Agora 2014 Bordeaux Biennale

What is Insurgent Public Space? Insurgent Public Space is a type of public space produced by individuals and communities often outside or at the border of the regulatory domain (at least initially). No longer confined to the archetypal categories of neighborhood parks, public plaza, and civic architecture, these insurgent public spaces challenge the conventional, codified notion of public and the production of space. Included in Dans L’espace Public by Karine Dana, commissioned by Youssef Tohme, with scenography by Petra Blaisse, this video installation includes a collection of cases ranging from an immigrant market transformed from an abandoned gas station in Sacramento, California to the 24-hour evolution of a pedestrian bridge in Mong Kok, Hong Kong from a space of passage by commuters and sightseeing by tourists to performances by artists, peddling by hawkers and Sunday partying by migrant workers.

Agora Biennale 2014, Bordeaux, France (September 11-14, 2014). A video produced by Karine Dana; commissioned by Youssef Tohme; scenography by Petra Blaisse. Curator/ Jeffrey Hou. Contributors/ Michael Rios and Josh Watkins (Asian Market, Sacramento, California), Caroline Chen (Street Dancing, Beijing), Manami Iwamiya (Yoyogi Park, Tokyo), Natalie Xing (Central, Hong Kong), Kin Wai Michael Siu and Weijia Wang (Mong Kok, Hong Kong), Tianwen Zhou (Shanghai), Jacob Stanley (Jacob Stanley Creative) and Gap Filler (Christchurch), Hendrik Tieben (Coordinating Leader), Anthony Fung (Project Collaborator), Colin Fournier (Project Collaborator), Yip Kai Chun (Manager), Janice Leung (Research Associate), and Students of BSSc in Urban Studies and M.Sc. in Urban Design, Chinese University of Hong Kong, in partnership with King’s College and the Conservancy Association Centre for Heritage (CACHe) (Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong).