Join our upcoming edition of Tai Kwun Conversations for a special preview of the exhibition Myth Makers — Spectrosynthesis III. We will hear the curators Inti Guerrero and Chantal Wong talk about Myth Makers and some of the curatorial themes presented, together with Tobias Berger, Curator-at-large of Tai Kwun and Anita Chung, Head of Heritage of Tai Kwun.
The conversation will begin with a response to the current Heritage exhibition at Tai Kwun, Gender & Space, which resolves around the rediscovery of histories and traditions in order to create new spaces for dialogue. Inti Guerrero and Chantal Wong will then discuss the “new traditions” of our times, of spectacle and celebrity, playful and/or transgressive, along with non-normative bodily practices and histories in artworks by contemporary artists in Myth Makers.
Myth Makers—Spectrosynthesis III is one of the first major survey exhibitions on LGBTQ+ perspectives in Hong Kong, and draws inspiration from artists addressing “queer mythologies”—who highlight either same-sex love and desire or gender fluidity as found in ancient belief systems and traditions in Asia.
Mythologies often shape foundational narratives and are the cosmological matrix that gives symbolic meaning to “normalized” forms of being in the world. What happens when one encounters a queer mythology? Or a queer antiquity: a way to unlearn gender and sexual binaries, so that one may imagine a past and present where love, sexuality, and desire are approached in a multiplicity of forms? These questions form a starting point for Myth Makers, alongside to understand myth making as a way of defining queer life, and queer artistic communities in particular, as micro-worlds of misfits who have invented their own mythologies through practice across different time periods, long before public manifestations of LGBTQ+ identities have been possible as they are today.
Tai Kwun Conversations is a monthly event that brings together brilliant minds from the fields of contemporary art, architecture, heritage, among many others. Join us to discover new artistic exchanges and outstanding practices in heritage conservation.
This event will be conducted in English, with English to Cantonese simultaneous interpretation.
Speakers:
Inti Guerrero | Curator of Myth Makers — Spectrosynthesis III
Chantal Wong | Curator of Myth Makers — Spectrosynthesis III
Anita Chung | Head of Heritage, Tai Kwun
Moderator:
Tobias Berger | Curator-at-large, Tai Kwun
The event will adhere to the latest health and safety regulations and enforce social distancing measures.