Nostalgists
Kowloon Tsai Park and Morse Park, Hong Kong
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Nostalgists is a pavilion intended to provoke the notion of being nostalgic. The pavilion is composed of a fabric hanging wooden framework encircling six wooden furniture that are designed based on living fragments from precedent informal architecture, serving as containers of Hong Kong people’s everyday collective memories. The blue fabric hanging framework is constructed to envelope and separate the furniture, or what we described as ‘Memories Fragments’, from the outside and exterior. The pavilion defined a territory where stimulative activities organised by the Art Promotion Office (APO) and Hong Kong Public Space Initiative (HKPSI) are carried out to evoke collective memories of the crowd towards the site of Kowloon City.
Context:
The project brief is to create an outdoor structure for collecting stories from neighbours living nearby Kowloon City, serving as a place for social assemblage and reminiscence to the past memories in the first and second phase, and as a backdrop for the final outcome that collates the collected stories into an outdoor performance in the final third phase.The project will be carried out in three phases: first and second phases in Kowloon Tsai Park and third phase will transport to Morse Park.
Concept:
Conceived as a machine to index individual memories of the site Kowloon City, the pavilion is made up of six pieces of furniture in which each relate to a fragment of social space of Kowloon City’s long old days. These furniture each trigger a memory-related activity inside the pavilion, such as a lobby to display personal memories, table for memory writing, postbox for sending lost stories and connections. The territory is enclosed by a fabric hanging framework, defining a temporal and ephemeral area for collecting lost memories of the neighbourhood.
Process:
Sizes of the wooden furniture tops are tiled above the map of Kowloon City, and are later milled as undulating veins of separate furniture. These furniture are therefore a designed set patterned from the same Kowloon City topographical map but fragmented into different parts of the pavilion to stimulate specific memory-related activities.
Production:
The envelope of the pavilion is designed with prefab column structures strengthened by blocks of concrete cast foundation, while the furniture surfaces milled in the studio are assembled in situ by simple rectangular wooden poles to support the furniture structure.
Experience:
Every community story is unforgettable. Everyone can tell his own story. The memories of Kowloon City, written in print, were brought to life by the Kai Fongs. The cross-generational community drama “Reappearance of Memoryprint”, co-created by artist Arvin Cheng and a group of Kai Fongs with different ages, went well on 13rd May. They demonstrated community art and revisualises Kowloon City in the public space.
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Client:
Art Promotion Office (APO), Hong Kong Public Space Initiative (HKPSI)
Occasion:
SeatsTogether: Take PARK in Arts
Typology:
Pavilion
Status:
Completion
Location:
Kowloon Tsai and Morse Park, Hong Kong
Duration:
2019
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Project Team:
Anthony Ko
Collaborators:
Elaine Tsang
Fabrication:
Jason Chong (1130 Studio)
Photography:
Hong Kong Public Space Initiative (HKPSI)
Anthony Ko
Videography:
Art Promotion Office (APO)
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