DROP BY FP – Artist Sharing by Jack Wolf & Paul Kolling : 'Break of Gauge'

Date: 19-01-2020 (sun) Time: 5pm - 7pm Venue: Floating Projects  (JCCAC L3-06D) L3-06D , Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre (JCCAC) No.30 Pak Tin Street, Shek Kip Mei, Kowloon, Hong Kong (MTR Shek Kip Mei Station Exit C, 5-8 mins walk)

‘Break of Gauge’ is a research project directed by artists Paul Kolling and Jack Wolf. The project explores China’s One Belt One Road initiative (BRI).

The BRI aims to accelerate and reshape the world’s cross-border flows of goods, capital, information, ideas and people – placing China at its centre. However, the BRI not only promotes flows but also creates blockages: borders, sanctions and firewalls etc – preventing human and non-human movement. These transformation can provide information to understand the timely and rapid change of political, social and environmental conditions.

In an attempt to bypass the mainstream narratives surrounding the BRI the two artists spent three months travelling along the its northernmost corridor – the New Eurasian Land Bridge (新欧亚大陆桥: NELB), a freight rail route, connecting China, through Kazakhstan and Russia, with Europe. The artist visited infrastructure projects, gathered stories and connected with artists living alongside the freight route – exploring the local implications of the NELB, and trying to understand what these topdown initiated infrastructure projects mean to the communities they connect or disconnect.

As a preview into the research – the artists are excited to collaborate with Floating Projects Collective to present their works and discuss the BRI’ s possible implications globally but also locally, in Hong Kong.

paulkolling.com jackwolf.co.uk