CANCELED - HOMELAND in TRANSIT

The word ‘homeland’ evokes a physical and permanent form on the surface, yet when we dive a little deeper into our memories and emotions, the word urges us to reflect on its complex and shifting nature. The HOMELAND in TRANSIT exhibition in Zollikon, part of an ongoing curatorial project, interweaves the work of Tibetan and Hong Kong artists that reflect a sense or aspect of identities, origins, self-searching, territories, diaspora, orientations, instability, unsettledness in response to the ever-changing definitions of homeland.

What is the relationship between an artist’s personal experience and his/her artmaking? What are the historical contexts in which these Hong Kong and Tibetan artists grew up in and negotiate with? And what are the different notions, experiences and perspectives we can find in their presented artwork? The HOMELAND in TRANSIT exhibition features the work of Bern-based Tibetan artist Sonam Dolma Brauen and six Hong Kong artists Hung Fai, Lee Ka Sing, Leung Chi Wo, MAP Office, Lulu Ngie and Wai Pong Yu.

Angelika Li, founder and curator of the HOMELAND in TRANSIT project will discuss the notion of homeland together with her co-curator Dr. Martin Brauen, cultural anthropologist specialised in Tibet and the Himalayas and museum curator from Bern, Switzerland. They will take you through the HOMELAND in TRANSIT exhibition interweaving historical perspectives, individual experiences and contemporary art practices.

Program

18:00 – Doors open

18:30 – Opening remarks

18:45 – Interactive tour through the exhibition with Angelika Li and Dr. Martin Brauen

20:00 – Apéro

20:30 – End of Event

Full no-show charge unless registration is cancelled until at least 24 hours before the event.

Photo: Left: Hung Fai, Wild Grass 17, 2019, 150 x 108 cm, ink on Chinese paper. Right: Sonam Dolma Brauen, Yishen 28, 2014, 89 x 138.5 cm, acrylic on canvas

Angelika Li

Angelika Li, expert in history of art and architecture and cultural management, engages with the essence of local culture, heritage and stories, and the continuous dialogue between local and international communities. Li is the founder and curator of HOMELAND in TRANSIT, a curatorial project between Basel and Hong Kong, and the co-founder of PF25 cultural projects, a research initiative focusing on the everyday life and ecologies of the two city regions. Li was the founding director of MILL6 Foundation in 2015, and the first gallery director of Sotheby’s Gallery in Asia in 2013. She lives and works in Basel and Hong Kong.

Dr. Martin Brauen

Dr. Martin Brauen, private lecturer, is a cultural anthropologist specialised in Tibet and the Himalayas and museum curator from Bern, Switzerland. From 2008 to 2012, he was the chief curator of the Rubin Museum for Art in New York. Before he has been the head of the Himalaya, Tibet, and the Far East department of the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich. Today he is an independent curator, also involved in modern and contemporary art.

Present Artist: Sonam Dolma Brauen

Sonam Dolma Brauen spent the first six years of her life in Tibet. Due to the Chinese occupation of Tibet, she fled across the Himalayan mountains with her family to India in 1959. At the age of 19, Sonam and her mother emigrated to Switzerland. Sonam began her training in 1990, studying at Art School Bern with Arthur Freuler, Leopold Schropp, Mariann Bissegger, and most significantly, Serge Fausto Sommer. The majority of her paintings are abstract. They are illusory appearances following the Buddhist belief that all appearance is ultimately illusory. After moving to New York City in 2008, she began working more with installations using materials and objects like used monk robes from Asia, plaster, empty amunition shells. Her installations express ongoing themes that preoccupy her: Machoism and its relation to power, money and war; and the political situation in her home country Tibet.