Kowloon  (2016)

 "Kowloon"  by LRM Locus alludes to  what was known as "the Kowloon Walled City" which was in Kowloon city, in the Kowloon peninsula  (right in front of the Hong Kong island).

The Walled City of Kowloon was demolished in 1994, and is now the Kowloon Walled City park. It was originally created as a rampart around 1600, and remained part of china after the opium wars and the brittish occupation of Hong Kong, and even later  when it was enclosed by brittish territories. It started to grow up after world war II, and particularly after Mao's takeover it gradually became highly populated, finally turning into a maze of somewhat illegal constructions, one on top of the other, with improvised infrastructures creating a dense jumble of conductions, wires, pipes and hoses and concrete textures, a constantly leaking muddle through which sunlight barely reached the bottom.

The phenomenon of the Walled City of Kowloon was documented in books and films, for instance in the work of Hong Kong filmmakers such as Wong Kar-Wai or Fruit Chan.

LRM Locus' piece is not relating nor depicting the Walled City story, for we are not interested in conceptual nor narrative art anymore. Our creative process expressly includes as many inspiration sources as possible, carefully assembled to avoid any kind of narration or concept. We draw from the walled city of Kowloon, but also from a manifold of traditional and contemporary music, visual, dance and movement arts, architecture and constructions, sciences, humanities, or just everyday life.

Our creative procedure and its results are therefore non-conceptual, so a title and its associations are just for reference –or rather necessity, never intended to be taken literally. With this in mind, we do put a stress on respecting the viewer's right to a free interpretation —which is something we believe conceptual and narrative arts prevent–.   

Thus if someone may elaborate an interpretation of the piece in her or his own way, pointing out references or even quotes in it,  it 's welcome to do so as long as they respect other viewers' interpretations.

For the more the interpretations from our viewers differ from one another, the more satisfied we are.

Berta Delgado / David Aladro-Vico,  2016