Our Living Library (2022)
Oi! is dedicated to experimental art, younger artists, and community co-creation. Situated in a dense city-centre neighbourhood, the Oil Street Art Space comprises the graceful former Royal Yacht Club (Grade II historic building) in front of a wide-open natural field. Perhaps the one and only in Hong Kong, it has gradually become an amalgam of cultural platform and public space, a fusion of creative energy and community actions, and an intercourse between artists and seculars.
In 2022, Oi! will double its size. There will be more free space, and Oi! Glassie—a humbly new building for public enjoyment. An integral part of the official opening programme, OUR LIVING LIBRARY, is scheduled to run from May to November this year. The atypical library will present 12 artists and art groups, and 108 art books, each contributed by a friend of Oi!
OUR LIVING LIBRARY
Library is a collective of differences- a place of co-existence, reciprocity, and conservation.
Regrettably, nowadays, libraries have become obsolete in our public life, a dying typology in urge to be redefined. In the digital age, how may knowledge be codified and learnt in a library? How does art library manifest various experiential forms, such as sound, objects, moving images, data and augmentation? How can a community art library differentiate itself from a repository or an archive (not a collection of protected catalogues and books, but a collection of open, generative processes)? How might a library conduct cultural sharing and advocate sharing culture? How can a library grow and evolve with the wider community, absorbing the abundant memory and document of art that exists in the city and beyond?
OUR LIVING LIBRARY is the third and final episode of our Oil Trilogy, a site- and time-specific placemaking exercise for the venue extension. Following SOCIAL GASTRONOMY (2015-2018) and addOi! ART HACKATHON (2020-2021), the trilogical programme essentially explores food, toys and finally books as means to engage. Open to question here are the representation and reproduction, perception and participation, method and methodology, learning and recording of art community, and community art.
Our Living Library
Curatorial Partner Alvin Yip and Kay Chan Wan-ki
Presented by Oi!
貳零貳貳同學會
2022
油街實現
油街實現既是文化平台，也是公共空間，融合創作力量和社區參與，呈現藝術工作務實為民的面貌。
油街實現得天獨厚，立足活化後的前皇家遊艇會(二級歷史建築)，置身鬧市中一片自然景觀。2013年起動，深耕細作，建立了本地獨一無二的文化營地，也成就了實驗藝術引領城區更新的國際範例。邁向第二個十年，擴充後的油街實現四通八達，並帶來更多開放和展覽空間。作為開幕節目，《貳零貳貳同學會》2022年第二季度起隨即展開。新落成的油街玻璃屋中，共計展出十二位藝術家/組合作品和一百零八册藝術書籍。
貳零貳貳同學會
圖書館不只是知識多元的載體，更是不同想法並存、對照、差異、爭鳴的場所。
如今，傳統意義上的圖書館正垂死掙扎，在公共生活中消失。數碼時代來臨，我們哪裡可以共同學習？如何運用藝術體驗如聲音、物件、影像、數據、虛擬形態來傳遞知識？存檔以外，能否觸發溝通與互動，推進文化分享和分享文化？圖書館變身同學會，如何與社區一起成長和演化？
《貳零貳貳同學會》是油街公眾參與三部曲的最終篇。承繼《盛食當灶》(2015-2018) 和《油街藝松》(2020-2021)的食物和玩具實驗，這次「非一般圖書館」計劃運用書籍，延續日常之物作為藝術探索和探索社區的工具，測試藝術在社區如何保留與詮譯、繁殖與再生、認知與學習、交流與共識。
貳零貳貳同學會
策展伙伴 葉長安、陳韻淇
油街實現主辦