Set in the breathtaking Asia Society Hong Kong Center, the second edition of the Producers’ Network Meeting and Forum (PNMF), organised by West Kowloon Cultural District, took place from May 3 to 6.
In view of the opening of a large number of performing arts centres in the Chinese speaking region over the next five years, producers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan met to explore issues such as the changing arts ecosystem, the change and development in the role of producers, and continued development of artistic content and audiences.
The main goal of the PNMF is to promote the role of producers and curators as facilitators and bridges between artists and key stakeholders in the arts ecosystem. Independent producers and producers working within the growing number of arts and cultural organisations, were invited to discuss regional venue strategies, collaboration and production in China.
Macau was represented by a formidable line up including: Ms. Chloe Lao, Executive Director of Leng Chi Dance Association, Ms. Stella Ho, Artistic Director of dance company ‘Stella & Artists’, Mr. Lawrence Lou from Macao Arts Festival and Mr. Erik Kuong, Executive Director of the 8th Chinese Drama Festival and BOK Festival, and the Executive Director of Point View Art Association.
Erik Kuong is an independent curator, producer and promoter of interdisciplinary and intercultural projects. He worked as programme curator and festival producer in the cultural department of the Macau government for more than a decade and has produced fringe festivals, arts festivals, film festivals and other public festival events. More recently his focus has been on curating international art collaboration projects and promoting collaborations between Asian and international artists.
In 2009, he founded Creative Links Ltd., an arts and creative industries management service company which facilitates collaborations between the public or private sector and the business sector to promote the local arts and creative industries to the international market.
At the 10th anniversary of Macau’s handover to China, he produced Olá Beijing! Macau Contemporary Arts, which was the first Macau festival in Beijing.
CLOSER spoke to the curator at the event and he was clear about his belief that the arts scene in Macau needs a real shake up.
“I think we need to change because we have stayed the same over the years; we have repeated the same patterns. Even though the government talks about the need to invest in the cultural industry, that doesn’t change anything,” says Kuong. “Everyone wants to stay in the safety zone, no one wants to change, and that is the problem.”
The shake up needs to happen from all angles, according Kuong.
“We are trying to produce opportunities for change, letting the audience have new experiences. We have new work to see, and new theatre going experiences. We have a project named Bok Club where we turn the theatre into a club and invite the audience to stay longer and have a drink and have a chat with the artists and audience.”
Despite Macau’s connection with Portugal, the curator doesn’t see a lot of collaboration between Portuguese and Macanese artists in the territory, but taking his ideas to Portugal recently has yielded fruitful results.
“For the past year we have been working in Portugal a lot. They have space and we need space. The costs of producing work in Macau are getting higher and higher. If we can move somewhere to produce, we can reduce the costs.”
So what are his predictions for the arts scene in Macau?
“I think the government needs to open up and they need to be creative in terms of their policies. A few days ago I spoke about the question of ‘how do we utilise our resources?’ For example, we have a lot of space in the community, not necessarily for the arts but for social use, but sometimes they are left empty, so why not use them for arts because arts serve the community as well.”
“A long time ago I proposed using school facilities. Artists can provide art education services to the school as well; different schools have different approaches to arts and the students will be exposed to different things, there is no need for everyone to do the same thing.”
Pooling resources and working together is what the founder of Creative Links Ltd wishes to see.
“We want to produce another platform, a different platform away from the mainstream governmental platform. We want to build a big connection on our own, so we are trying to build and share our own network with everyone. Platforms like this one at PNMF are a good place to make those connections.”
