Lee Kit
‘You (you).’
1 June–24 November 2013
Preview: 29–31 May 2013
Castello 2126, Campo della Tana
30122 Venice, Italy
(Opposite the main entrance of Arsenale)
www.venicebiennale.hk
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Curated by Lars Nittve with Yung Ma, M+
Co-presented by M+, Museum for Visual Culture, West Kowloon Cultural District, and Hong Kong Arts Development Council
M+, Museum for Visual Culture, West Kowloon Cultural District, and Hong Kong Arts Development Council present ‘You (you).’ by Lee Kit, Collateral Event of the 55th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Lars Nittve with Yung Ma of M+, ‘You (you).’ is a continuation of Lee’s exploration into the quotidian realm of the everyday. Comprised entirely of new commissions, the exhibition is formulated as a series of spatial reconfigurations that blend together and alternate between concealment and revelation.
Conceived through recollections of personal and collective moments, ‘You (you).’ takes the universal yet non-existing entity alluded to in its title as a point of departure, gazing at the notion of absence to reflect on the construction of places, memories and time. Lee distils and translates these fleeting moments into forms of visual articulation, shedding light on their inherent ‘endlessness’ which transcends our perception of time.
‘You (you).’ operates within the same framework as Lee’s recent sparse yet intimate installations, incorporating moving image, performance, ready-made objects, found images and lighting to form and suggest traces of immaterialised dialogues and relationships. The various elements within these installations have been meticulously arranged to recall the qualities of painterly composition. The exhibition also further propels Lee’s approach of employing repetitive gestures, mundane objects and other ephemeral materials, such as sound, to function as emotive and sensory triggers, affording viewers the possibility of evoking the textures of both real and imagined memories.
A fully illustrated bi-lingual (Chinese and English) catalogue published by M+ will accompany the exhibition, with contributions from Lee Kit, Yung Ma, Lars Nittve, Pauline J. Yao and Jean Yen Ruo Jin, exploring the intricate layers of Lee’s artistic vision from various perspectives.
Lee Kit was born 1978 in Hong Kong, currently lives and works in Hong Kong and Taipei. His recent solo and group exhibitions include ‘Every breath you take.’ at the Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai (2012), What should I do to live in your life? at the Sharjah Art Foundation in Sharjah (2012), The Ungovernables at the New Museum in New York (2012) and ‘Henry (Have you ever been this low?)’ at Western Front in Vancouver (2011).
M+ is the new museum for visual culture in Hong Kong, as a part of the West Kowloon Cultural District, encompassing 20th- and 21st-century art, design, architecture and the moving image from Hong Kong, China, Asia and beyond. M+ has already embarked on a number of public programmes and exhibitions, and has begun to assemble its permanent collection, in the run-up to the planned 2017 opening of its 62,000-square-meter (670,000 square-foot) building overlooking Victoria Harbour.
The West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong is one of the largest arts and culture projects in the world. Its vision is to provide a vibrant cultural quarter for the city; a vital platform for the local arts scene to interact, develop and collaborate; and major facilities to host and produce world-class exhibitions, performances and arts and cultural events. The District will include up to 17 core arts and culture venues in a low-density development, providing 23 hectares of open green space and two kilometres of vibrant harbour-front promenade.
Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) is a public body set up by the Hong Kong government in 1995. Its role is to plan, promote and support the broad development of the arts including literary arts, performing arts, visual arts as well as film and media arts in Hong Kong. With an aim to enhance cultural exchange and dialogue between Hong Kong and the international audience, the HKADC has been participating in the Venice Biennale as part of the collateral event since 2001.
Press enquiries:
Debbie Ho, WKCDA
T (+852) 2200 0210 / debbie.ho [at] wkcda.hk
Tamsin Selby/ Phoebe Moore, Sutton PR Asia
T (+852) 2528 0792 / tamsin [at] suttonprasia.com / phoebe [at] suttonprasia.com
