M+ Screenings: City Limits to explore urbanisation in Asia this August

M+, the museum for visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD), will present the latest in its M+ Screenings series – M+ Screenings: City Limits from 4 to 6 August 2017 at Broadway Cinematheque in Yau Ma Tei.  

Consisting of 15 artist videos, narrative films, documentaries and animations, M+ Screenings: City Limits responds to the rapid changes in city life over the past two decades, where urban development is a catalyst for intense social, political, economic, environmental, and creative transformation in Asia. This programme is organised in conjunction with the M+ exhibition Canton Express, on view at M+ Pavilion until 10 September 2017.

The screenings will open with a showcase of short videos by artists from the Pearl River Delta, the most highly urbanised place in the world. Ranging from interventions into public space (Jiang Zhi and Zhou Tao), to ink animations of Chinese cityscapes (Chen Shaoxiong), to fantastical performance videos made in collaboration with Guangzhou factory workers (Cao Fei), to an unconventional biography of an eccentric musician (Xu Tan), these diverse videos all explore the social impact of rapid urbanisation on individuals in the region.

Artist Ou Ning will also discuss his pioneering documentary San Yuan Li (2003), shot on the streets of Guangzhou, on the second day of the programme.

Feature films include the multi-award-winning Still Life by Jia Zhanghke (2006), The Chinese Mayor by Zhou Hao (2015) and Diamond Island by Davy Chou (2016). 

The closing film in City Limits is Tan Pin Pin’s In Time to Come (2017), which documents the ritualistic exhuming of an old state time capsule, and the compilation of another in Singapore. This is the Asian Premiere of In Time to Come, and it will be followed by a post-screening discussion with the internationally-acclaimed director. In Time To Come has been nominated for Best International Documentary at three prestigious documentary film festivals in Switzerland, Canada and Brazil.

Ulanda Blair, Curator, Moving Image at M+ stated: “Representing the fast-changing realities of urban experience in an increasingly homogenous yet fragmented world, the moving-image artists of City Limits reframe urban space, positioning it not just as the backdrop or setting for action, but as a potent catalyst of history, memory and belonging.”

Other works in the programme include Gao Yuan’s Lunar Dial (2016), Wang Jianwei’s Living Elsewhere (1999) and Lee Wan’s Made in Myanmar (2014), as well as Tsai Ming-Liang’s Walker (2012) and Joao Vasco Paiva’s Threshold (2013), both of which were shot in Hong Kong  (see annex for full details).

Tickets are on sale now. Programme details are available from the website www.westkowloon.hk/mplusscreenings.

Remarks

About M+
A cornerstone of the ambitious West Kowloon Cultural District, M+ is Hong Kong’s new museum of visual culture, encompassing twentieth and twenty-first century art, design and architecture, and moving image from Hong Kong, China, Asia, and beyond.

From its vantage point in one of the world’s most dynamic regions, M+ documents the past, informs the present, and contributes to the future of visual culture within an even more interconnected global landscape. The museum takes an interdisciplinary approach that both challenges and respects existing boundaries, while creating a meeting point for a multiplicity of perspectives, narratives, and audiences.

Since 2012, M+ has been presenting diverse public programmes and exhibitions, and is amassing a permanent collection, in the run-up to the scheduled 2019 public opening of the museum building designed by Herzog & de Meuron with TFP Farrells and Ove Arup & Partners HK.

About West Kowloon Cultural District
Located on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, the West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong. With a complex of theatres, performance spaces, and M+, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances, and cultural events, as well as provide 23 hectares of public open space, including a two kilometre waterfront promenade.

Curators:

Ulanda Blair
Ulanda Blair is Curator, Moving Image at M+. Prior to joining the museum in September,2016, she was Curator at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne, Australia, Key projects at ACMI included exhibitions on Orry-Kelly,Yang Fudong, DreamWorks Animation, Warwick Thornton, William Kentridge, Ian Burns and Julian Rosefeldt, as well as artist-film screening programmes in the ACMI Cinemas and at the Sydney Contemporary Art Fair. Before ACMI, Ulanda worked for the Next Wave Festival and Gertrude Contemporary, both in Melbourne. She also curated numerous site-specific projects for the Setouchi Triennale and the Echigo-Tsumari Triennale in Japan. Ulanda undertook a Dean’s Scholars Bachelor of Arts (Hons) majoring in Visual Culture at Monash University, and a Masters of Publishing and Communications at the University of Melbourne.

Janis Law
Janis Law is currently the Curatorial Assistant, Moving Image at M+. Her first project with M+ is the ongoing screening series, M+ Screenings. Before working with M+, Janis was the Museum Trainee of Hong Kong Film Archive and the Education and Outreach Officer of Chung Ying Theatre. Janis holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from the University of Western Australia and an MA in Media Cultures (Distinction) from the City University of Hong Kong.

Annex

M+ Screenings: City Limits

Venue:
Broadway Cinematheque (Prosperous Garden, 3 Public Square Street, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon)

Tickets:
Standard Tickets - HK$85 per screening;
Concessions (Children, Seniors and Students) - HK$65 per screening;
M+ Pioneers Member Packages – HK$145 per 2 tickets per screening (only applicable to the tickets of the same screening)
bc VIP Member Tickets - HK$68 per screening

How to book:
Online - www.cinema.com.hk;
Telephone - 2388 3188;
In Person - Tickets are available at the cinema’s box office and self-service ticketing machines.

(Concessions, M+ Pioneers Member Packages and bc VIP Member Tickets are not available for telephone bookings.)

For online and telephone bookings, a handling fee of HK$8 (Mondays to Fridays) or HK$10 (Weekends and Public Holidays) per ticket will be levied.

Screening Schedule: