Hong Kong, China. With a bit of wit and luck we managed to invite ourselves to participate in a culture festival between the cities of Berlin and Hong Kong. While the pavilion that we built on Tamar Square celebrated the void spaces of Berlin, we invited students to go on a search for the void spaces in Hong Kong. Where in this seemingly overfull city could we find emptiness?
Despite or rather because they were first years, the students came back with a surprisingly wide array of places, which are voids in one way or another. Abandoned houses in the best locations, infrastructure projects on-hold which leave bridges sticking out into the sky half-completed, atriums in rather generic housing blocks that are sixty storeys high, the still empty old airport site, mezzanine floors that were forgotten during construction, and the like. One student found the voids between the skyscrapers to be most impressive. Especially when not looking at the facades, but when walking into the narrow side lanes, where the windowless facades stand at a distance of only a few meters from each other and stretch out over hundred meters in height. She guided us to one such place and took out her trumpet, making the void even more present through creating an echo. Another student, however, contested this approach by just handing over a piece of paper saying: “Once you say silence its gone.” Hong Kong to our surprise is fully of voids, even though this is just another of these paradox descriptions.
Seeing a place through its opposite, however, is a helpful way to understand them. In Hong Kong we also met the artist Young Hay whose works are about highlighting the essence of places. His technique is to put a blank canvas on his back and walk with it through different cities. Through this he highlights a place by contrasting it with his canvas, which, of course, remains empty, while the essence of the place becomes clear.Hong Kong, China. With a bit of wit and luck we managed to invite ourselves to participate in a culture festival between the cities of Berlin and Hong Kong. While the pavilion that we built on Tamar Square celebrated the void spaces of Berlin, we invited students to go on a search for the void spaces in Hong Kong. Where in this seemingly overfull city could we find emptiness?
Despite or rather because they were first years, the students came back with a surprisingly wide array of places, which are voids in one way or another. Abandoned houses in the best locations, infrastructure projects on-hold which leave bridges sticking out into the sky half-completed, atriums in rather generic housing blocks that are sixty storeys high, the still empty old airport site, mezzanine floors that were forgotten during construction, and the like. One student found the voids between the skyscrapers to be most impressive. Especially when not looking at the facades, but when walking into the narrow side lanes, where the windowless facades stand at a distance of only a few meters from each other and stretch out over hundred meters in height. She guided us to one such place and took out her trumpet, making the void even more present through creating an echo. Another student, however, contested this approach by just handing over a piece of paper saying: “Once you say silence its gone.” Hong Kong to our surprise is fully of voids, even though this is just another of these paradox descriptions.
Seeing a place through its opposite, however, is a helpful way to understand them. In Hong Kong we also met the artist Young Hay whose works are about highlighting the essence of places. His technique is to put a blank canvas on his back and walk with it through different cities. Through this he highlights a place by contrasting it with his canvas, which, of course, remains empty, while the essence of the place becomes clear.