During Para Site’s 25th anniversary year in 2021, held under the 25+25 vision that honours the communities built over the past quarter century and commits to the foundations of the next, we are delighted to announce the participants of the inaugural edition of 2046 Fermentation + Fellowships as well as the recipients of the NoExit Grant for Unpaid Artistic Labour—Philippines.
The 18 participants of 2046 Fermentation + Fellowships are: Herman Chan Ho Wang, Natasha Cheung, Chu Hoi Ding, Koel Chu Ka Kiu, Chung Wing Shan, Rannie Ip Ka Man, Florence Lam, Man Ting Vanessa Lam, Khris Lee Hong Wah, Wing Sze Ng, Michelle Tam Man Ching, Tam Rafael Vun Kwan, Hou Lam Tsui, Ice Wong Kei Suet, Wong Pak Hang, Wong Winsome Dumalagan, Jennifer Yue Yuen Yu, and Yuen Nga Chi.
The 2046 Fermentation + Fellowships aims to provide a collective safe space for learning and thinking as well as financial support for Hong Kong artists in the first years of their artistic work life, supported by Para Site’s curatorial team and a panel of facilitators, coming together as peers in discussing fundamental questions and practical concerns related to artistic practice and its economies. The programme is imagined as a response to the current scarcity in Hong Kong in community support platforms and critical spaces for artists, particularly in the first years after graduation. Taking as a reference Para Site’s 25 years of history in the arts community since its founding in 1996, the title of the programme looks forward to 25 years from now, to the year 2046, and to a future we hope to build on the basis of collective care, nurturing, and solidarity.
The participants were selected by a jury composed of the six facilitators who are joining us for the inaugural edition: Luke Ching Chin Wai (artist, Hong Kong), Ho Tzu Nyen (artist and filmmaker, Singapore), Law Yuk Mui (artist, Hong Kong), H. G. Masters (writer and editor, Hong Kong), Charwei Tsai (artist, Taiwan), and Yang Yeung (scholar, writer, and curator, Hong Kong), as well as by Celia Ho (Para Site Curator, Hong Kong).
The first phase of the programme, Fermentation, commenced in October 2021 and will continue through March 2022. The 2046 Fermentation + Fellowships is generously supported by Para Site’s community through the proceeds of the 2020 Annual Gala as well as by Jehan Chu, Schoeni Projects, and Jacobo Garcia Gil.
The 29 recipients of the NoExit Grant for Unpaid Artistic Labour—Philippines are: Catalina Marguerite S. Africa, Mac Andre Arboleda, Zeus Bascon, Sasa Cabalquinto, Bunny Cadag, Anna Miguel Cervantes, Joanne Cesario, Ronyel Compra, Mideo M. Cruz, Rayjinar Anne Marie de Guia Salcedo, Kimberly dela Cruz, Eric de Leon Zamuco, Jerome Dulin, Czar Kristoff, Celeste Lapida, Russ Raniel Amo Ligtas, David Loughran and Nicola Sebastien, Francisco Lee, Teng Mangansakan, Pamela Alexis M. Quinto, Joar Songcuya, Gerome Neil M. Soriano, Kalawakan Spacetime, Noeme Grace Tabor-Farjani, Yuri Tan, Floyd Scott Tiogangco, Xeres Tanya Hilado Villanueva, and Maria Jeona Zoleta.
The recipients of the grant will each receive 20,000 HKD for unrestricted use. Recognising the severe and ongoing impact of the pandemic in the Philippines and on its art scene; the long, profound, and often unacknowledged connections between Hong Kong and the Philippines; as well as the urgent need for international solidarity, in particular in close vicinities, Para Site organised the 2021 edition of NoExit Grant for Unpaid Artistic Labour directed entirely to artists in the Philippines at the same amount and conditions as the first edition of the grant in 2020, which was dedicated to artists in Hong Kong.
The 2021 edition also continues the spirit of the previous edition, acknowledging the precarious nature of artistic labour where, also prior to the pandemic, crucial parts of the artistic production process went unpaid and unacknowledged. Different from most kinds of financial support for which recipients are required to deliver set outcomes, the NoExit Grant for Unpaid Artistic Labour—Philippines wishes to provide a small but unique and necessary contribution at the crucial (yet often uncompensated) phase in artistic practice that allows thinking to flourish, outside of daily stress and without the pressure to produce, functioning in a way like an artist residency without travel.
The grantees were selected through open call by a jury composed of: Cosmin Costinas (Para Site Executive Director/Curator), Celia Ho (Para Site Curator), Eisa Jocson (choreographer and dancer, Philippines), Moira Lang (filmmaker and writer, Philippines), and Gary Ross Pastrana (visual artist, Philippines).
The grants this year are made possible by an anonymous donor, with three additional grants supported by Jam Acuzar, Mara Coson, and Mercedes Zobel.
