Beyond the edge of the city we know lies the city we dream of, the city we long for but never reach, the “ideal city”. At the edge, the old rules of the city loose their hold, allowing it to reinvent itself, redefine its values and create new forms. The edge is never far away: the city of our dreams might be here and now, close to us, nesting within the familiar confines of our towns, already transforming them from the inside, a city within the city, the boundary between the known and the unknown being conceptual rather than physical. What do we most desire from our cities and from their architecture? What are our current interpretations of the ideal city? Is the question still relevant? Is Hong Kong an ideal city? If not, what would it take to become one? And for whom? We have invited a wide variety of exhibitors to respond to these questions. Their diverse observations and proposals form the substance of the Biennale.
Architects: Sean Quinn, Jason Easter
Team Members: Nick Benner, Hok Lim, Joyce Zan
Country: Hong Kong
The participants include architects, urbanists, designers, artists, film-makers, musicians, choreographers, writers, critics, poets, scientists, students and school children. A wide range of media have been used: texts, drawings, models, photographic images, film, audio, installations, performances, full-scale pavilions, public lectures, debates and workshops. Our approach for the Hong Kong side of the Biennale is grounded in its polarity with Shenzhen, within the broader contexts of the PRD and mainland China, but it is international in its scope: it is informed by the singularity of Hong Kong but it is not about Hong Kong alone, just as the Venice Biennale is not about Venice: it is about the cities of the world, making use of the unique bi-city setting of the Biennale as a platform to address global issues in a visionary and critical way. It is site-specific, with a pivotal physical presence in Hong Kong, but it transcends this specificity by establishing its presence in virtual space. It is here and everywhere, topic and u-topic, manifested through publications, radio, television, web sites, blogs, PechaKucha and other social media, drawing inputs from a broad spectrum of participants and aiming to reach a wide audience.
Submission Requirements: The theme for the Biennale is the “urban edge”. As noted from the attached Curatorial Statement, the interpretation of this theme is a search for “The Ideal City”. Three initial elements of response to the proposed theme are as below.
- A written statement.
In answer to the question: “What is the ideal city?”.
- A representative image of an ideal city, or fragment thereof.
In answer to the same question as above.
- A summary description (between 500 and 1000 words) of the manner in which you might be interested to participate in the Biennale, beyond the short statement (1) and the representative graphic image (2) mentioned above: what would you wish to contribute and in what form?