Mobility ‧ Commission

“We Are Like Air” A Solo Exhibition of Xyza Cruz Bacani

Exhibition Period
Dec 01 - 20, 2018
Exhibition date and time
Sat to Thu, 10:00 - 18:00
Exhibition Place
Experimental Gallery, Hong Kong Arts Centre

Curated by Melissa Karman Lee, ‘We Are Like Air’ is the public presentation of the WMA Commission project. ‘We Are Like Air’ is Xyza’s solo exhibition in Hong Kong. It features new black-and-white photographs that have not been published before, as well as video and installations to tell the story of her mother, her family, and other migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong. The exhibition will provide written and verbal information in Chinese, English, Tagalog and Bahasa Indonesia to enable a wider range of audience to learn about the lives of the community. 

A series of public programmes will complement the exhibition.

*Opening hours may change if Shouson Theatre has day-time performance.


1/12 (Sat)
1:30pm - 2:00pm Public Docent Tour  

 

The docent guide will walk you through the We Are Like Air exhibition to enhance viewing experience through exhibition overviews, works highlights, creative process and journey behind-the-scenes.

Venue: Experimental Gallery, 3/F Hong Kong Arts Centre
Language: Cantonese
Capacity: 30

To reserve your place, please visit https://goo.gl/j6rFF3

2/12 (Sun)
1:30pm - 2:00pm Public Docent Tour (English and Tagalog)  

 

The docent guide will walk you through the We Are Like Air exhibition to enhance viewing experience through exhibition overviews, works highlights, creative process and journey behind-the-scenes.

Venue: Experimental Gallery, 3/F Hong Kong Arts Centre
Language:English and Tagalog
Capacity: 30

To reserve your place, please visit https://goo.gl/wSjXz3

2:00pm - 5:00pm Al fresco Art Jam  

 

Let’s use watercolour and recylced carton boxes to express art ideas.

Participants can register for a docent tour (in English and Tagalog) starting at 1.30pm on the same day to view the exhibition We Are Like Air or view it during the jamming and draw something in response to the exhibition or around the idea of “Mobility” in a happy society.

This programme aims to foster a friendly conversation between participants and facilitators. Hopefully everyone will take home an experience of camaraderie and the hope of a more caring society.

About the programme coordinators:
Coordinators are from a domestic workers artist collective – Guhit Kulay. They call themselves a support group for fellow migrants who have passion in arts but do not have a platform to show their artworks. Guhit Kulay holds casual art jams in parks as part of their outreach and a way of developmen

To reserve your place, please visit https://goo.gl/8jRMtJ

8/12 (Sat)
1:30pm - 2:00pm Public Docent Tour  

 

The docent guide will walk you through the We Are Like Air exhibition to enhance viewing experience through exhibition overviews, works highlights, creative process and journey behind-the-scenes.

Venue: Experimental Gallery, 3/F Hong Kong Arts Centre
Language: Cantones
Capacity: 30

To reserve your place, please visit https://goo.gl/j6rFF3

9/12 (Sun)
10:00am - 2:00pm "We Are Like Air" Book Launch  

 

Location: 

Newspaper Stand in front of the Main Entrance of World Wide House       (19 Des Voeux Road Central, Central MTR station Exit B )

*Artist Xyza Cruz Bacani will be present to autograph the books at 11:30 a.m. on December 9, 2018.

Award-winning photographer Xyza Cruz Bacani tells the tale of her mother, a Filipino domestic helper who has spent half of her life in Hong Kong. Also featuring the stories of other female migrant workers, this compilation of Bacani’s characteristic black-and-white photographs offers a poignant account of their life away from home and reveals a lesser-known side of Hong Kong beyond the city’s skyscrapers and mega malls.

In this book, Bacani, who used to be a domestic worker herself, reclaims the story of the migrant worker that has been told countless times by others. This time around, she is telling their own story – not as victims but as champions who have overcome the many hardships life has tossed at them as they leave their families behind in their home country. The book portrays the experience of millions of mothers, daughters and families whose lives have been disrupted by migration. “We Are Like Air” because migrant workers are often treated like air, invisible but important.

To reserve your place, please visit https://goo.gl/TZMfGd

11:30am - 12:00pm Public Docent Tour (English and Bahasa)  

 

The docent guide will walk you through the We Are Like Air exhibition to enhance viewing experience through exhibition overviews, works highlights, creative process and journey behind-the-scenes.

Venue: Experimental Gallery, 3/F Hong Kong Arts Centre
Language: English and Bahasa Indonesia 
Capacity: 30

To reserve your place, please visit https://goo.gl/rszxLf

5:30pm - 7:00pm Intimate Moments of Working Away from Home  

 

Letters reading and experiences sharing

Migrant domestic worker representatives Sringatin and Eni Lestari will join Photographer Xyza Cruz Bacani and residents of Bethune House to read letters and share story of happiness and hardship that migrant domestic workers experience. The session will provide visitors an opportunity to understand migrant domestic workers’ personal experiences and feeling of despondence of living and working far away from home.

In English, Bahasa Indonesia & Tagalog
Venue:Experimental Gallery
Host : Bethune House

To reserve your place, please visit https://goo.gl/8jRMtJ

15/12 (Sat)
1:30pm - 2:00pm Public Docent Tour  

 

The docent guide will walk you through the We Are Like Air exhibition to enhance viewing experience through exhibition overviews, works highlights, creative process and journey behind-the-scenes.

Venue: Experimental Gallery, 3/F Hong Kong Arts Centre
Language: Cantones
Capacity: 30

To reserve your place, please visit https://goo.gl/j6rFF3

16/12 (Sun)
10:00am - 12:00noon 'ReDefine Relationship' Sharing  

 

When someone is crossing with one’s life, it’s fate.
But, living together is an art. Especially it’s employment relationship.
Trust, how to build up?

HER Fund and Xyza will bring you to open up your heart and use difference angles to see each other feelings, roles, and relationship.

In English & Cantonese
Venue:Experimental Gallery, Hong Kong Arts Centre
Host : HER Fund

To reserve your place, please visit https://goo.gl/fBXHs6 

2:00pm - 3:30pm Panel Discussion: We Are Like Air, Invisible but Indispensable: Roles and Challenges of the Domestic Migrant Community in Hong Kong  

 

Moderator:
Zoher ABDOOLCARIM, former Asia Editor, TIME

Panelist:
Cynthia Abdon-Tellez, General Manager, Mission For Migrant Workers
Sheila Coronel, Toni Stabile Professor of Professional Practice in Investigative Journalism and Dean of Academic Affairs, Columbia University
Xyza Cruz Bacani, Photographer

In English (With simultaneous interpretation in Cantonese, Bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog)
Venue:Eric Hotung Studio, Lower Basement, Hong Kong Arts Centre
Capacity :  40

To reserve your place, please visit https://goo.gl/yUQjSr