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Fumio Nanjo of Tokyo's Mori Art Museum has been named international education director of the Hong Kong Art School. Photo: David Wong

Japanese curator warns Hong Kong: don't turn into a 'cultural Galapagos'

An international profile gives the city its unique advantage in the art world, says curator from Japan who plans to work with local talent

Hong Kong must remain an international city and not cut itself off as a cultural version of the Galapagos Islands, a prominent Japanese curator has said, as he prepares to work with young local artists.

The curator, Fumio Nanjo, said the city's international characteristics were vital to artists and curators, who faced the challenge of breaking through on the global stage and putting their work on the world's art map.

"If Hong Kong does not act on that it will be marginalised," Nanjo said. "If [Hong Kong] becomes local and inward-looking, the city will be just another part of China.

"Historical reasons, taxation, infrastructure … and the use of English … made Hong Kong an international city and the centre of a network that Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia or even Singapore cannot match. Hong Kong is very unique, standing out from other cities around the region. The only way to survive is to stay international."

And Nanjo will help. He will combine his role as director of the famous Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, which welcomed more than 1.2 million visitors last year, with that of educator at the Hong Kong Art School.

Nanjo will put together training programmes for artists and curators at the school, which is the educational division of the Hong Kong Arts Centre. Programmes will involve intensive training as well as international exchanges with institutions in Japan and beyond.

Born in Tokyo in 1949, Nanjo is an art critic and lectures at Keio University. He became director of the Mori Art Museum in 2006.

His international reputation is such that he was invited to serve on the jury for Britain's Turner Prize for modern art in 1998 and for the Golden Lion at the 2005 Venice Biennale. Nanjo has previously curated exhibitions in Hong Kong and taken local artists including Tsang Kin-wah, the city's representative in Venice next year, to the Mori.

Nanjo said learning how to communicate with the international art world was crucial. "Contemporary art is very international, speaking an international language for people from around the world," he said.

But he also sought to alleviate the concerns of many Hongkongers that going international would mean forsaking local identity, a concern amplified in Hong Kong by hypercharged political debate and fear of mainland China's growing influence.

"You must give them chances to go abroad and connect with the international circuit of the art world," he said. "The more international they become, the more they will look at their own identity, which is a different identity from China."

Nanjo said his own country's experiences offered a worrying example of the perils of isolation. Japan had long been independent and self-sustaining, but also isolated, he said.

"Just look at the Japanese mobile phone system. It's good in Japan but it's not compatible with the rest of the world."

Nanjo compared Japan to a cultural version of the Galapagos Islands, the isolated archipelago 1,000km west of Ecuador where Charles Darwin's studies of wildlife laid the foundation for the theory of evolution. The islands formed self-contained ecosystems allowing the birth and growth of various unique species.

"The situation in Japan is worrying," he said. But he hopes to put Hong Kong on a different track by giving local artists and curators an international perspective. And he sees plenty of reason for optimism.

"Hong Kong is now the most active Asian city, with a vibrant art market, increasing number of galleries and the prospect of M+", the visual culture museum due to open at the new West Kowloon Cultural District in 2018.

Details of the programmes are being finalised, but foreign exchange, public art and curatorship will be among the subjects.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: HK must look out for art: Curator
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