Territories - Press Release (2004/ex_9/office/5)

TERRITORIES GUTIERREZ + PORTEFAIX Solo exhibition PARASITE - 9.09.2004 "Territories" presents a large scale, dense, fast, panorama of urban development and architectural structures in China. The expression of this new spatial condition related to the notion of development, is clearly embedded in specific cycles of production and distribution.

"Territories" explores these dynamic and multi-dimensional forces that quickly spread across the surface of the territory. These characteristics, visible traces marking the land, appear as paradigms of contemporary civilization, and are evident in the simple inventory of a commodified society labeled “Made in China”.

For "Territories", the Pearl River Delta region functions as an important focal point for the display of current processes of spatial production. This territory is made of unrelated fragments of urbanism, each ignoring the conditions of its surrounding. Each fragment forms an island determined and transformed autonomously. These islands are programmatically independent; they may receive a concentration of a particular building type or a mix of various functions depending on their particular conditions.

In their first solo-exhibition in Hong Kong, Gutierrez and Portefaix, will present a series of videos, photographs and ‘documentation’ in a full-scale installation at the new Para/Site Art Space in Sheung Wan. During the opening, they will launch their last book, China (map book, 2004).

TERRITORIES Video 1 - "Back home" - 30 minutes Light box - "Back home" - C-print Light box - "Beijing hole" - C-print Installation 1 - "China: double face" Video 2 - "City of production" - 10 minutes Video 3 - "City of consumption" - 10 minutes Installation 2 - "PRD: lean planning/thin pattern" Video 4 - "PRD stories" - 16 minutes Video 5 - "ALCO story" - 7 minutes Video 6 - "SUN HING story" - 7 minutes Laurent Gutierrez + Valérie Portefaix are French architects, based and teaching in Hong Kong.

In 1997, they founded MAP office - a collaborative studio involved in cross-disciplinary projects that incorporate architecture and the visual arts. They have participated in several local and international exhibitions, including the 7th Architecture Venice Biennale and the 1st International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam, where they won an award for the best ‘Inspiration’. They published a number of articles on urban phenomena about Hong Kong and China. Their publications include mapping HK (2000), which details both the physical and dynamic transformations taking place in Hong Kong; HK LAB (2002), a interdisciplinary book in which Hong Kong is seen as an advance laboratory for innovative solutions; and an architectural monograph, Yung Ho Chang/Atelier Feichang Jianzhu - A Chinese practice (2003). Their current research on “Lean planning” explores the impact of production and distribution mapped onto a re-convertible environment, and the specific conditions of the “Made in China “ in the Pearl River Delta region. Laurent Gutierrez is an Assistant Professor at the School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Valérie Portefaix is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture, Hong Kong University.