Inverted Hong Kong - Research

Inverted Hong Kong was research that challenged the representation of a city as a system of thresholds where the domestic and the collective overlap. Perceived as an opportunity to test out spatial ideas, the social, cultural and legal parameters are put aside. Considering only the spatial configuration, the installation speculates on the shifting boundaries between inside and outside through the re-articulating of the existing. Occupying a fragment of void, a house is growing within an open air corridor. This grey render container is articulated by sheets of woods, framing fragments of Hong Kong’s textures. Too big to be furniture, too small to be shelter, the spatial units are not filling up a gap but inhabiting a threshold. Interlocking space without physical connection, the house fragments support intimate rituals of daily life. Taking revenge against the overwhelming urban forces, the installation does not reflect the urge to find shelter, but the desire to domesticate the city.

Borio, G, Inverted Hong Kong, part of Cities Exhibition and representing the Hong Kong Pavilion at the Seoul Biennale of Architecture & Urbanism, Seoul, 2019. Sole author & Research [PI]: Borio, G. Supported by the Hong Kong Arts Council.