It is our aim to examine the Pearl River Delta’s meteoric progress of urbanization and its cultural phenomena developed in a considerable dualism. In this prospect, the occurring ” Pearl River Delta Arts Retrospective” is introduced as a triennial to feature in-depth reviews of the region; by scrutinizing each organization working in this conurbation, in the varied forms of creative communities, collectives and institutions. With these concerning entities, in our previous collaborative projects, we have since established a strong connection in hope to stimulate the unorthodox ecology and practices in the arts. In 2016 we have presented 9 practitioner groups distinctive to the PRD, looking at how such formations have shaped the cultural landscape in the region and its relevance for today’s socio-political context. Therefore, in our last exhibition the core subject of “Capillaries of the Field” have resulted as an intricate network throughout the area, in the advocacy of a thriving creative industry.
Three years have passed, the second edition of the “PRD Arts Retrospective” has proposed ‘How Flows’ as a working title, and appointed 9 artist groups to exhibit their trajectory of integration as a community-oriented model in the Pearl River Delta. The concept draws on colonial preoccupations with the plume of ‘smoke’ as sources of likely contagion in the effect of temperature and moisture, the burning ‘smoke’ rising from opium destruction at Humen, and the noxious veil of ‘smog’ enveloping the complexity of our urban-rural divide; such environmental commonality functions as powerful means to communicate messages on localism as an urban phenomena.
