created the world's first art gallery sky arcade. If areas like Chelsea in New York was art platform 1.0, then H Queen’s in Hong Kong might be called the platform 2.0 as a new solution since space is becoming a difficult problem for all gallerists, especially big gallerists when reaching out into new market. With its huge floor to ceiling glass windows, what is happening in those spaces is transparent to people walking by and those in near office buildings, art, is no secret now. More than that, a glass shuttle lift in the building also allows visitors to observe the vibrant art activities going on and showcases the full exhibition of the stacked art galleries through the G/F to the 10/F, so you can take a quick glance of the current exhibitions that each gallery is presenting and quickly choose which one attracts you the most. Just like shops in a shopping mall, they don’t just share the platform, they also compete with each other directly on this platform. Now let’s take a look at who are already “using” this new platform. Galerie Ora-Ora[3] (now on the 17th floor), Seoul Auction, Tang Contemporary Art[4], as well as gallery superstar David Zwirner (now takes 5th and 6th floors) are the first tenants, while Hauser & Wirth, Pace, Pearl Lam, the Whitestone Gallery joined the team soon after. It’s no surprise that we find super gallery names on the list, since the cost to rent such space in central Hong Kong is obviously not for every gallery (HK$100/$12.75 per square foot per month for galleries, slightly cheaper than the art landmark building Pedder Building where holds super galleries like Gagosian, Pearl Lam, Lehmann Maupin and etc.,)[5]
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In its long history, Hong Kong is always unique, a link, a hub, a conjunction, an in-between, which all contribute to its uniqueness as a platform for the exchange and dialogue between Asia and the West, China and the rest of the world. After the Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, both Hong Kong and mainland China have experienced rapid changes that no one could ever imagined, economically, politically, as well as culturally.
We can notice that with the booming power of Chinese contemporary artists, all the auctions were held in Hong Kong. (In 2016, Sotheby’s finally got license to operate auction house in Shanghai, China) The reason are simple, as a matter of fact, those reasons still apply today: it’s simply too difficult to get a license for art-related business in China. Independence from China’s laws is one of the key reasons why Hong Kong is such an important location for art buyers. Censorship restricts the flow of works in China’s art market. If there’s anything with nudity or a political message,
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it will be difficult to clear it through customs and take it over the border. However, Hong Kong is a free port, so even a painting featuring Chairman Mao or the President can move freely here. Another key reason is the 20 percent import tax and duty[11] that Chinese government applies on the artwork's value while Hong Kong is still tax free, many top buyers would simply purchase a property in Hong Kong and keep all their artworks there.
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Global (art/capital) City
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Hong Kong has always been somehow a global city while at the same time famous for securing the authentic Hong Kong “weidao” (Chinese word means flavor, taste and special taste), the mixture of international and local. However, as mentioned, Hong Kong was hardly considered as a city for art, especially contemporary art only a few years ago, and when we talk about the local art scene in Hong Kong and the local artists, maybe we need to move our focus away from the “market” first.
Before its official opening in 2018, H Queen’s held a public art exhibition “Time & Scale”[12] around the yet-to-be-finished building, consisting works from 10 Hong Kong local artists, showing its commitment to the development of local culture and art. However, from the name of its tenants, how much it would involve in the local art scene and with local artists is still a question mark on mind and may be too soon to tell. After all, from the debut exhibitions (Hauser & Wirth showing Mark Bradford, David Zwirner showing Wolfgang Tillmans, Pace showing Yoshitomo Nara, Pearl Lam showing Arcangelo Sassolino, Seooul Auction showing Ufan Lee and Yayoi Kusama, Ora-Ora showing Xiao Xu) there was not so much “local” for us to discover while a stronger sense of “global” can be noticed.
From its origin, art is always connected to the specific social and cultural background of the artist: religion, education, political position, ethnic culture, personal experience…that’s what makes each artwork unique. A collector from the States unlikely to share the same aesthetics with a collector from Japan or Africa, and they shouldn’t. However, with the expanding of global super galleries, this might not be applicable anymore. “it is the relationship between subjectivity and its exteriority – be it social, animal, vegetable or Cosmic – that is compromised in this way, in a sort of general movement of implosion and regressive infantalization.
Otherness tends to lose all its asperity.”[13] In “the Three Ecologies”, Guattari used tourism as an example, which “usually amounts to no more than a journey on the spot, with the same redundancies of images and behavior.”[14] In the art world, especially in the contemporary art world today, this trend may not be obviously showed on surface but is definitely growing as what can be called a “global taste”. The prosperity of the art industry shows us a picture of energetic diversity as art is always accepted as a symbol of personal voice and the utopian space of discursive freedom. We have more and more artists and galleries every day, as well as new collectors from different backgrounds, and everyone claims their collection as a unique voice and taste of their own. However, when they visit a gallery or an art fair, the options they have and the diversity they could see have already been selected. And with the growing and global layout of international super galleries, I wonder if they ever get bored of seeing familiar faces every time. Of course the galleries will make sure that it never happen by showing new works from same artists and from new artists as well. But again, they select first.
“The localization of the most powerful global actors in these cities creates a set of objective conditions for engagement, whether those involved want it or not.”[15]
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Hong Kong is no stranger to capital, in fact, this city is very much built on capital and functions around capital and is the third largest financial centre in the world (after London and New York).[16] If Hong Kong hasn’t become the third biggest art exchange centre and the art market in China hasn’t grown into the second largest of the world, I wonder if we would still see such a building called H Queen’s today. The capital always finds its way out. “When capital encounters barriers or limits within a sphere or between spheres, then ways have to be found to circumvent or transcend the difficulty” as “no matter what happens, by hook or by crook, capital must somehow organize the seven spheres to conform to the 3 per cent rule.”[17] When settling down in Hong Kong, the focus of those global galleries is of course on mainland China. Although the Hong Kong gallery is Hauser & Wirth’s first space in Asia, the mega gallerist has involved in China’s art market in different forms for about 10 years, participating in main art fairs such as Westbund and Art021, showing works of Chinese artists in their global spaces. They’re waiting for a perfect time, or the right platform. “and with H Queen’s, the stars aligned,” says its president, Iwan Wirth, who calls H Queen’s a ““trophy building”[18]. Again, if super gallery like Hauser & Wirth didn’t show any interest in opening in Hong Kong and hasn’t sent out the message that they were hesitating due to space problems, will H Queen’s be the H Queen’s we see today?
Another interesting fact about Hong Kong is with such a volume of art dealing and art business, there’s no big modern or contemporary art museum in Hong Kong yet, and this will only be changed in 2019 with the long-waited opening of M+ museum in West Kowloon, with a scale comparable to Tate Modern in London and MoMA in New York.[19] Another mega platform.
In the case of H Queen’s, we see multiple platforms, big and small, local and international platforms interweave with each other on this platform of what Sassen defines as a “global city”,[20] and together create this unique ecosystem of Hong Kong’s art market. “Hong Kong has the once in a generation opportunity to assert itself as the creative and cultural hub of Asia, and to rival the established centres of New York and London. In providing an angle unique to the city, Hong Kong could play a pivotal role in redefining the concept of a ‘global’ art world.”[21] Although the boom of the art market in Hong Kong has everything to do with mainland China, the local art scene in Hong Kong is not that much related to the art scene in China, or in other words, the context is different. For example, Hong Kong always enjoys a thriving culture and history of graffiti which is not a DNA of China’s contemporary art[22] and street art is also deeply rooted in the culture of Hong Kong’s contemporary art. However, these uniqueness makes them not so “Chinese artists” and on the periphery of global celebration of Chinese contemporary art, and make local Hong Kong artists in a more precarious position compared to artists from mainland in this mega-gallery time. What about this new platform called H Queen’s to them? As Guattari suggested that “a problematization that is transversal”[23] and “we must learn to think transversally”[24] as the problems we face today are no long limited to geographical scope, in the art world, the challenge from mega-gallery and power is everywhere. When new platforms like H Queen’s is created, is it a bliss or simply deepen the problematic is still too soon to tell. And how much they will involve themselves in the local art scene (not the art scene in mainland China, but in Hong Kong) and support the local artists, is our most concerned, and then maybe we can truly say, “what a platform!”.
[1] Art Hong Kong was the first international art fair in Hong Kong launched in 2008 founded by Tim Etchells and Magnus Renfrew. Renfrew later became co-director for Art Basel Hong Kong until 2014 and now announced to create Taipei Dangdai, a new contemporary art fair in Taiwan.
[2] http://cl3.com/portfolio/h-queens/, cl3 is the architect agency founded by Lim and is the agency for designing H Queen’s.
[3] A research based fine art gallery founded in Hong Kong.
[4] Established in 1997 in Bangkok, later establishing galleries in Beijing and most recently Hong Kong.
[5] “Financial Times: H Queen’s: the gallery space Hong Kong was waiting for” https://www.ft.com/content/54354456-285b-11e8-9274-2b13fccdc744
[6] http://cl3.com/portfolio/h-queens/
[7] For the complete press release, see H Queen’s official PR agency Sutton’s website. https://suttonpr.com/hong-kong
[8] Soon in 2011, the record was broken by Zhang Xiaogang’s triptych “Forever Lasting Love” at Sotheby’s sold for HK$79 million (more than $10 million), the first Chinese contemporary artist to reach $10 million, and later in 2013, this record was broken by artist Zeng Fanzhi’s 2001 tribute to Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” sold for $23.3 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, announcing a new era for Chinese contemporary art.
[9] “the Guardian: Fair Play”
[10] “The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2018”
[11] But this will very possibly change when the “Global LE FREEPORT” Service System at Westbund in Shanghai being launched.
[12] http://www.hqueens.com.hk/html/eng/hoarding.shtml
[13] <Felix Guattari: The Three Ecologies>, P19.
[14] ibid
[15] “Saskia Sassen: Deep Inside the Global City”
http://www.e-flux.com/architecture/urban-village/169799/deep-inside-the-global-city/
[16] “the 20 Most Powerful Financial Centres in the World”
[17] <David Harvey: The Enigma of Capital>, P129-130
[18] “Financial Times: H Queen’s: the gallery space Hong Kong was waiting for” https://www.ft.com/content/54354456-285b-11e8-9274-2b13fccdc744
[19] https://www.westkowloon.hk/en/mplus
[20] See Saskia Sassen’s book <The Global City>
[21] In his book <Uncharted Territory>, Magnus Renfrew talked about the culture and commerce in Hong Kong’s art world and what he meant by this “once in a generation opportunity” is M+ museum.
[22] See Lu Pan’s book < Aestheticizing Public Space: Street Visual Politics in East Asian Cities>.
[23] <Felix Guattari: The Three Ecologies>, P23
[24] <Felix Guattari: The Three Ecologies>, P31
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All images © H Queen's <http://www.hqueens.com.hk/html/eng/index.shtml>
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Lin Zhu
#Urbanization
#Globalcity
#Globalcity
#Citygentrification
#Urbanplatform
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