Open Space - May 2026:: Developing a community of arts practice, scholarly inquiry, and collective activism in repressive times: introducing Art and Culture Hong Kong International (ACHKI)

 

Abstract:

This Open Space session brings together members of a recently established collective called "Art and Culture Hong Kong International" (ACHKI), a solidarity group of artists, scholars, and activists, who came together formally in 2024 with this stated mission: "To explore the intricate interplay between art, culture, and politics, with a particular focus on recent events in Hong Kong." 

 

Many ACHKI members are diasporic Hongkongers dispersed around Europe, North America, and East Asia, who came together for the first time when we organised a symposium and art exhibition in the Hague under the theme of "ImagiNation: Hong Kong in Exile". Thus the network also serves a crucial community-building function for a people whose many members have had to leave -- in quite a number of cases, flee -- our home city in recent years due to ongoing repression.

 

For this Open Space session, we would like to share our experiences of grappling with questions of how to build our network while holding it together as it grows, and how a diasporic collective such as ours could help voice out for our home community under conditions of both domestic and transnational repression. 

 

We want to share some of our exciting programme of events that our members have organised both collectively and individually, as well as some of our struggles when it comes to maintaining cohesion and purpose as well as pluralism among our diverse members as we grow and develop. In so doing, we would like to engage in a reflective dialogue with members of Cani-net on lessons we could learn from each other and together. 

 

Our ACHKI members who will join in this session:

 

Loretta Lau, an artist and founder of NGO DEI, an arts organization in the Netherlands, and chief founder and organiser of ACHKI.

 

Clara Cheung, an artist-curator, currently running the art space C & G Artpartment in Sheffield

 

Justin Wong, a London-based comics artist, educator, and founder of Skip Class, an online art education platform.

 

Mandy Lee, a health sociologist academic based at Trinity College Dublin, and member of both ACHKI and CANI-NET.

 

Biographies:

 

Loretta Lau

Loretta Lau is a Hong Kong–born performance artist, curator, and cultural activist based in Europe. Her work explores identity, memory, and political resistance, often reflecting on the Hong Kong diaspora experience. Trained as an art teacher, she later pursued further studies in Prague, where her practice became more politically engaged. She is the founder and director of NGO DEI, an arts and human rights organisation in the Netherlands, and a co-founder of Art and Culture Hong Kong International (ACHKI). Through exhibitions, performances, and collaborations, she connects artistic expression with social justice and global cultural dialogue.

 

Clara Cheung

As an artist-curator, Clara Cheung has strong interest over performance art in public space and community-based projects.  She was an elected member of Hong Kong District Councillor from 2020 to 2021, and is currently the convenor of The UK-EU committee of The Assembly of Citizens’ Representatives, Hong Kong (a group of former Hong Kong District Councillors who resigned due to political threats). Based in Sheffield, UK, she is now running an art space C & G Artpartment, and working on her PhD research project about the history of Hong Kong’s outward-facing art exhibitions in the 1960s-early 80s.

 

Justin Wong

Justin Wong is a London-based comics artist and art educator. He began his career in 2007 as a political cartoonist and illustrator, publishing the daily column Gei Gei Gaak Gaak in Hong Kong’s Ming Pao. He has since created comics series including Lonely Planet, Hello World, This City / That City, New Hong Kong, Big Time, and Je préférerais ne pas. He was Assistant Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University’s Academy of Visual Arts, a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley, and a senior researcher at Zurich University of the Arts. He is the founder of Skip Class, an online art education platform.

 

Mandy Lee

Mandy Lee is Assistant Professor in Public Health and Primary Care, School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin. She is Health Sciences Co-Chair of Trinity Medical and Health Humanities Working Group, and is also a member of the Trinity Centre for Resistance Studies. A health sociologist, her research interests include narrative medicine, trauma/resilience studies, and research ethics, with increasing focus on creative/arts-based methodologies. She has been a CANI-NET member since 2022. A Hongkonger, Mandy is Steering Group member of Art and Culture Hong Kong International (ACHKI), a diasporic group of artists, scholars, and activists in solidarity with her home city.