House Stories: How has the pandemic changed the art world?

An in-depth look at how non-profit art spaces, commercial galleries and auction houses have tackled the challenges posed by Covid-19—and what's next for the industry.

Speakers include:

• Cosmin Costinas, executive director/ curator, Para Site Hong Kong
• Fiona Römer, senior director, Hauser & Wirth
• Elaine Kwok, director, 20th/ 21st Century Art, Asia Pacific, Christie’s

Moderator:

• Oliver Giles, executive editor of Tatler Asia Group

***Limited tickets available, register early to avoid disappointment***

Special Announcement: Government social distancing regulations remain in place. We encourage all participants to exercise good personal hygiene, wear a mask at all times and refrain from attending if they are feeling unwell or have recently returned to Hong Kong from overseas.

Speakers

Cosmin Costinas

Executive director/ curator, Para Site Hong Kong

Cosmin Costinas (b. 1982, Satu Mare, Romania) is the Executive Director/Curator of Para Site, Hong Kong (since 2011), and Artistic Director of Kathmandu Triennale 2021. He was a Guest Curator of Dakar Biennale - La Biennale de l’Art africain contemporain-DAK’ART, Dakar (2018); Guest Curator at the Dhaka Art Summit (2018); Co-curator of the 10th Shanghai Biennale (2014); Curator of BAK-basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht (2008-2011); Co-curator of the 1st Ural Industrial Biennial, Ekaterinburg (2010); and Editor of documenta 12 Magazines, documenta 12, Kassel (2005–2007).

At Para Site, Costinas oversaw the institution’s major expansion and relocation to a new home in 2015, and curated or co-curated the exhibitions: ‘Garden of Six Seasons’ (2020); ‘Koloa: Women, Art, and Technology’ (touring at Nuku’alofa, Tonga and Artspace Aotearoa, Auckland, 2019-2020); ‘An Opera of Animals’ (touring at Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, 2019); ‘A beast, a god, and a line’ (touring at Dhaka Art Summit; Myanm/art&The Secretariat, Yangon; Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw; Kunsthall Trondheim; MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Chiang Mai, 2018-2021); ‘Movements at an Exhibition, Manuel Pelmus’ (2017-2018); ‘Soil and Stones, Souls and Songs’ (touring at MCAD, Manila and Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok, 2016-2017); ‘Afterwork’ (touring at ILHAM, Kuala Lumpur, 2016-2017); ‘The World is Our Home. A Poem on Abstraction’ (2015-2016); ‘Sheela Gowda’ (2015); the conference ‘Is the Living Body the Last Thing Left Alive? The new performance turn, its histories and its institutions’ (2014; the homonymous major volume of original essays was published in 2017 with Sternberg Press, Berlin); ‘Great Crescent: Art and Agitation in the 1960s—Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan’ (touring at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2013-2015 and MUAC, Mexico City, 2016); ‘A Journal of the Plague Year’ (touring at The Cube, Taipei; Arko Art Center, Seoul; and Kadist Art Foundation & The Lab, San Francisco, 2013-2015; the homonymous volume was published in 2015 with Sternberg Press, Berlin; and the show was featured in Art News’ Best Exhibitions of the Decade (2010-2019); ‘Taiping Tianguo, A History of Possible Encounters: Ai Weiwei, Frog King Kwok, Tehching Hsieh, and Martin Wong in New York’ (touring at SALT, Istanbul; NUS Museum, Singapore; e-flux, New York, 2012-2014; the homonymous volume was published in 2015 with Sternberg Press, Berlin), a.o.

Fiona Römer

Senior director, Hauser & Wirth

Römer joined Hauser & Wirth in 2015 and relocated to Hong Kong since 2019, leading the gallery’s business in Hong Kong and wider Asia. Majored in History of Art, lived in Zurich, Berlin, London, and New York before relocating to Asia, Römer had extensive experience of sales internationally, in both primary and secondary markets, as well as exhibitions and working with artists. Prior to joining the gallery, she was a Sales Director at Neugerriemschneider in Berlin. Römer is a founding patron of M+ museum in Hong Kong, and a member of museum and institution circles, including Kunsthaus Zurich, Kunsthalle Zurich, MoMA, and Guggenheim.

Elaine Kwok

Director, 20th / 21st Century Art, Asia Pacific, Christie’s

Kwok joined Christie’s in 2017, and is responsible for business development and top client relationships in Asia, with a focus on Modern and Contemporary Art. Kwok is also one of Christie’s principal auctioneers: in 2018, she sold Wood and Rock by Su Shi for US$60 million, the most expensive work of art that Christie’s has ever sold in Asia; in 2020, she was the auctioneer representing Asia in ONE, a pioneering global relay auction that took place in consecutive sessions in Hong Kong, Paris, London, and New York.

Kwok serves on the Museum Advisory Committee of Leisure and Cultural Services Department in Hong Kong, and is also Vice Chair of the Executive Committee of the Friends of Hong Kong Museum of Art.

Moderator: Oliver Giles

Executive editor of Tatler Asia Group

Giles is the executive editor of Tatler. He writes primarily about art and has interviewed many leaders in the field, including museum directors, gallerists, curators and world-famous artists. Before he joined Tatler, he contributed to international and local publications such as CNN, Forbes and the South China Morning Post.

About House Stories

Tatler and The Upper House have partnered to launch House Stories, a 2021 panel series exploring contemporary culture in Hong Kong and featuring conversations and interviews with experts and leaders sharing life lessons, anecdotes, and key learnings at informal monthly gatherings.