‘While We Are Here’ – the 2020 Art Basel Hong Kong Encounters exhibition curated by Alexie Glass-Kantor – explores the impact we have on the world around us

‘What are we going to do to shape the issues of our time?’

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‘Life is short, but history is long. While we are here, what are we going to do to shape, catalyze, and engage with the issues of our time’, says Alexie Glass-Kantor, Executive Director of Artspace, Sydney and curator of Art Basel Hong Kong’s Encounters sector. Titled ‘While We Are Here’, the 2020 edition of Encounters presents 12 projects by artists of a variety of nationalities, backgrounds,&nbsp;and generations, each of whom bring their own perspective to this guiding theme.&nbsp;The projects are situated along the four meridians that run through the show’s two halls. ‘What I love is that the Encounters works have a conversation with the show’, says Glass-Kantor, ‘they introduce an element of unpredictability and dynamism to the fair&nbsp;–&nbsp;they become landmarks for visitors.’ Nine of the works have been developed specifically for Art Basel Hong Kong, ranging from the large-scale, including installations by Imran Qureshi,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/15405/Patricia-Perez-Eustaquio">Patricia Perez Eustaquio</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/45836/Marion-Baruch">Marion Baruch</a>, to the intimate and unexpected, such as an itinerant performance piece by Asad Raza. ‘Wherever possible, I wanted to commission or premiere new works, works that haven’t been seen anywhere else, and works that have a site-specific resonance’, says Glass-Kantor.

The American artist Asad Raza is interested in what happens when an unexpected social exchange takes place in a public space. For his Hong Kong piece, Raza has instructed performers to quietly engage with fair goers and encourage them to play catch with a small ball. This shared moment of levity, amidst the bustle of the exhibition halls, will create a different kind of exchange to the one found elsewhere at the show. Also among the newly-commissioned pieces is a work by the acclaimed Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi. At first glance, Qureshi’s installations of unstretched canvas dripping with crimson paint evoke the aftermath of an act of violence or terror. In detail, these seemingly haphazard splashes of paint are composed of fine floral motifs, recalling the exquisite miniature painting of the Mughal courts.Ninety-one-year-old Romanian-born artist Marion Baruch, who has been creating large-scale sculpture since the 1970s, presents a new textile-based intervention for Encounters. Living and working in Gallarate, Italy, Baruch now works almost exclusively with the offcuts of fabric left behind during the cloth cutting process at Milan's fashion houses. The results are delicate hanging pieces that will respond to the architecture of the building.&nbsp;

An installation of charcoal sculptures by South Korean artist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/40717/Lee-Bae" target="_blank">Lee Bae</a> will embody a different kind of material transformation and renewal. These sculptures (pictured at top of page)&nbsp;are the result of rigorous labor; producing the charcoal himself, the artist burns logs in a traditional red clay kiln for 15 days and cools them down for another 15 days.&nbsp;In contrast, the British Turner Prize-nominated artist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8388/Mike-Nelson">Mike Nelson</a>, uses readymade objects for his installation: a selection of works from The Asset Strippers, originally presented in London for the 2019 Tate Britain Commission. These obsolete pieces of salvaged industrial machinery (such as knitting machines, cement mixers and filing cabinets), left behind from the bygone days of British industry, will find new life and meaning within the context of Art Basel Hong Kong.

Around half the works on show are by artists from Asia, including specially commissioned pieces by Hong Kong-based artists&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/15411/Andrew-LUK">Andrew Luk</a> and Yuk King Tan; new installations by leading Filipino artist Patricia Perez Eustaquio and the Korean artists&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7941/Gimhongsok">Gimhongsok</a>&nbsp;and Lim Oksang; and a new work by the Karachi-based artist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/34465/Adeela-Suleman">Adeela Suleman</a>, whose richly detailed sculptures continue the filigree tradition of Islamic art. The Indonesian artist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/11546/Handiwirman-Saputra">Handiwirman Saputra</a> shows an iteration of No Roots, No Shoots, his installation for the 2019 Venice Biennale. ‘I wanted to work with artists that represent a diversity of ways of thinking through our current moment in time’, says Glass-Kantor, ‘and bring these works together to tell a story about the impact we have on the world around us, and our potential to shape history, while we are here.’Discover more information on the&nbsp;artists featured in Art Basel Hong Kong’s Encounters sector&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/hong-kong/exhibitors?lang=en#39060" target="_blank">here</a>.Top image: Installation view of&nbsp;Lee Bae,&nbsp;Landscape,&nbsp;2014 at&nbsp;Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, 2014.&nbsp;Photo &copy; Park Myung-Rae.&nbsp;&copy; Lee Bae.

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