The Embrace and the Passage

Para Site is pleased to present The Embrace and the Passage, an unfolding exhibition of all-new commissions by Michele Chu, Florence Lam, Monique Yim, and Bunny Cadag, curated by Jessie Kwok.

The exhibition examines the complex relationship between host and guest as a framework to explore questions of intimacy and hospitality during times of transition and displacement. A host embraces, cares, and remains, while a guest arrives, adapts, and departs. In the physical or metaphorical sense—as a body, home or a place—the host-guest dynamic is marked by codependence, negotiation and sometimes conflict.

Chu assumes the role of host by designing an immersive installation that envelops the senses, intervening in the tenth-floor space at Para Site, to welcome the audience into an interactive stage for performances and happenings. Lam, Yim, and Cadag will present live works, both within and beyond the installation, reimagining the role of the guest. As the exhibition progresses, the artists will take turns occupying or activating various elements from within the installation, presenting performance-based works characterised by choreographic instruction, body movement, improvisation, audience participation and connecting the exhibition space with the outside world. 

Each artist weaves their unique perspectives and lived experiences into a dialogue in exhibition-making, narrative shifts, and performance within a constantly evolving environment. Chu hosts a space for grief, a hybrid realm that is both a domestic habitat and a disorienting void. Lam's structured improvisation using her own body explores the ambivalence between presence and absence, rooting and clearing. Meanwhile, Yim instigates personal encounters in various forms, offering a respite of stability within the inherent unpredictability and transience of our lives. Lastly, in her collaboration with migrant communities, Cadag draws connections between the experience of traversing geopolitical borders and navigating bodily boundaries.

Together, the artists mediate and adapt, demonstrating essential gestures of coexistence. Throughout the exhibition, relationships and perspectives intertwine and shift, deconstructing the "host-guest" binary, allowing new meanings to ripple through.