City Branding and Public Art- Fotanian Open Studios

In varied manners and to a greater or lesser extent, “Mobile M+: Inflation!” which took place at the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD), the first ever Art Basel Hong Kong and the HAB (Home Affairs Bureau) -funded “Fotanian Open Studios”, engaged with the Hong Kong community in 2013. Mammoth artworks in “Mobile M+: Inflation!” were displayed in the outdoor park of WKCD, welcoming physical contact with the audiences: for example visitors can jump and bounce on Sacrilege by Jeremy Deller (UK), or walk and sit among the ribs of the “roasted suckling pig” House of Treasures by Cao Fei (China). The curators of the Exhibition expected that by “inviting members of the public to interact firsthand with large-scale inflatable sculptures, ‘Mobile M+: Inflation!’ aims to pose questions about the nature of public art and the ways in which audiences might engage with it.” Whether this could be achieved by freeing the community the etiquetle of visiting a proper art museum is up to the evaluation of M+ and its stakeholders. This exhibition, together with the transaction-focused Art Basel Hong Kong, and Fotanian Open Studios which has evolved from a grass-root endeavor to a publicly-funded, commercially-sponsored event, provided reference to how Hong Kong as a “creative city” can be imagined.