Hong Kong in 2050: Gardens fight gentrification, cocktails against condominiums
Artist Kacey Wong and urban farming group put on show of cynicism about the future at urban living and architecture biennial in Kowloon Park
A mobile mojito bar, a miniature urban farm - the Hong Kong portion of a biennial showcase for ideas about architecture and urban living has injected a dose of cynicism this year, perhaps in response to objections that the previous edition was seen by some as propaganda for gentrifying old neighbourhoods.
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Visitors to Kowloon Park – where the Hong Kong portion of the event, staged jointly with Shenzhen, is being held – can drop by artist Kacey Wong’s mojito bar. He will be inviting visitors of a drinking age to join him in a moment of decadent nostalgia. The bar has a miniature, built-in mint patch, providing one essential ingredient of the cocktail. An old-fashioned turntable plays LPs of Cuban music and familiar jazz tunes while Wong creates his delicious concoction.
“The theme of this event is ‘the world in 2050’. By then, most of my friends will be dead and there will be a shortage of farmland and water. We will all have to grow our own food, hence my mini mint farm.
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Also, the Hong Kong that I know and love will have disappeared, so all we can do is be nostalgic,” says the artist, who produced a lot of work critical of the authorities during the Occupy Central movement.
Their 100 sq ft farm in the middle of Kowloon Park has herbs, vegetables and a papaya tree growing in what looks like a disorganised allotment. “This is a reflection of how many Hong Kong people live. You cram everything into tiny partitions,” Chen says. Very MK has called it “Tree Gun Farm”, a reference to politician Christopher Chung Shu-kun’s nickname.
