ISAAC CHONG WAI
Solo Exhibition at Goethe-Institut, Hong Kogn
Future of the Past – Past of the Future: Creating Time in Public Space through Performance
6.4. – 28.4.2018 | Goethe-Gallery and Black Box Studio, Goethe-Institut Hongkong
Isaac Chong Wai, a Berlin-based artist from Hong Kong, will present the result of his research in Germany at the exhibition “Future of the Past – Past of the Future: Creating Time in Public Space through Performance” from April 6 to 28 at the Goethe-Gallery and the Black Box Studio of the Goethe-Institut Hongkong.
“What is the future in the past? And what is the past in the future?” – to addess these two questions, Isaac Chong Wai applies performance as the medium to deal with history and memory in public space. His research started from the history of Weimarplatz, which was formerly the Gauforum, built as one of the most important structures for the National Socialist Party in Weimar. In 1937, the foundation stone was laid for the “Hall of the People’s Community,” which was housed in the site, and the square was named “Adolf Hitler Square”. During the Allied Occupation of Germany, it was renamed “Karl-Marx Platz,” which was then kept under the reign of the German Democratic Republic. After the regime’s fall it remained nameless until 1999. Now, in its current incarnation as Weimarplatz, the absence of people has become the present view of the square, which has been blocked from public access. Looking at the past and the present of the Weimarplatz, one is led to address the function and dysfunction of its architectural structure: what kind of events, symbols and social activities could and can take place there? For this, an imaginary past is created through art in the hope of shaping possible fragments of utopia.
The exhibition was first shown at the Bauhaus Museum in Weimar in January 2016, including works Painting a Moon on Viehauktionshalle (2014), I Dated a Guy in Buchenwald (2014), Neue Wache (The New Guard) (2015), One Sound of the Histories (2015). New Works to be shown in this exhibition include A Piece of Snow (2013), Flakturm and The White Flag(2016) … etc.
Isaac Chong Wai graduated from the Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University with a BA in Visual Arts in 2012, and the Bauhaus-Universität in Weimar, Germany, with a MFA in Public Art and New Artistic Strategies in 2016. His recent solo exhibitions include “L'Homme et la Mer” at the Serlachius Residency organized by Serlachius Museums and Mänttä Art Festival in 2017 and "What is the future in the past? And what is the past in the future?" at the Bauhaus Museum in Weimar in 2016. His has recently participated group shows at the BERLIN MASTERS TOY Award at the Brandenburger Tor Stiftung in Berlin and “Forecast Forum” at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin in 2017. His works were shown at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, the Kunstfest Weimar and Serbia’s Macura Museum in 2015, and selected for the 2014 Moscow Biennale for Young Art at Museum of Moscow. Isaac Chong Wai currently lives and works in Berlin and Hong Kong.
Goethe-Gallery address and opening hours:
14/F Hong Kong Arts Centre | 2 Harbour Road, Wanchai