urban matters

A text about the experiences of a bunch of young people, workers and an old lady living together in solidarity in “Yeung 58”, a old factory building in the district of “Kwung Tong” in Hong Kong. This borough was an important area for the recycling industry of Hong Kong. But the government decided to declare the district as  unattractive and destroyed all the old buildings to build up a new cultural and entertainment space and called the project “Energizing Kowloon East”. The local artists opposed this power gentrification plan, which got some of them arrested. The critique of the author is that instead of involving local artists  in a vivid and self grown cultural space, a very monofunctional economic area was created and covered under the terms “culture” and “environmental protection”. All the old structures and buildings were neglected or destroyed and the people living there pushed away, because they could not afford the rising rents. A photo project, realised by the author, collected stories of the tenants and the use of those old buildings, documenting the effect of sharing the little, that the people had, and alleviating the poverty like that.

CultMon #9 / Jan 2016, Hong-Kong / review.pdf

Ahkok Wong Chun-Kwok / Relinking Poverty and Art: A Decade in Kwun Tong’s Industrial Art Village.pdf