30/11/24

“BEAU 2014-2024” acts as the first retrospective and comprehensive look at the studio’s production since it was established in Hong Kong in 2014.

Beyond the presentation of 18 projects, and elaborating on Marshall McLuhan’s famous statement “The medium is the message”, the exhibition itself is to be seen as the embodiment of the studio’s agenda. The spatial device used to present photographs, in the form of repetitive portals, whether talking about its relation with the given space, its rigidity, and paradoxically its extreme flexibility, has to be seen as a message. Its materialisation, actually realised through the reuse of various parts and components from previous projects (*), has to be seen as a message.

The collection of overly zoomed-in pictures and material samples, emphasising the shift taking place in architecture, from mostly spatial and formal virtuosity to sheer constructive and material issues, has to be seen as a message.

As austere the above statements could be perceived, the ultimate message is that, all together, they could, if not should, still be seen as opportunities to develop a playful and expressive language, yet relevant to the contemporary challenges architecture is facing. The retrospective is accompanied by a book offering a complementary look at the architects’ practice. Beyond a detailed display of the 18 projects mentioned above, it includes a foreword deconstructing the method and agenda by architect and author Charles Lai along with four conversations between BEAU and some of the main actors involved in the studio’s production. These conversations are also displayed in the form of video during the exhibition itself.

The four weeks long event will also open the floor to discussions and exchanges with other practitioners, elaborating further on the relations between a project’s objectives and the means to achieve them (see detailed program).

(*) Poles and benches are reused from the previous exhibition at Current Plans “Mass Transit Railway” by artist Sing Jantzen Tse / Metallic curtain is an actual prototype from the Kiang-Malingue gallery / Cables and counterweights are reused from the “Supper Club” event at Fringe Club / “Caption plates” are actual offset printing plates used for the production of the book / all other elements and objects, including lighting, are readily available from Current Plans.