BLUE LOTUS AUDIO ARCHIVE

MARC PROGIN - BACK TO NATURE

Podcast recorded at Blue Lotus Gallery on 4th July 2020. We have chosen to keep the music of the slideshow even though as a listener you cannot see the images, we hope it will bring you part of the way.

Back to Nature is to be where nothing else counts and exists than the moment and the place where you are;
where an hour lasts a full day, where pollution is an unknown word;
it is to be in a vast land of exceptional quality
that has remained as natural as it was at in the beginnings of time, where man is rarely seen,
where the air is odourless,
the rain a beverage
and the celestial bodies companions.

Once you are there, there is no 'elsewhere', only a horizon beyond which you don’t want to see. Back to nature is a photographic journey through Mongolia, with Marc Progin, that bypasses the walls of societies and the cities to enlarge our horizon and reconnect with the 3 worlds that are the sky, the earth and nature. It is at the same time while travelling in open space, to enter your inner self; to discover the beauties of nature and awaken those who sleep in you. It is to find the human essence, from where we came from and to give a reason to our life, learn for what else we are on earth than to live.

Travelling the seasons, across the deserts, the mountains and the Steppe, you will meet on the way with nomads, the wildlife, migrating birds, the hunters and ride on camel or horse back along with their caravans.

To sum up, Back to Nature is meant to start your mother clock, the one that nature had given you at birth. Have a nice journey.

The world has been in lockdown due to the ongoing pandemic and longing for connection to other human beings, animals and the earth as well as a strong pull towards working the land and rural living is emerging everywhere. This has been a time for re-evaluating many of the basic elements we accept to be ‘normal life.’ The global anxiety caused by climate change and the daily destruction and suffering being witnessed en masse results the questions being asked about modern existence and consumption are ever louder and more urgent. These sentiments echo Progin’s personal call toward Mongolia and his subsequent photographic work and written prose act as an antidote to the chaos around us. Listening to the wisdom of the still living ancient tribes and cultures offers guidance in times where action appears meaningless. Art and Nature have the ability to heal and to enlighten and this exhibition is deeply tuning-in to both.

This podcast in the form of a talk and poetry reading served as the finissage event for the 'Back to Nature' solo exhibition by Marc Progin on 4th July 2020:

IAN LAMBOT - EXPLORING WALLED CITY OF KOWLOON

This interview is an excerpt from a longer conversation with Blue Lotus Gallery in early 2019.

Ian Lambot trained as an architect at Bath University in the UK and worked briefly for the Richard Rogers Partnership before arriving in Hong Kong in February 1979. Intending to stay a month or so at most, he ended up living there for 20 years during which time he ran an architectural model-making studio and spent two years working with Norman Foster and Partners on the early stages of the Hongkong Bank project, before finally setting himself up as a freelance photographer, graphic designer and subsequently publisher.

After producing his first book of photographs describing the construction of the Hongkong Bank, he set up Watermark Publications in 1986 through which, in the years since, he has published numerous books on architecture and engineering, including four volumes on the work of Norman Foster and his acclaimed book City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City.

Ian now lives back in the UK, where he still edits, designs and publishes books, while also continuing to travel regularly to HK and the Far East.

CITY OF DARKNESS

This influential body of work, which to date sold over 25,000 book copies, will be on view in a gallery setting for the first time since first published.

For nearly 50 years, the extraordinary community of Kowloon Walled City cut a dark presence in the heart of Hong Kong. Yet without legislation and with little regard for basic services, planning and regulations or building standards, the city not only survived, it positively thrived.

But how could such a place exist in a modern metropolis without administrative oversight, ‘triply neglected’ by the British, Chinese and Hong Kong governments? Who would choose to live there? And why?

Ian Lambot and Greg Girard set about photographing the Walled City shortly before its demolition due to a deep fascination and because “for all its horrible shortcomings, its builders and residents succeeded in creating what modern architects, with all their resources of money and expertise, have failed to: the city as ‘organic megastructure’, not set rigidly for a lifetime but continually responsive to the changing requirements of its users, fulfilling every need from water supply to religion, yet providing also the warmth and intimacy of a single huge household ...”

Nearly thirty years on from the Walled City’s demolition, this project offers a unique insight into the remarkable community that was Kowloon Walled City, home to 35,000 people at its peak and by far the most densely populated neighbourhood the world had ever known.

In the years since 1994 demolition, the Walled City has attained a kind of punk immortality and a visual aesthetic showing a modernist dystopia mixing filth, darkness, and haphazard concrete construction and overcrowding into a single unsettling yet irresistible brew that is often used in movies, video games or described in books to evoke what only this place managed to organically create.

XYZA CRUZ BACANI - WE ARE LIKE AIR

Podcast recorded at Blue Lotus Gallery on 26th of January 2019.

Xyza Cruz Bacani (b.1987) is a Filipina Street and Documentary photographer based in Hong Kong who uses her work to raise awareness about under-reported stories. Having worked as a second-generation domestic worker in Hong Kong for almost a decade, she is particularly interested in the intersection of labour migration and human rights. She is one of the Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellows in 2015, has exhibited worldwide, and won awards in photography. She is also the recipient of a resolution passed by the Philippines House of Representatives in her honour, HR No.1969. Xyza is one of the Asia 21 Young Leaders (Class of 2018), the WMA Commission grantee in 2017, a Pulitzer Center grantee, and an Open Society Moving Walls 2017 grantee. She is one of the BBC’s 100 Women of the World 2015, 30 Under 30 Women Photographers 2016, Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2016, and author of the book We Are Like Air.

WE ARE LIKE AIR is an exceptional inside story on migration by magnum awarded photographer Xyza Cruz Bacani, born in Philippines in 1987.

Migration is inevitable. The UN estimates some 100 million women have left their home countries because of violence, poverty, and lack of opportunity. Because they mostly end up working in kitchens, nurseries, farms, or brothels, they are hidden and kept out of public life. How do we end force migration? Should we end it? How do we create a better society that is both beneficial for migrants and their host countries?

Xyza Cruz Bacani experienced the pain of separation herself growing up without her mother who was a migrant worker in Hong Kong. ‘I want to shed light onto our private lives and by doing so, to help the reader see domestic helpers as individuals, who deserve understanding and respect, and not just as people hired to perform menial, routine tasks. I want to tell our story as champions, not just victims on both sides of the migration divide. We Are Like Air because migrant workers are often treated like air; important and unseen.

HONG KONG DIMENSIONS

DAPHNÉ MANDEL - HONG KONG’S DARK ALLEYS

Podcast recorded at Blue Lotus Gallery on 2nd of June 2018.

Daphné Mandel was born in 1975 in Lausanne, Switzerland to a French father and a Dutch mother and grew up in Paris.  She credits her Dutch grandmother, a respected textile artist, with instilling in her a deep appreciation of art and painting.  Daphné studied architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning in Versailles and graduated in 2000.  She co-founded the Paris based landscape architecture and urban planning firm Gilot & Mandel Paysage.  She and her partner were named "Best Young Urban Planning and Landscape Architecture Professionals" by the French Ministry of Culture (2006).  As a result, a number of public parks, city centres, cultural sites, and sports venues in France and abroad bear Daphne's touch.  She found inspiration in her move to Hong Kong in 2008 to explore other means of creative and artistic expression.

Daphné's artworks explore old Hong Kong’s architecture while introducing imaginary and whimsical elements as a way to exploit the incredible urban paradoxes of this city in constant metamorphosis.  

The evolution of her works is tied inexorably to the evolution of Daphné’s perception of the city.  In her first years in Hong Kong, as she was trying to comprehend the city around her, her works depicted Hong Kong’s facades as decor while catching glimpses of the goings on inside.  Daphné’s work has morphed over the intervening years and she now seeks to represent, interpret and transform what she discovered.  The works continue to evolve in a fantasized urbanscape, often disconnected from any sense of reality but incorporating poetry and illusion. 

Using architectural rendering techniques permits Daphné to give a sense of ultra-realism to her works which contrasts with the more artisanal modes of expression such as painting and crayon. She finds that the perfect aesthetic and good balance exists somewhere between the tremendous possibilities offered by contemporary digital tools and more tactile, artisanal and traditional techniques, both of which are essential to her work. This contrast is also a mirror of Hong Kong’s urban aesthetic: the luxurious and polished juxtaposed with the untidied and derelict.

Daphné has been featured extensively in local and international press including the Wall Street Journal, the South China Morning Post, RTHK Radio4, BlouinArt Info, Home Journal, Zolima CityMag, Elle Décor and Architectural Digest.

PETE ROSS - DRIPPING WITH HERITAGE

Podcast recorded at Blue Lotus Gallery on 26th of May 2018.

Pete Ross is an award winning Hong Kong artist. In 2013 he won the People's Prize at Asia Contemporary and was selected in 2017 as 40 under 40 creative leaders of today and tomorrow. His work has been exhibited in Hong Kong and London and he is currently represented by Cat Street Gallery and Blue Lotus Gallery.

Pete Ross was born in Hong Kong in 1985 and grew up in one of the densest and most rapidly developing cities in the world. Captivated by the constant evolving city, Pete was drawn towards architecture and its relation with people during a time of change and political uncertainty as the territory struggled to find its identity and forge its future.

Pete is now a RIBA architect in Hong Kong with a keen interest in socio-urban interactions. His art focuses on his thoughts and observations on his home town Hong Kong and the seeming juxtaposition of the masterplan city and the unpredictable nature of people. His style uses traditional, detailed drawing techniques in contrast to urban stencil work. He brings to the forefront cultural mixes, diversity, memory and contradictions of city life, drawing from his own inspirations of Chinese and Western art. His work often references old ways of life, traditions and cultures against the fast paced perceptions of modern life and poses questions to the viewer of our own sense of belonging and identity within an ever-changing urban landscape. His artwork has been exhibited in numerous exhibitions and art fairs in Hong Kong.  

ROMAIN JACQUET-LAGRÈZE - CONCRETE STORIES

Podcast recorded at Blue Lotus Gallery on 26th of May 2018.

Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze was born in Paris in 1987 and graduated with a Masters in Creative Media at the East Paris University. In 2009 he moved to Hong Kong in 2009 where the city inspired him to photograph the different aspects of his new home city.

Stunned by the architectural race to the sky and the three dimensional character of Hong Kong where lifts connect so many people and business they earn a street names, he published his first book with Asia One: ‘Vertical Horizon’ (p. 2012). The work was a hit a on social media and soon after his photographs spread like wild fire over the internet receiving attention from heavy weight local and international press.

Motivated by the international bravo he continued to make new projects exploring Hong Kong’s unique landscape. Wild Concrete (p. 2014) depicts nature’s resilience in an urban environment. The Blue Moment (p. 2016) is a body of work exploring duality of Hong Kong’s nature and urbanity during this magic hour at dusk. While Concrete Stories (p. 2018) collects a variety of human activities found on Hong Kong’s rooftops.

Romain’s work has received attention from both local and international press such as National Geographic, Lonely Planet, El Pais, Le Figaro, Huffington Post, The Guardian, Stern, South China Morning Post, Apple Daily, Herald Tribune, and many more. Four of his photo projects have been published into books.

HK:PM | HONG KONG NIGHT LIFE 1974 - 1989

GREG GIRARD

Podcast recorded at PMQ Hong Kong on 28th of October 2017

HK:PM is a series of photographs of Greg Girard's nocturnal wanderings in Hong Kong made between 1974 and 1986. The exhibition at PMQ also marked the release of the book of the same title, published by Asia One. HK:PM takes you through the neon lit streets and into tattoo parlours, dive bars and the hotel rooms of soldiers and sailors who frequented them. Other scenes depict the pre-dawn emptiness of the city’s streets and alleys bathed in the colours of artificial light. With a foreword by award winning Hong Kong director Ann Hui, HK:PM adds a missing photographic link to the visual record of Hong Kong in the 1970s and 80s.

BLUE LOTUS SESSIONS @PMQ

NICK POON - CONFINED 囚

Podcast recorded at PMQ Hong Kong on 12th of November 2017

Nick Poon works in advertising. While he is not working, he shoots on the streets with his compact camera on a daily basis. Unlike the advertising industry, the philosophy of his photography is to document how normal people are surviving in this abnormal city: Hong Kong.

In 2012, he participated in a joint exhibition by four local street photographers entitled 'Photo Now', and went on to co-found a street photography group of the same name. Since then, Nick has organised and participated in various 'Photo Now' projects and exhibitions.

In 2013, Nick was awarded the champion of the second Hong Kong Photo Book Awards with his first publication Confined 囚. The Chinese character ‘囚’ – ‘trapped within four walls’ – forms the thematic basis of Confined. His look inside Hong Kong’s claustrophobic livelihood has a startling depth, revealing that there is space for joy as well as misery between the walls.

KC KWAN - HOMEBOUND

Podcast recorded at PMQ Hong Kong on the 12th November 2017.

KC Kwan didn’t have the privilege to enjoy an expensive education, not even an amateur photography course. KC Kwan comes from a humble background. He never knew his father. His mum, a hawker, died when he was four, leaving KC and his twin brother behind. He struggled at school and started working at the age of 18 at a printing shop, an industry he is still involved with today. Around 2010, he bought his first camera, a D3100 Nikon.

A year later, he dumped his big camera and exchanged it for a smaller point-and-shoot Ricoh GXR. This is when KC Kwan started taking the night shots. Kwan's normal shifts are from 9pm to 6am, but sometimes he gets lucky and can leave earlier. Since a night bus is a few dollars more expensive than the day one, he started out photographing just to kill time, until the first daytime bus begins operation again.

PIERFRANCESCO CELADA - INSTAGRAM PIER

Podcast recorded at PMQ Hong Kong on 1st November 2017.

Hong Kong's Instagram Pier: “Selfies, self-representation and social-media are playing an always-increasing role in today’s society, especially among the younger generations. The “Instagram Pier” is a public cargo pier located on the west side of Hong Kong Island. In the past few years the pier has raised to fame as the “Instagram Pier”. Every day, a great number of instagrammers, photographers and curious gather daily at the pier, especially at sunset, for taking selfies and scenic photos, attracted by its unique access to Hong Kong’s Victoria harbour. I always had a strong interest in self-represention and social-media; the Pier represented a good opportunity to investigate the topic further. I started walking to the Pier on a daily basis, and I soon begun noticing all the repetitions, including my own. People would return to the pier, to create and re-create, very similar “Instagram driven” imagery; a constant repetition of poses and situations played by a never-ending number of interchangeable actors. The Pier becomes a place of transition, between reality and the virtual world of self-representation; between our real-selves and the way we wish our lives were perceived and represented. Because of the nature of the place I’ve created the Instagram Pier’s instagram account (@insta_pier).”

After completing a PhD in Biomechanics, Pierfrancesco is now concentrating his attention on a personal long-term photographic project documenting life in modern cities. He has recently been selected to take part in EPEA'03, with forthcoming exhibitions in Paris, Lucca, Hamburg and Oslo. He won the Happiness Onthemove Award (2017), the Photolux Leica Award (2014) and the Ideastap and Magnum Photos Photographic Award (2010). He interned at the Magnum office in London and produced a multimedia piece at Magnum in Motion, New York. His work has been exhibited and published internationally, including Newsweek, Time Lightbox, i-D, Amica, D-Repubblica, Leap magazine. He is currently exploring Chinese megacities and Milan's hinterland. He is based between Milan, Italy and Hong Kong.

TUGO CHENG - PATTERNS

Podcast recorded at PMQ Hong Kong on 5th November 2017.

As a Fine Art photographer with an Architect’s eye, his full-time profession, Cheng is always in search of order and rhythm in everything he sees. His works are celebrated for their unconventional geometries and patterns that are reminiscent of ink paintings, as well as the affluent colours and textures that illuminate the most surreal and remote terrains on Earth.

Educated in Hong Kong, Beijing and Cambridge, Tugo Cheng is a Hong Kong based architect and fine art photographer who has received multiple international awards and nominations including the “National Geographic Awards”, “Sony World Photography Awards”, “International Photographer of the Year”, “Fine Art Photography Awards” and “Hasselblad Masters”. Influenced by his architectural background, Cheng pays special attention to the order and rhythm in landscapes and cityscapes. His works can be found in his book Discovering China and other publications such as Masters of Drone Photography and media including CNN, BBC, SCMP, Guardian, Wallpaper* and National Geographic Magazine which featured his picture as the cover of April 2019 issue. He was named “Perspective 40-under-40 Artist” in 2017 for his contribution in art and photography.

MICHAEL WOLF - SEEING HONG KONG

Podcast recorded at PMQ Hong Kong on the 4th November 2017.

The focus of the German photographer Michael Wolf’s work is life in mega cities. Many of his projects document the architecture and the vernacular culture of metropolises. wolf grew up in Canada, Europe and the United States, studying at UC Berkeley and at the Folkwang School with Otto Steinert in Essen, Germany. he moved to hong kong in 1994 where he worked for 8 years as contract photographer for Stern magazine. Since 2001, Wolf has been focusing on his own projects, many of which have been published as photo books.

Wolf’s work has been exhibited in numerous locations, including the Venice Bienniale for Architecture, Aperture Gallery, New York; Museum for Work in Hamburg, Hong Kong Shenzhen Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago. His work is held in many permanent collections and he has published more than 15 photo books.

Michael Wolf passed away in 2019, he was 64 years old.

MOVANA CHEN - KNITERATURE

Podcast recorded at PMQ Hong Kong on the 4th November 2017.

Movana Chen is a Hong Kong-based artist who studied at the London College of Fashion and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University in Hong Kong.

Since 2004 she has been weaving people's stories through KNITerature - a genre that involves the deconstruction and reconstruction of meanings and content by knitting books. Her work is a multi-disciplinary fusion of media, performance, installation and sculpture which has been presented at different exhibitions, art festivals and events globally.

Movana was one of the 30 finalists of the 2011 and 2012 Sovereign Asian Art Prize. Her works have been collected by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Louis Vuitton, Cathay Pacific and private collectors globally.

ELEANOR McCOLL - COLLAGING HONG KONG

Podcast recorded at PMQ Hong Kong on 11th of November 2017.

Eleanor McColl is a multi-disciplinary artist, based in Hong Kong. She studied Fine Art at U.W.E Bristol, in England and came to Hong Kong in 1999 to pursue her career as an artist and art educator. McColl's work is rooted in place with a focus on the urban environment.

Her work draws the eye to the often unnoticed details of the city, casting the "shadows on the wall" of the modern human condition: often solitary, hardworking and hardwearing. Through manipulation of focus, her work explores the delicate points of contact in the otherwise ceaseless blur of the everyday anonymous citizen.

Drawn to the dramatic palate of dilapidation, refurbishment and renewal, her cityscapes explore the interface between Hong Kong's unique verticality and it's impact on its people.

“I am interested in capturing those small but arresting details which catch my eye as walk through the city. It could be a flash of colour from a dangling piece of washing, or a mop resting against a rusty peeling door. I find the contrast of blurring and sharp focus fascinating, so I typically use soft-focus techniques which obscure the surrounding scene to reveal pockets of fine detail."

JO FARRELL - PHOTOGRAPHING WOMEN’S CULTURES AS THEY DISAPPEAR

Podcast recorded at PMQ Hong Kong on 29th of October 2017.

As a photographer, a cultural anthropologist and a woman my focus lies in women's traditions and cultures particularly those that are disappearing.

In 2005 I was introduced to Zhang Yun Ying (a woman in China with bound feet), that meeting completely altered my life, my perceptions and judgments on others. From that moment I wanted to tell these womens stories through photography and interviews. Through research and lectures I have studied other women's traditions.

In the past three years I have documenting the Kayan women (with brass coils) and the Chin women (with facial tattoos).

The question I am asked the most is "Why did these women do this?" -- and my answer is always to explain as best I can that in every society, in every culture women (and men) alter themselves to 'fit-in' to be accepted, to conform to their society's norms. The rise of cosmetic surgery globally is proof alone that individuals feel they need to assimilate. Why do we do this? To be accepted, to have a better life, to be loved.

As a photographer, a cultural anthropologist and a woman my focus lies in women's traditions and cultures particularly those that are disappearing.

In 2005 I was introduced to Zhang Yun Ying (a woman in China with bound feet), that meeting completely altered my life, my perceptions and judgments on others. From that moment I wanted to tell these womens stories through photography and interviews. Through research and lectures I have studied other women's traditions.

In the past three years I have documenting the Kayan women (with brass coils) and the Chin women (with facial tattoos).

The question I am asked the most is "Why did these women do this?" -- and my answer is always to explain as best I can that in every society, in every culture women (and men) alter themselves to 'fit-in' to be accepted, to conform to their society's norms. The rise of cosmetic surgery globally is proof alone that individuals feel they need to assimilate. Why do we do this? To be accepted, to have a better life, to be loved.

LAU YUT-FUNG 劉一峰 - LITTLE RED HARBOUR 小紅港

Podcast recorded at PMQ Hong Kong on the 1st November 2017.

Lau Yut-Fung has just released an exciting new book called Little Red Harbour 小紅港 - which is based on the question, what will Hong Kong will look like in 2047? The book brings us on the personal black & white journey of the artist, through the back streets of Hong Kong, into bars, snake dealers, the quirky and the dark, maybe in a drug-infused daze. By considering what will come, the artist has documented what may be lost.

Lau Yut-Fung started his career as a staff photographer with the Los Angeles Times. After going independent, he was based in Tokyo and Beirut. His past clients include the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Liberation, Le Figaro and the UNHCR.

MARC PROGIN - A SPATIAL ODYSSEY BACK IN TIMES - THROUGH MONGOLIA

Podcast recorded at PMQ Hong Kong on the 29th October 2017.

Time has no hold on this man or toward a singular career. Long distance runner and cyclist accustomed to the harshness of the Mongol Steppes that he covers in all directions. Marc Progin is 75. Slender, the muscle dry, straight like a post, he has the physical look of the marathoner and of the ascetic, "I feel good in my head because I feel good in my body."

The constant search for wide horizons is the red thread of his rich life. Born in a working-class suburb of Neuchâtel, Switzerland in 1945, Marc Progin, a former watchmaker, settled in Hong Kong in the 1970s, becoming a pioneer in the conquest of Asian markets. At the turn of the millennium, the call of the unknown guided him in a new life as a traveller-poet.

Endurance leads him to a more fundamental, inner and cultural quest. The exploration of Mongolia, the original nature where the nomads live differently, without possessions, gives meaning to his life. He travels the deserts with minimal logistics. He explores its history and its paleontological treasures. At this cradle of dinosaurs, he borrows what becomes his nickname: ‘velociraptor,' named after a species of which he found fossilised remains. Lover of words, erudite, the traveller fills page after page of notebooks with illuminated poetry. His ‘Alexandrine' verses celebrate the beauty of Mongolian landscapes. They also tell of the spiritual quest of a man tired by the superficiality and illusions imposed by business, consumption and ‘connected’ society. Marc Progin photographs to convey what he sees and feels. In the bareness and the effort, in contact with emptiness and immensity, he clings to what he is, a being reduced to its vital needs: light, a little water and food.

Progin, the photographer, has had solo exhibitions in Hong Kong Foreign Correspondent’s Club and Latitude 22n as well as shown work with Hong Kong Heritage Project and Children of Mekong. He gathers a crown whenever he gives lectures, previously he has been invited to talk at the Royal Geographical Society [HK], CH-Lausanne University [Switzerland], CH-Neuchâtel Academy [Switzerland], American Hong Kong Society, Swiss Business Council Hong Kong, and French International School to name but a few. When he is not behind the camera shooting both for his own artwork or as a Press Photographer, he is often on the other side being interviewed numerous times by the RTHK, TVB, and for Radio.

MARCEL HEIJNEN - PHOTOGRAPHING CITIES

Podcast recorded at PMQ HK on 11th of October 2017.

Marcel Heijnen is a visual artist, designer and musician. Originally from the Netherlands, Asia has been his home since 1992. Marcel’s creativity is driven by a general curiosity about life and its meaning. He currently uses photography as the main medium for his art, exploring its boundaries in a quest for beauty and expression that goes beyond realism, but gets perhaps a little closer to truth.

Over the past few years he has had solo exhibitions at Month of Photography Asia, Vue Privée and Galeri Utama. He has participated in numerous group shows and the Affordable Art Fairs in both Singapore and Hong Kong. He is represented by Eduard Planting Gallery in Amsterdam and Blue Lotus Gallery in Hong Kong.