The word is spreading about homegrown Chai Wan arts festival
Mix of visitors changing, with more locals and fewer spilling over from main Art Basel event
For two days only, the industrial neighbourhood of Chai Wan comes alive with creativity each year to coincide with the city's main art fair. The fourth edition of the Chai Wan Mei Art & Design Festival, open to the public this Art Basel weekend, has a wide spectrum of exhibitions, performances, workshops and guerilla art installations by artists, designers and photographers of both local and international renown. Edmund Lee checks in with the evolving arts community at the far eastern end of Hong Kong Island.
When we visited Chai Wan several hours before the festival’s popular dance party on Saturday night, many of the venues were sparsely populated – giving us more opportunity to appreciate the art and meet the artists.
A long-time member of the Chai Wan art community, artist Movana Chen observed that while the number of visitors is similar to last year’s, there is a decrease in the number of people coming by through Art Basel’s VIP tours.
“More of the visitors this year are individuals who had heard about Chai Wan Mei and came here specifically,” says Chen, who is also the curator and manager of YY9 Gallery. Located inside Chai Wan Industrial City Phase 1, the space is presenting “In Conversations with 100 Local Artists”, a group show to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
Chen estimates that she has spotted over 100 visitors – including collectors, students and tourists – at her gallery on the first day of Chai Wan Mei. “A big group of Hong Kong-based French people came by just now,” she says. “They had known about Fo Tan’s [art studios] before, but this is the first time they learned about Chai Wan.”
