Recycling

Chan Yuk Keung, an art professor from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, summarized during the forum a public art story of Hong Kong in which two designers picked up speckled ceramic mugs scheduled for the trash heap and converted those speckles into art.

Chan believes public art, which can be dated back to the classical age when it was used by the authorities for education and indoctrination, might now start to listen to its audience, who are educated and believe in equal rights.

Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts professor Li Gongming agreed with Chan.

One significant function of contemporary public art should be addressing social issues to facilitate the development of a civil society, he said.

"More and more artists and community managers have come to share a common ground that the intervention of art into the public should be sharp, profound and distinct," Li said.

Li spoke highly of six public art cases that won the International Award for Public Art in April last year, jointly organized by Public Art China periodical and the Public Art Review from the US.

Among the laureates was the campus of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing, which has maintained the area's natural mountain-water topography, traditional village houses and fields while also featuring collaborative architecture produced by artists and villagers.

"This specific art itself has gradually deconstructed the commemorative function and focuses on how to realize its 'public' feature through communication and interaction with audiences," said Fang Xiaofeng, an art professor from Tsinghua University in Beijing.