Le(n)s Blank

2021

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Happening​

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as part of BODW CityProg 2021

HART Haus, Hong Kong

More and more contemporary art and design practices

attempt to connect with the communities they are part of.

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This situation traverses the fields of socially engaged art or participatory/ co-design.

These fields share a need for the creative practitioner to recognize

both their own vision and that of those that surround them.

Being responsible to both requires noticing one’s self and the contexts that surround them.

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The Buoy, therefore, facilitated a movie night,

an opportunity for participants to watch two portraits of artists in relation to community.

Two well-known documentary films by Les Blank were screened.

In them, the artist must design an image within the local community to fulfil their creative vision.

 

Over the course of four hours, participants watched the stories unfold while retaining awareness to social boundaries, or lack thereof and discussed their findings.

During this time, participants also witnessed the work going on at HART Haus.

 

For, seeing behind the scenes within the “social studio” inevitably holds

not just the final work, but the community it is made within.