With the support of the Tsunan Town government and in collaboration with the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale Executive Committee and the NPO Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Collaborative Organization, the Art Promotion Office launched a three-year project titled "Hong Kong House at Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale" in Sakasamaki, Kamigo, Japan in the summer of 2018, as a platform for residence, exchange and exhibition. To coincide with the 9th Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, the third edition of the three-year Hong Kong House project has been commenced. In 2024, the participating artists from Hong Kong are Matthew Tsang and Cordelia Tam, which were selected through an open call of proposal by the joint adjudication panel of Hong Kong and Japan in 2023.
Two Places Under the Same Sky created by Matthew Tsang and Cordelia Tam is a work that was inspired by the seemingly large differences in how people in the two places Echigo-Tsumari and Hong Kong perceive the connection with nature and time. People in Hong Kong are surrounded by skyscrapers and often work around the clock. Echigo-Tsumari is a region with great mountain ranges, and the famous local rice is the outcome of the farmers’ respect for and adaptation to seasonal changes and the natural environment.
As artists from the city, Matthew Tsang and Cordelia Tam experienced deeply the local natural environment and Satoyama during their residency in Echigo-Tsumari. They shredded waste paper from Hong Kong and Tsunan to make handmade paper and transformed it into a natural
shanshui (mountain and water) landscape — providing a metaphorical cleansing of urban trivialities. Animated sky scenes and lighting effects shift with the passing hours projected on the wall, mirroring the rapid pace of urban life. Handmade soil plates symbolise the enduring bond between farmers and the four seasons, with farm tools rotating like a clock’s movement, revealing an interesting perception of time between the two places.
Leveraging Hong Kong House as an interface, the work pays tribute to the local way of living in harmony with nature and invites the audience to reflect on this. Despite the differences between the two places, they are under the same sky, and time and nature still flow in parallel.
During the exhibition period, the artists forged a bridge of communication and exchange with their artworks and papermaking workshop, expressing the friendship and care between Hong Kong and Tsunan through the art of handmade paper and their artistic creations.
Two Places Under the Same Sky by Matthew Tsang and Cordelia TamExhibition period: 13.07 — 10.11.2024
(Closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays)
Venue: Hong Kong House
Address: 29 — 4 Miyanohara, Kamigo, Tsunan-machi, Nakauonuma-gun, Niigata Prefecture, Japan
Opening hours:
10am — 5pm (July to September)
10am — 4pm (October to November)
(Except Tuesdays & Wednesdays)
Papermaking Workshop
Date: 2024.07.13 – 15, 19-21
Time: 10:00 – 17:00
View and download here:
Exhibition Pamphlet (5.29 MB)