Re-imagining empty spaces in Hong Kong

Emptyscape(2011-)

In December 2011, Sampson Wong, Sze Ka Yan, and Wiki Lo formed the "Emptyscape", which aims to research and explore the history and characteristics of emptied spaces, and they wish to explore the future potential uses and re-representation of these spaces through art intervention and hence, raise the public awareness of use and discourses on public space. [1]

This research will cover the events of the Emptyscape during its active years from 2012 to 2016. They have led the public to visit some empty spaces, such as Lei Yue Mun Quarry, Ping Che Abandoned Village School, Kwun Tong Secret Container, Western District Public Cargo Working Areas, etc. They carried out art and cultural activities on-site and explored possibilities of idle space in our city. Among the activities, the two Emptyscape Art Festivals (2013 and 2016) got the greatest response. The art festivals not only successfully brought more people to know Ping Che but also inspired many art teams to visit there to hold events and create. The subsequent influence of the festivals continues to this day.

Editor's Note: Background of the Times - Development Controversy in the Northeastern New Territories

Pull back to the social context when Emptyscape was established, At that time, there was a lot of controversy over the development plan of the Northeastern New Territories. In 2007, Chief Executive Donald Tsang stated in his "Policy Address" that he will resume planning and engineering studies for the new towns of Hung Shui Kiu, Kwu Tung North, Ping Che/Ta Kwu Ling, and Fanling North. The plan had been fermented for several years, and since 2012, large-scale and organized protests by residents of the Northeastern New Territories had begun.

In September 2012, Edward Yiu[2], founder of the Real Estate Development and Building Research & Information Center, and Eddie Chu, founder of the Land Justice League, published articles respectively, questioning why the government did not choose to develop 4,000 hectares of idle government lands first but instead chose to open up the countryside in the Northeastern New Territories.

The first project of Emptyscape, "Forum Series", was launched in October 2012. It can be seen from this research that Emptyscape mainly responds to the development plan and land issues of the Northeastern New Territories by using a relatively soft approach, including art, music, and public discussion. The two Art Festivals they hosted were both funded by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council.

In May 2012, Emptyscape walked into a building that was about to be demolished - Kee Fung Building, 189-193 Pei Ho Street, Sham Shui Po, and posted on itsfacebook page, shared the experience。

A few years later, this building no longer exists. When writing this research article in November 2021, the research team found that the original site of 189 Pei Ho Street has now become the new Hong Kong E Hotel, which has been completed in November 2019.

Sampson Wong explained the definition of emptied space in a media interview[4]: "We aimed at two types of spaces, idle and abandoned. The former can be divided into two categories, one is underuse, such as pocket parks, which Wan Chai has the most, and only a few people would visit these parks each month. The second is gaps, which could be found on the sides of the infrastructure projects, they are not easily accessible and undiscovered, such as the undersides of bridges. Abandoned buildings are more obvious, such as Maykong Godown in Tsuen Wan has been vacant for more than ten years, and many village schools were closed due to insufficient student enrollment.”

Why are there so many empty spaces in the city? Claire Yuen, a member of Emptyscape, believes that it is related to the rapid development of the city[2]: "Why does Hong Kong have so many vacant spaces, I think it is because Hong Kong's development is very fast, buildings are built very fast, and buildings are also demolished very quickly. Space, we do not only regard it as physical existence but sometimes carries a lot of identities and memories of people. Besides reusing these spaces, we also want to bring out the stories of the past, to see if people can reimagine what these spaces can be.”

Emptyscape believes that the ways to reuse the spaces should be adjusted according to different conditions, and each space would have different answers, but the only certainty is that "imagination must connect with the community" [5], Sampson Wong once stated in an interview: “Stepping into these idle spaces does make people reflect, such as inside a suspended village school, the school asked me back: 'Why can't I survive? What is a good campus?’ Maybe we can re-examine the village school policy and reutilize the abandoned village school to run alternative schools or community centers! "

From October to December 2012, Emptyscape launched its first project "Forum Series", they held three public lectures. Through the conversations between the speakers and the public, they sought the possibility of various spaces.

Emptyscape Forum Series 1 - Remaking Communities: The Art of Dialogue in Communities
Date: October 21, 2012 (Sunday)
Time: 3pm - 5pm
Venue: Kubrick bc (3 Public Square Street, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon, Hong Kong)
Speakers: Lee Chun Fung (Co-founder of Woofer Ten), Alexander Hui (Senior Lecturer of Liberal Arts Studies, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts), Him Lo (Artist and curator of the HK House of Stories)

Content: We invited several artists who have conducted various experiments with the communities in recent years, to share their views on the theory and practice of "community art". We will also discuss the connection between community and art, what is the reference point in Hong Kong, the potential for liberation and various possibilities, and at the same time comment on the relationship between community and art at this moment.

Emptyscape Forum Series 2 – Ruins
Date: 3 Nov 2012 (Saturday)
Time: 18:00 – 19:00
Venue: 1/F, HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity Speakers: Chu Hoi Dick (Founder of Land Justice League), Lee Wai Yee (V-Artivist), Thickest Choi (Founder of LAWNmap)
Moderator: Ching Wong (Chief Editor of Fleurs des Lettres)

Content: In a series of end-of-the-world movies, depictions of ruins of buildings and landscapes are often the most heart-striking scenes of how our city might end up. Is not the end of the world yet, but there are already scattered emptied spaces idling around, provoking and sometimes bizarre. What are the reasons behind the proliferation of these emptied spaces? Are there any socio-cultural implications behind this phenomenon? Was expulsion one of the causes?

Emptyscape Forum Series 3 - "Stages": Art outside the exhibition venue @DETOUR 2012
Date: December 2, 2012 (Sunday)
Time: 2pm - 4pm
Venue: Wan Chai Police Station
Speakers: Cally Yu (cross-border independent writer), Wen Yau (cross-media artist), Chan Chu Hei (Artistic Director of Theatre Horizon/ Initiator of the 2012 HK People’s Fringe Festival)
Moderator: Lau Tin Ming (Assistant Principal of HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity)

Content: Many art forms are expected to have a certain performing space, the white box of contemporary art, the black box of dramas, the cinema, the book of literature, etc. If this form is liberated from the original site-specificity and jumps into the city, what is the potential to create another site-specificity? Can art use this kind of site replacement and at the same time expand our imaginations about the "public" and "space" of the original concept of public space?

Date: December 16, 2012
Time: 3pm - 9pm
Venue: Former Stone Quarry, Sam Ka Tsuen, Lei Yue Mun
Activities:
1. Performance (3pm - 4:30pm; 5:30pm - 7pm)
-Participating/performing units: MO.MEN.T, Mini Noise, Lau Tin Ming Evening YOGA, Unlocked Dance Plaza "Site-specific Dance Theater", Black Bird Theatre X Lau Ming Hang "Pop-up Book Theater", anandosiddhiSongs, Wimer Ongsitco Chan. Cai Ying
2. Roundtable discussion/sharings/ Kite time/ play (4:30 - 5:30pm)
3. Outdoor Screening (7 pm)
- Documentation ”Hidden Agenda The Movie”

At the end of 2012, Emptyscape cooperated with the HK People’s Fringe Festival to hold the closing ceremony of the Festival 2012 at the Lei Yue Mun Quarry. The activity description [6] states that since the end of the century, the stone quarry has been established in Lei Yue Mun, but as the quarrying industry gradually declined, the quarry has been closed and abandoned for a long time. "Through a circuitous path in Sam Ka Tsuen, we can walk to the ruins of the quarry. The magnificent stone walls, a meadow near the sea, and scattered stone houses made us infinite imagination about this place. We hope to expand everyone's imagination of idle space by holding this activity on the rock."

In the dark, they gathered in the deserted wilderness to play music, have picnics, and watch documentaries. Veteran art critic Jass Leung once described the closing ceremony as "opening up a new form"[7].

Since 2013, Emptyscape has carried out several activities in Ping Che, hoping to let more people know about this beautiful village and burst out the imagination of space. One of the largest events was the first Emptyscape Art Festival "Ping Che Village School Art Festival" held in early June of 2013. A total of 2,300 people participated in the four-day event.

Why Ping Che?

Sampson Wong revealed in an interview that he first noticed Ping Che by chance[8], "I came to (Ping Che) not to hold an art festival, just because I was concerned about the Northeastern New Territories, I participated in a guided tour. A villager Choi Gor (Gor means older brother in Chinese) was very excited and took us to the village school. We were so shocked and wanted to do/organize some things here. After walking out of the village school, I felt that the village school could be regenerated. The whole Ping Che is a very attractive place, and can be regenerated.”

February and April: Ta Kwu Ling/Ping Che Guided Tour

Date: 17 & 24 February / 7 & 21 April 2013
Time: 2pm - 5pm (3 hours)
Fee: HKD60 per person (including traditional snacks and drinks)
Meeting point: Ta Kwu Ling District Rural Committee (playground)
Number of participants: each group starts with 15 people

Activities: 1. Main issues of the Northeastern New Territories development (Why to develop? For whom? For what?)
2. Overlook the buildings in Shenzhen from Ta Kwu Ling Restricted Area (Ta Kwu Ling/ Ping Che is connected to the border)
3. To the closed village school to talk about the origin of the village school and the childhood memories of the villagers
4. Visit organic farms and farmland
5. Refreshments and exchanges, allowing participants to understand rural life and exchange views on government projects
Introduction: We always hear the names Ta Kwu Ling / Ping Che when the news is reporting the weather and frost in Hong Kong. However, if you ask someone where Ta Kwu Ling / Ping Che is, I believe very few people would know. Ta Kwu Ling/Ping Che began to attract attention due to the "Northeastern New Territories Planning", but people are still very unfamiliar with this place. Therefore, through the guided tours, we hope the public can get to know our community and understand the characteristics of our community, including rural life and agriculture, and let the public understand the value of Ta Kwu Ling/Ping Che to Hong Kong and the truly sustainable form of development.

March: The Diminishing Classroom Mini Concert - Unplugged
Date: March 17, 2013
Time: 2:30pm - 7pm
Venue: Ping Yeung Public School, Ping Che, New Territories
Performances: Wonderland (band), Ky Chan (singer), Dennis Ng & Polly So (trombone and viola duet), Wednesday Singers (ensemble), Lego Shum, Sze, Heron, Max Lee ( music and dance), Edmund Leung (singer), Mini Noise (Grassroots Folk Band)

Introduction: After thorough acquaintance with the villagers of Ping Che, Emptyscape held a mini-concert in the newly discovered abandoned Ping Yeung Public School as its first public event. The logistics and potential of the school were tested. Musicians came and experimented on this new event ground and the outcome was a great success, setting a great example for upcoming events.

May: Workshops

1. "The End of Hong Kong" Village School Onsite Sketching Installation Workshop
Date: 1 May 2013 (Public Holiday, Wednesday)
Time: 11am – 5pm
Location: Ping Yeung Public School
Workshop instructors: Carrie Cheung and Gum Cheng (Hong Kong artists and curators, founders of C&G Art Unit)
Content: The public is invited to come to this abandoned village school to sketch on-site, integrate the campus anecdotes provided by the villagers into the sketches, and make installation exhibitions inside and outside the campus.

2. Village School Contemporary Art Workshop
Date: May 25 and May 26, 2013 (can join both days or just one day)
Time: 11am - 6pm
Venue: Ping Yeung Public School
Workshop instructor: Yeung Sau Cheuk, Carrie Cheung & Gum Cheng, Law Man Lok, Ng Ka Chun, Fan Lok Yi, Hour 25 production, Tin Cheung (the former student of Ping Yeung School), Stella Tsoi, Wayne Wong, Janet Choi & Yiu Pak Tun, Lo Wan Ki, Sze Ka Yan, etc.
Content: Led by the participating artists, they will complete artworks together and help each other to set up the campus. These works are closely related to the school's cultural landscape, Ping Che's history, and nature.

Date: June 1, 2, 8, 9, 2013
Time: 12noon - 6pm
Location: Former Ping Yeung Public School Building (The school was established in the 1950s, and the campus covers an area of more than 20,000 square meters.)

Program:

1. Contemporary Art: “Grounded: Ping Yeung School of Art” Exhibition

Participating Artists: C&G (Clara CHEUNG & Gum CHENG Yee-Man), FAN Lok Yi, HOUR 25 production, Janet CHOI & YIU Pak Tun, LAI Wai Yi Monti, LAM Tin Cheung, LAW Man Lok, LAWNMAP Hong Kong, LO Wan Ki, Matthew TSANG Man Fu, NG Ka Chun, Siu Pang, Stella TSOI, Wayne WONG, YEUNG Sau Cheuk

-Introduction: 16 art units create works in Ping Yeung Public School. Some works are based on local traditional craftsmanship. Some works are based on the interaction and dialogue between artists and villagers. Some works show the creator's passion and reflection on nature and the environment. "Grounded: Ping Yeung School of Art" was inspired by the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale in Japan. The exhibition aims to reflect on the relationship between urban and rural areas and discuss alternative development models through artistic creation.

Some of the works

2. Photography: Style of the Northeastern New Territories - “that’s what we call life”

3. Music: Phe Che Music Night
Performers: MC Yan@ FucKin Music | Mininoise | Wong Jing @ People Mountain People Sea | Edmund Leung | Wonderland | John Choi | Wilmer Ongsitco Chan | The Vigilantes | Nelson X Les Fung

An audience wrote down the most touching scene of the concert on his blog: "Leave early, I won't able to see Wong Jing and MC Yan's performance. I can’t stay till late as I have something to do. However, I can still see the most touching scene, teachers and students who used to be taught and studied here, crowded onto the stage and sang the school song. Although Ah Gut is not a student of this school, listening to them singing the school song, I was moved to tears." [ 11]

4. Performances

Some activities:

5. Football Match

6. Forums: Forum on Land and Country Schools

-Forum 1: The Land and the Context of Northeastern New Territories
Speakers: Chan Kim Ching, Sampson Wong
Introduction: After the third phase of consultation on the development of the Northeastern New Territories, the government is waiting for the response from the residents and the society in the three districts. At this critical moment, let us summarize and foresee.

-Forum 2: The Past, Present & Future of Ping Yeung
Guests: Lee Hoi Yin, Yip Chung Sing, Leung Lai Yan
Introduction: Talk about the memory of the village school, the present, and the future.

7. Workshops: Villager skills and classes taught by artists
-Pop-up Card Workshop by Sunfool
-Henna Art & Face Painting
-Dance of Nature: Touch Jam by David Leung
-Photography and Flashlight workshop by Cpak Ming
- ‘Body. Life’ Rhythm Workshop by Lam Bik Kwan
-IDEA Workshop: Letter Making by Mak Ching Man

8. Guided tours:
- Ping Che Guided Tours led by villagers and volunteers
- Curator Guided Tour for Schoo and Artwork
- Cycling tours

9. Screening
- “City Farmers”(Directors: Rebeka Tam, Li Juntong)
-- "Yeung Yeung With Cows" (Director: Wong Cheuk Man)
- "Tree/Earth, Seahorse, Blue-footed Bird" (Director: Emily Wong)
- "Heartbeat 48" (Director: Leo Lam)

Date: September 20, 2013
Time: 2pm - 9pm
Installation location: Opposite Kowloon Flour Mill, Kwun Tong, in an irrelevant yellow container. Introduction: We will take the participants to a mysterious space that is not revealed in advance

Activity:
1. Journey (2 pm – 4 pm): We will take walk-in participants to leave the festival and go to a mysterious place, and they will bring what they have seen and heard back to the festival venue to announce. (Departure time: 2:30 pm, 3:00 pm, 3:30 pm, 4:00 pm, first-come, first-served, on-the-spot registration, location: Public space at the junction of How Ming Street/Hoi Bun Road, 126 Hoi Bun Road, Kwun Tong)
2. Installation (4 pm – 9 pm): The interactive installation will allow friends who have not participated in the journey to feel the experience of those who have participated in the journey.
Remarks: This event is a collaboration with media artist Jason Lam, as part of MaD's curation.

Date: December 7, 2013 (Saturday)
Time: 9pm - 10pm
Location: Western District Public Cargo Working Areas Program: Free Music Night / Sharing Session / Discussion Forum / Play

Introduction: This time, we chose the Western District Public Cargo Working Areas. This coast is privately owned, but it is a post-twilight paradise for nearby residents to stroll and play after dinner. Would you like to come and have a look? Tentatively, there are no "performing" teams. Please bring your musical instrument or something that makes a sound, comfortable clothing, food, and drink. At the pier, listen to the sound of the water lapping the shore, chat with music and dance, and enjoy a completely free night!

Date: January 24 to February 23, 2014 (Closed on public holidays)
Time: 12noon - 7pm
Venue: Run Run Shaw Centre for Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong

CityU held a month-long art exhibition, Emptyscape curated the installation part, which put the works by four “hidden” artists living in the Northeastern New Territories in the public spaces on different floors of the Run Run Shaw Centre. Four artists were Tsang Fan Hong (Ma Shi Po), Cheung Kwai Choi (Ping Che), Wong Hung Kun (Chi Kee Timber Yard), and Siu Pang (Ping Che).

In the exhibition, Choi Gor (Cheung Kwai Choi), a villager in Ping Che, created a large-scale sculpture titled "Self Destruction". He described his creative concept in the film[12]: "I want to use my voice as a villager to let everyone know that if the land is destroyed, there is no way back, and if it is covered with concrete, the land is like death... (the work symbolizes) people destroying land because of money, but not knowing that the consequences will be borne by oneself, so it is called self-destruction.”

On one of the nights of the first Emptyscape art festival in 2013, a group of villagers staged a concert at Ping Yeung Public School, which had been idle for six years. Different original music reverberated and stacked in the space. Due to this unforgettable experience, Sze Ka Yan, a member of Emptyscape, decided in 2015 to invite different local independent music creators to collaborate with villagers to compose songs about Ping Che, which was planned to be recorded as the "Ping Che Concept Album". On the evening of March 7, 2015, they held the fundraising concert of the 2nd Emptyscape Art Festival and the launching ceremony of the Ping Che concept album.

The album was finally named "Fragrant Village" and was officially released on February 20, 2016. The album contains ten songs in total. Ten pairs of Hong Kong independent musicians have created a piece for a villager in Ping Che, Kwu Tung, and Ma Shi Po in the northeastern New Territories. Hong Kong writer Liu Wai Tong commented: "Such a sincere art intervention in social movements has been long gone in Hong Kong in recent years." [13]

Song List:
1. Freedom or Disappearance (Musician: Tsui Chin Hung; Villager: Chan Suk Fung @ Ping Che)
2. This Day We Fight (Musician: The Interzone Collective; VIllager: KK@ Ping Che)
3. The Changing Ng Tung River (Musician: Ky Chan @ libido; Villager: Becky Au @ Ma Shi Po)
4. Liang Tang at the Door(Musician: MC Yan, Heartgrey; Villager: Ah Long@ Ping Che)
5. The origin of Aspirations (Musician: Wonderland; Villager: Yu Mui and family@ Ping Che)
6. Village Woman…Little Mountain (Musician: Nelson Hiu; Villager: Candy Yau @ Ping Che)
7. Pig Farming Koo (Musician: Tsing Lap Wong; Villager: Ah Koo @ Ping Che)
8. City (Musician: Mui Tan Shu Liu; Villager: Chun Kee Organic Farm @ Ping Che)
9. The Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Musician: Wilmer Chan, Shuying Cao; VIllager: Wah Gor @ Kwu Tung)
10. The Dance of Dong Dong Mountain (Musician: Billy Hung; Villager: Choi Gor @ Ping Che)

Many of the songs include the monologues of the villagers. For example, at the end of "The Changing Ng Tung River", Ma Shi Po villager Becky Au said, "I am Au Hei Man. I have lived in Ma Shi Po Village since I was born. ... Ng Tung River and Ma Shi Po Village are my home, I like here, three generations of us have been rooted here, and many villagers are the same.”

In November 2016, the singer-songwriter of "Fragrant Village" and a group of northeastern new territories villagers even appeared on the Clockenflap stage. Among them, Ping Che villager Cai Go and Billy Hung of the folk band "Mini Noise" were on the stage singing "The Dance of Dong Dong Mountain". In the interview, Sze Ka Yan said that she hopes to take every pair of ears to roam the Hong Kong countryside, and at the same time, she also asks the villagers to revive their memories of forgetting through singing. "I want to continue these songs and emotions, and I want to retain the land and human feelings of this place with music." [14]

After the first Ping Che Emptyscape Art Festival in 2013, this rural village on the border of Hong Kong has embraced more changes. Ping Che villager KK initiated a village beautification activity, and Emptyscape also began to participate in it in 2014. Slowly, the pathway leading to the village became a vibrant flower path, and the old houses of the villagers were painted with colorful murals. Artists, volunteers, and children from all over the world have joined this beautification project. Since then, Ping Che has had a new identity - Ping Che Mural Village.

In an interview, KK explained the reason for launching the beautification of the village[15]: "In recent years, the government has often mentioned 'sustainable development', and KK thought it over and over again: 'Does constructing buildings all over the city mean a sustainable development? ’KK believed that there are farmland and vegetable fields here, and different vegetables, fruits, and plants can be grown, it is sustainable development in itself. '(Beautifying the village) Today I draw one drawings, and I can paint another drawings tomorrow and paint a different pattern. I don't know if this can be called sustainable development, but I think it is close to this concept. But if you build and develop buildings, there is no space in Hong Kong to do that.'

Date: February 20, 21, 27, 28 (2 weekends and 4 days in total)
Time: 12pm – 6pm
Information Center: Entrance of Ping Yeung Public School, Ping Che, N.T.
Co-organizer: Ta Kwu Ling/Ping Che Alliance
Booklet:https://issuu.com/emptyscape/docs/20160218_booklet_spreads_v2

Some of the works:

Repositioning art festival shows great vitality

Since the Government announced the Northeast New Territories Development Plan in 2007, Fanling North, Kwu Tung North, Ping Che, and Ta Kwu Ling have been included into the overall planning. However, in the 2013 amendment, Ping Che and Ta Kwu Ling were excluded, and development was temporarily shelved. The Secretary for Development, Chan Mo Po, explained at the time that the main reason was the poor transportation facilities, emphasizing that it had nothing to do with disputes such as the integration of Shenzhen and Hong Kong.

With Ping Che and Ta Kwu Ling temporarily escaping the fate of demolition, how will the 2nd Emptyscape Art Festival proceed? Claire Yuen, a member of Emptyscape, bluntly stated in an interview in 2016 that the festival needs to be repositioned[5]: "When Ping Che entered the Northeast Development (plan), the political context was much stronger. Some fundamental changes to the art festival need to be repositioned. How should we look at this place? We need to change the strategy. Go back to people, such as how to cultivate deeply. Ping Che Villagers are very inclusive, which is very different from other villages. In the past three years, (villagers) cooperate with more than 40 organizations. How can the village be maintained more vigorously? (Art festival) this time is called “Beyond the village school”, take people to explore the surrounding areas of the school.”

The activities of this art festival are scattered all over Ping Che. Sampson Wong hopes that the audience can take a walk to experience Ping Che slowly, "I hope that the audience can accept that wonderful art does not necessarily take place in a typical art space. I want to have a walking experience, the works are separated a little, and the works will take you to look at this place again.”[8]

Emptyscape’s Website:https://emptyscape.wordpress.com/