February 7 to 26, 2001

Para/Site Art Space is proud to present the video art exhibition current 001: Open Cities: HKG><ORD, which features the video work by: Mark Chan Kam Lok (HK); John Di Stefano (USA/New Zealand); Doreen Etzler (Germany/HK); Lara Kohl (USA); Jamsen Law (HK); OliveLeung (HK); Fredric Moffet (Canada/USA); Ellen Pau (HK); Deborah Stratman (USA); and Mathias Woo (HK). Open Cities: HKG><ORD is curated by four international curators and artists: Tsong-zung Chang, John Di Stefano, Elaine Ng, and Ellen Pau.

This exhibition of video-works by artists from both Hong Kong and Chicago proposes varied looks at the city as site of inspiration, backdrop, and transformation in a time of rapid global change. Both Chicago and Hong Kong are representative of contemporary global cities' porousness of flows. This exhibition asks how globalization (in its myriad manifestations) contaminates, and/or replicates the local. Although the term "globalization" has been somewhat synonymous with capitalist expansionism, this exhibition wishes to displace this notion by looking at how visual culture has been both instrumental (literally) and antithetical to this characterization. In considering the specificities of the local, artists working in both these cities have much in common but also much that separate and differentiate them. By simultaneously focusing on both the "universality" and the specificities of the local, Open Cities: HKG><ORD wishes to open up spaces in between as sites of contestation as well as identification. Conceptually, the exhibition looks at the social/personal aspects of globalization and its ramifications as expressed through screen culture and as contained within/by the city.

A gallery talk with the curators and artists will be held on Saturday, February 24, 2001, from 4:00 - 5:30pm. The talk will be conducted in English and is free and open to the public.

Open Cities: HKG>ORD will also open in Chicago at the Betty Rymer Gallery, School of the Art Institute of Chicago from February 16 to March 17, 2001. current 001: Open Cities: HKG>ORD at Para/Site Art Space is supported, in part, by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Videotage, and Hanart TZ Gallery.

For more information, please contact Elaine Ng, 9582-9538.