The annual large-scale design festival in Hong Kong, deTour, will return to PMQ at the end of the month. This year’s theme is “Design Together,” aiming to promote collective participation and exhibitions that echo people’s voices. Some exhibits will collect public thoughts, behaviors, habits, and other data, which will then be reflected in artistic works, allowing every viewer to become a creator!
This year, deTour 2022 is led by the chief curator Shin Wong, while Chi-Wing Lee, Kay Chan Wan Ki, and STICKYLINE will act as storytellers, connecting different groups and communities through installations in the exhibition to unleash the power of “participation.” During the event, PMQ will showcase one “invited collaboration,” four “themed exhibitions,” and fourteen “selected works,” bringing a people-centric design experience to the community in a diverse way.
One of the highlights of the event includes “About Time” created by the internationally renowned design duo Domestic Data Streamers, which will use a series of installations to allow the public to explore the relationship between time and memory through participation and the use of visualized data, creating a reflective space that evolves continuously during the exhibition. Some say time can destroy everything, yet also heal people, and perhaps the audience can learn from it our complex relationship with time.
The consumption of animal products is inevitable. From meat, dairy, clothing, to building materials, animals play a significant role in our daily lives. “Taking Romie18 to the East” explores the entire life cycle of farm animals from breeding to slaughter and then making them into products that society loves. The exhibition is a continuation of the “Romie 18” project, reflecting on ethical issues such as animal breeding and production. As a final tribute to Romie 18, artist Tam Kwan-yin and Hong Kong Design Institute alumna and resident ceramic artist Leung Hong-kan collaborated to turn its ashes into bone china, allowing the public to inherit the story of Tam Kwan-yin and Romie 18 through this exhibition.
Every city has its own unique character and culture. This uniqueness is called the city code, influenced by the behavior of all the people living in the city. “Invisible City” gradually expands into an irregular organism by absorbing everyone’s “invisible rules” in daily life for learning and growth. This exhibition is a metaphor for a city, whose characteristics will be altered by the choices and actions of each participant, and this event may construct and stack up another city culture.
This year’s Design Festival breaks the traditional mode of art exhibitions, bringing together 40 interactive workshops with the theme of “design-centric”, making PMQ a fun experimental ground for public participation in design. This includes making ceramics with family recipes or old photos, creating plant-based prints, upgrading and remaking old T-shirts, and engaging in cigarette butt athletic training to encourage Hong Kong people to see the cleaning industry from a different perspective, reexamining society’s treatment of the industry. Different forms of design concepts and activities will undoubtedly allow the public to unleash their creativity.
“deTour 2022”
Date: November 25th to December 4th
Location: PMQ, 35 Aberdeen Street, Central, Hong Kong
Image source and learn more: deTour 2022
