Para Site proudly presents The Floating Eternity Project. This group exhibition takes its point of departure from a 2012 architectural proposal by BREAD Studio for an offshore columbarium in Hong Kong. Taking into account the scarcity of land and the greying population of Hong Kong, BREAD Studio conceived a temporary platform that could contain over 350,000 niches for individual human remains. This columbarium was planned to be anchored in the outer waters of Hong Kong and to return to the shore when needed.

Reflecting on the proposal, architects, writers and artists are taking on points of enquiry such as land scarcity, the formation of memory landscapes through the traditions of death and mourning, and the history of graveyards and burials in Hong Kong. This history ranges from the first unauthorized Chinese burial site on Cemetery Street (now Po Yan Street, on which Para Site is situated) to the still-existing cemeteries in Happy Valley. Through the participating artists’ individual perspectives, The Floating Eternity Project explores the nuanced question of physical and metaphorical, public and private spaces attributed to both the living and the dead. The Floating Eternity Project is curated by Qinyi Lim.

The Floating Eternity Project is accompanied by a series of public programmes. These include film screenings at Para Site exploring memory landscapes and space, as well as the representation of spectres and the supernatural in Hong Kong film culture (on 5 October and 19 October 2013), co-curated with Venus Lau; a sound performance by artist Wang Hong-Kai, Terrestrial Excursion in collaboration with Steve Hui, Samson Young and Miu-Ling Lam at Spring Workshop on 15 September, 3:00pm.

Image: © Bread Studio, Para/Site Art Space, Courtesy of the artist