Many Imaginary Returns: Cici Wu in Conversation with Michelle Wong

Screening and Artist Talk with CICI WU, moderated by MICHELLE WONG, Art researcher and academic 

Thursday, October 8th, 2020

Screening 19:30/ 7:30 (HKT/EDT); Artist Talk 19:50/ 7:50 (HKT/EDT); Close 20:50/8:50 (HKT/EDT) 

This program will be conducted in English. 

Limited seats for live audience. Registration required.

About the Screening

The Unfinished Return of Yu Man-hon focuses on Cici Wu’s cultural imaginary and extensive research into the unaccountable disappearance of Yu Man-hon, a mentally disabled and an autistic boy who crossed the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border into the mainland and disappeared on August 24, 2000.His case remains unsolved to this day. Filmed in both Minneapolis and Hong Kong, the work follows an abstract narrative where Man-hon returns to the material world, retrieving lost memories of his disappearance in the process. The artist’s camera floats through the city’s myriad pedestrian spaces, lingering at certain familiar places to which Man-hon felt particular attachment –a swing set or favorite restaurant, a local supermarket or bus-depot, a ferry or market. The short film highlights the emotional fragility of our memory, attempts to challenge the familiar interpretation of Man-Hon as an embodiment of loss, and to perceive his image as an enlightened being rather than a ghost.

About the Conversation

After screening, we will connect with Cici Wu in New York with Michelle Wong for a conversation on the making of the film, Yu Manhon in relation to lost time and space, and the possible meaning of imaginary returns.

About the Artist

Cici Wu lives and works in New York. Having received her bachelor degree from Schoolof Creative Media, the City University of Hong Kong, and completed her MFA at Maryland Institute College of Art, She has had solo exhibitions at Empty Gallery, Hong Kong (2019), 47 Canal, New York (2018), Bonnevalle, Noisy-le-Sec, France (2018), and has participated in group exhibitions at 47 Canal, New York (2019), Para Site, Hong Kong (2018), and Triangle Arts Association, New York (2017). She has co-curated group exhibition Scraggly Beard Grandpa at Capsule Shanghai (2017), and co-founded PRACTICE, a studio and residency based in New York (2015). She was an artist-in-residence at Queens Museum, New York (2018-2020), Seawitch, Hong Kong (2018), and Taipei Artists Village, Taiwan (2017).

Michelle Wong is a PhD student in art history at the University of Hong Kong. From 2012-20 she was a researcher at AAA, with a focus on Hong Kong art history and histories of exchange and circulation through exhibitions and periodicals. She is part of the ensemble for Deliberations on Discursive Justice Kabelo Malatsie and Lantian Xie for the Yokohama Triennale 2020, artistically directed by Raqs Media Collective. 

Registration online at: https://ticketing.asiasociety.org.hk