Des hôtes: a foreigner, a human, an unexpected visitor
with Milena Bonilla, Kasper Bosmans, Raimundas Malašauskas, Toshie Takeuchi, Luisa Ungar, Trevor Yeung, and Yu Honglei
Curated by Christina Li
September 19–December 13, 2015
Spring Workshop
3/F Remex Centre
42 Wong Chuk Hang Road
Aberdeen
Hong Kong
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Where does hospitality take place? This question is the cornerstone of Spring Workshop’s fall program Des hôtes: a foreigner, a human, an unexpected visitor. The program takes its title from the French word hôte, which means both “host” and “guest.” This is a starting point for contemplating the entanglements and blurred territories inherent to the politics of hospitality. Des hôtes considers how the definitions of host and guest can be expanded beyond the realms of domesticity and interpersonal relations. By tracing their manifestations through structures of cognitive meaning and behavior, as well as through our relationships with animals, it reveals how we receive and relate to one another as human beings.
The exhibition opens with a cluster of existing and new artworks by Kasper Bosmans, Toshie Takeuchi and Yu Honglei, which situate the program’s enquiry within the private sphere. Yu’s uncanny sculptures and household ready-mades form a landscape of estrangement; Takeuchi’s film installation and photograph series reflect on the permutations of human-canine relationships; Bosmans’ new miniature paintings and sand carpets trace the domestic use of folk art in 18th-century kitchens and annotate his conversations with the curator on the material expression of hospitality and support.
Over the course of three months, the full exhibition gradually takes shape through an ongoing event program: Kasper Bosmans’ guided tour of strange tales and anecdotes offers entry points into his “Legend” paintings on themes from the exhibition; Raimundas Malašauskas’ post-hypnosis session explores the threshold of our inner subjectivity; Milena Bonilla and Luisa Ungar invite audience members to join them for a performative gathering and engage in a chocolate scrying session; Luisa Ungar enlists the help of an expert in presenting research on relationships between public space and animality; and finally, Trevor Yeung solicits personal stories from other Lonesome Georges in the wild. The eventual artworks on view function as prompts for—and evidence of—these artist-led gatherings. Traversing the various circumstances where the host-guest status quo is stretched and ruptured, Des hôtes creates a web of relations that magnify the reality of how we negotiate our positions as eternal hôtes.
Des hôtes: a foreigner, a human, an unexpected visitor is the inaugural program of Spring Workshop’s new director Christina Li.
Program dates:
Saturday, September 12
“Let’s Talk With Our Mouths Full” with Toshie Takeuchi
As a prelude to the exhibition and part of Spring’s sporadic event series “Let’s Talk With Our Mouths Full,” Toshie Takeuchi will share her work-in-progress over a casual dinner. Her project, A house placed in between, takes its starting point from a building—the former embassy of the Democratic Republic of Congo in The Hague, Netherlands, which has now been occupied by artists and musicians.
Saturday, September 19
“Rumored Ornamentation” with Kasper Bosmans
As part of his contribution to the exhibition, Bosmans’ guided tours will activate his set of miniature paintings entitled Legend: des hôtes that annotate his conversations with the curator. The opening performance presents a collection of enigmatic stories which bring together the agents and associative tales that materialized out of exchanges on the topics of hospitality, current affairs, recipes and weird accounts.
Saturday, October 10
A Post-Hypnosis Session with Raimundas Malašauskas
Related to The Hypnotic Show—his project with Marcos Lutyens that offers a social structure for cognitive and sensual experiments through art and hypnosis—Malašauskas invites you to an event whose name you might forget, but whose feelings you might wish to practice.
Saturday, November 7
Lonesome and George with Trevor Yeung
Inspired by the story of Lonesome George, who was the last known specimen of a subspecies of Pinta Island tortoise, Trevor Yeung will embark on a search for other Lonesome Georges out in the wild, resulting in an evening of tales that Yeung will present in collaboration with a storyteller.
Friday and Saturday, November 20 and 21
This Rabbit Looks To The Left: Chocolate Scrying with Milena Bonilla and Luisa Ungar
For this performative gathering, Milena Bonilla and Luisa Ungar invite guests to drink chocolate and take part in a public scrying. The hot chocolate leaves the stains necessary for images to turn into visions and conversations. The inapprehensible character of the liquid plays on fears, affections and expectations, whilst delving into both the past and future, if the cacao allows it.
Friday and Saturday, November 27 and 28
“Clapping Backwards” with Luisa Ungar and expert-guest
Ungar and her invited guest will present their research on relationships between public space and animality. It follows from the studies called Spontaneous innovation for future deception (SIFFD), developed in various zoos around the world since the 1940s. On this occasion, the invited animal behavior specialist will focus on the way in which certain local wild species have adapted themselves to staged environments.
Program dates are subject to change. Check our website www.springworkshop.org for updates. Please RSVP at rsvp [at] springworkshop.org listing the event title in the subject line.
Current residency at Spring Workshop:
Wu Tsang (September–December 2015)
Based in Hong Kong, Spring Workshop is a non-profit arts initiative committed to an international cross-disciplinary program of artist and curatorial residencies, exhibitions, music, film and talks.