IP Yuk-Yiu

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IP Yuk-Yiu

Participating Project	Curator Residency Program
Activity Based	Hong Kong
City / Place stayed	Tokyo
Period	2025.1 - 2025.3

Purpose of the residency

The pandemic has gravely interrupted human interaction both on a local and a global scale. Not only physical mobility and international traffic has been limited, human exchange has been increasingly delegated to the virtual form, reducing human presence and interaction into audiovisual ghosts flickering on the computer screen.
During the residency, the residency program participant will conduct curatorial research for a media art exhibition exploring human contact in the post-Covid era. Concurrently, the participant will undertake research on a publication project that goes along with the exhibition, charting the experience of the Asian media art communities during the pandemic period.

Plan during the residency

• Interviews with artists, curators and art administrators
• Studio/gallery/museum visits
• Field study on Japanese contactless culture
• Proposal writing

Activities during the residency

During the residency, I conducted research for a curatorial project tentatively titled “Post-contact”, looking at new forms of human contact and communication in the post-Covid era. This project intends to re-evaluate physical contact and the meaning of exchange/experience in the age of virtualization. I interviewed artists and curators, paid studio and gallery visits as well as conducted literature review on the research topic. Alongside with my curatorial research, I also worked on my own creative work during my spare time at the residency, developing a new card game project that explores the dynamics among memory, language and political identity.

Outcome of the residency

The residency provided a timely opportunity for me to reflect, rethink and refresh my curatorial practices. As my decade-long curatorial project came to a conclusion last year, I am actively seeking new content, direction and perspectives in my curatorial work.
During my time in Tokyo, I attended a number of innovative performances and exhibitions curated and undertook by younger artists and curators. Often presented and worked outside of the normal gallery/museum settings, these projects were highly idiosyncratic, underground and tentative. I was especially excited and impressed by the raw energy, playful attitude and experimental nature behind these projects.
These inspiring projects served as constructive references that both inform and challenge my own curatorial thinking. I met and talked with a number of artists and curators who have involved in these projects. These encounters and exchanges, together with my own research on the topic, help me to further refine my idea and project.
Subsequently, I revised my original curatorial idea and refocus the project theme more on forms and problems of artistic reception and consumption in the age of virtualization. A revised curatorial proposal is now under full development with the aim to seek resources and funding to realize the project. Overall, I believe my time in Tokyo has facilitated me in exploring some new curatorial interest and focus, preparing me for a different phase in my curatorial practices.

Creator Information