WMA Commission presents: Ubiquitous Trash: Hong Kong Edition A mixed-media exhibition by TRES in Hong Kong this July Mexican artist collective TRES, winner of the 2014/15 WMA Commission, will make their debut in Hong Kong with a mixed-media exhibition titled “Ubiquitious Trash - Hong Kong Edition” at Connecting Space, North Point from July 2 to 11. The exhibition echoes the theme, WASTE, of the third WMA Commission. “Ubiquitous Trash” is a process of continual scavenging that depicts the social life of the strange abandoned objects we call trash. Starting with incessant walks and obsessive scavenging in Hong Kong,” says TRES in their artist statement. TRES has explored the signs and marks imprinted on trash collected from public spaces and from official waste sites. This scavenging activity, typical of the collective, was first transformed into a book, where the intertwining of public space and trash became the place where a multiplicity of relationships explored, making clear the sociopolitical from an artistic perspective. They continue: “This exhibition is therefore a third iteration of the process, and as such it has varied the intensity found in the book. TRES presents a journey through the tension between the macro and the micro-details that emerge while translating trash into a photographic image or drawing. In each piece of refuse a gesture is left that allows us to gain insight into human culture. Trash tells us who we are, but it also reveals what we decide to leave aside, out of sight.” Ubiquitous Trash is an extension of the artist collective’s continuous voyage, which starts from Mexico to Manchester and now Hong Kong, to explore the implications between public space and trash. TRES were recently selected as the recipient of the 2016 Robert Gardner Fellowship in Photography by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, and will be developing the second phase of their project Ubiquitous Trash, expanding to Western Australian beaches. In 2015, their proposal was handpicked by three-member selection panel, (Fung Ho Yin, Assistant Professor, School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Dr. Charles Merewether, Visiting Professor, School of Art, Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University Singapore and member of Commissioning Panel for Venice Biennale Singapore Pavilion 2015; and Dr. Anthony Ng trustee of the WYNG Foundation), from over 70 submissions from around the globe to win the 2014/15 WMA Commission. TRES then spent close to a month in Hong Kong last July for their research and scavenging which eventually culminated in a series of artistic creations that form the “Ubiquitous Trash - Hong Kong Edition” exhibition. At Connecting Space, the waste narrative will unfold in forms of photography, drawing and objects. The creative process of TRES often involves dialogue with multiple disciplines including science, anthropology, archaeology and more. TRES has a fixation on the issue as they believe trash helps enhance our understanding of the contemporary society because “its informational character, its capacity to store material, economic and symbolic information can be used to elaborate individual or collective portraits of our society”. Their book, Ubiquitous Trash - Hong Kong Edition in Chinese and English about the Hong Kong city landscape will also be presented at the exhibition.

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Ubiquitous Trash - Hong Kong Edition Details: Date: July 2-11, 2016 Venue: Connecting Space, G/F Wah Kin Mansion, 18-20 Fort Street, North Point Time: 12pm – 7pm (Daily) Artist Talk - Interdisciplinarity as an art practice. Intertwining public space and garbage Date: July 6, 2016 Venue: Para Site (22/F, Wing Wah Industrial Building, 677 King’s Road, Quarry Bay) Time: 6:30pm The production of most contemporary art is based on complex methodologies. For TRES, collective work, dialogue, displacement and translation are key elements in building an art project. As to explain each of these strategies used, we will address the artwork we have produced during the last seven years, where the main concern has been garbage in a material and conceptual sense. Roving Exhibition Date: July 21 - September 10, 2016 Venue: Puerta Roja (1/F soho 189 art lane, 189 Queens Road West, Sheung Wan) Date: Sept 12 - October 28, 2016 Venue: Octavio Paz Gallery Consulate General of Mexico (2502 Caroline Centre, 28 Yun Ping Road, Wan Chai)