'Crossroads' of cultural influences (2)

Awkward pairing

Having cooperated with six art museums and institutions, 82 artists and 26 curators and assistant curators from the four regions, Feng feels the communications are not often as fluent as previously thought.

Taking the situation in 1+1 as an example, Feng said that while some pairs cooperated quite well, the majority only managed to compromise. Also, certain pairs broke up during the process.

Feng does not view that as a failure but rather a true reflection of the current communication situation between the four regions.

"Very often, people try to communicate but fail," he said. One observation is that artists from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are more likely to accept each other over mainland artists.

This year, as the cooperating institutions are somehow affiliated with certain government organizations, communication appears to be more difficult.

Wang Dong, curator from the mainland, pointed out that though the project was finally done, it was only accomplished after many twists and turns. "Because of the different ways people handle things, some issue that seems easy here becomes rather difficult in another place, and there are reasons for this due to the history of the place," Wang said.

He used the example of transporting artwork: taking a piece from Macao to the mainland is quite efficient, but when contacting a delivery company in Hong Kong, they need to apply for many documents first. In the end, they find it is less troublesome to transport artworks from Hong Kong to Macao first and then to the mainland.

Also, since Crossroads ⋅ Another Dimension is the first time a cooperation is being launched between a mainland city with Kaohsiung, a large port city on Taiwan's southern tip, where the political influence of Taiwan's pro-independent party is dominant, the application procedure for necessary permits took a longer time.

Now as Feng realizes, the real communications are not limited to artists or curators, but have spread to include institutions, delivery companies and government organizations as well.

Reaching out

Bringing art to the public has been proposed by many in the art circle in recent years, and Feng is thinking the same way.

While his exchange projects feature public sharing activities every year, Feng and Chan Yuk Keung, professor at Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, agreed that during one of the forums, they would like to try streaming it on the Internet in order to reach a wider audience.

Even after five years, Feng believes that these days "very few people come to art museums or understand contemporary art." But he said he will keep doing exchanges like this. While communication between the four regions still exists, "it's better than doing nothing," he said.

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