香港中文大學藝術系、香港中文大學圖書館與園泉聯手呈獻
2020年10月21日 – 2021年8月16日
香港中文大學圖書館展覽廳
Participating Artists : The archive of Art In the Camps , Les Bird , Law Yuk Mui , Vicky Do , Will Pham
參與藝術單位: 「越營藝穗」檔案庫 , Les Bird , 羅玉梅 , 杜薇 (Vicky Do) , Will Pham
Curator/策展人
Leung Ho Yin/梁皓然
Department of Fine Arts and the Library of The Chinese University of Hong Kong announced today that a new exhibition,”Nàng Tự Do”, will be held at the main library of The Chinese University of Hong Kong from October 21, 2020 to April 16, 2021. The theme of this exhibition is the life and artworks of Vietnamese boatpeople living in the detention camps in Hong Kong from the 1980s and 1990s. The exhibition aims to discuss the relationship between “refugees” and the contemporary society by reviewing this unique piece of forgotten history.
“Nàng Tự Do”, Vietnamese, means “Miss Freedom” in English. The title of the exhibition is drawn from Tự Do (Freedom Magazine), a magazine that was published by the boatpeople in the camp for the boatpeople at that time. This magazine is all written in Vietnamese and edited by people in the camps. Because of the language, the magazine has never been heard by the people outside the camps. This exhibition wants to understand the archive of Art In the Camps (Garden Streams) from a contemporary point-of-view, instead of presenting the works with a gaze that stereotypes their identity.
During the Vietnam War in 1975, a large number of Vietnamese refugees fled to different parts of the world. In the history of the “refugee wave” that lasted more than two decades, Hong Kong hosted more than 200,000 Vietnamese refugees. Refugees who crossed the “Furious Sea” and arrived Hong Kong were placed in detention camps since the mid-1980s. They had been waiting day and night for more than eight years. Several artists from Garden Streams have created a project called “Art In the Camps” in 1988. The project aims to bring art into the detention camps, which included painting with adults and children in the camp, and documenting their lives with photographs. The archive of “Art In the Camps” was sent to the Netherlands since its last appearance in Hong Kong in 2008. In 2019, the archive has officially become a permanent collection as part of the Special Collection of the Chinese University of Hong Kong Library. This upcoming exhibition is going to provide a new context of the works and to reorganize the content of the archives, as well as inviting contemporary artists from Hong Kong, Vietnam, and the United Kingdom to react to the archive.
香港中文大學藝術系與圖書館今天公布全新展覽「Nàng Tự Do」 將於2020年10月21日至2021年4月16日在香港中文大學圖書館舉行。是次展覽以越南船民於80-90年代香港的羈留營的生活和藝術創作為主題，通過回顧這段歷史來探討「難民」與今天社會的關係。
「Nàng Tự Do」為越南語，即「自由小姐」的意思。自八十年代，香港社會漸漸對越南難民生厭，不再以「難民」而改以「船民」稱呼他們，暗示他們貧窮、缺乏教育的一面。今天回看，其實「難民」的定義廣泛，除了戰爭外，經濟、天災等等也是讓一個人成為難民的原因。所以這展覽以「自由小姐」命名，以幽默的擬人法讓觀眾明白這群逃離家園的人其實也有她們所追求的價值。展覽標題出自當時船民於營裡自行出版的雜誌「Tự Do」(自由雜誌) , 這雜誌以全越南語寫成，並由營裡的人共同創作，正正因為語言的原因，這雜誌一直未有為大眾所認識。這展覽希望能一破把「越南船民」視為局外人的以視角，並以當代藝術的角度理解園泉的越營藝穗檔案以及越南船民在香港的歷史。
1975年越戰，大量越南難民逃到世界不同地方，在長達二十多年的「難民潮」歷史裡，香港共收留逾二十萬名越南難民。越過「怒海」來港的難民自八十年代中期起被安置於羈留營裡，經歷了長達八年日復日地等待的日子。幾位來自園泉的藝術家於1988年自發組織了一項名為「越營藝穗」的計劃，旨在把藝術帶進羈留營裡，與營裡的成人、小朋友作畫，更以照片紀錄營中生活。「越營藝穗」的檔案庫自2008年最後一次於香港亮相後被送到荷蘭。2019年，「越營藝穗」的檔案庫正式永久成為香港中文大學圖書館的特藏。這展覽將重新梳理檔案庫的內容脈絡，並邀請了來自香港、越南、英國的當代藝術家回應檔案庫，把此一檔案連結到香港歷史、回憶的層面。
全人藝動 Art for All 