immersive design festival detour 2022 turns visitors into participants

hong kong’s largest design festival takes off

The annual Hong Kong design festival deTour 2022 invites everyone to embark on an interactive, reflective journey through participatory installations, workshop sessions, design dialogues, film screenings and guided tours. Themed ‘Design as One’ and presented by PMQ, the 17-day celebration of art explores the essential role of design in creating a better future for mankind. Collected data from the community’s social and habitual behaviors transforms into exhibits, turning the visitors into co-participants. From witnessing a cow’s journey in life to becoming china pieces to a memory-evoking time-machine, the experience is as immersive as ever. 

all images courtesy of deTour 2022

at detour 2022, visitors become participants

Located in the heart of Hong Kong’s SoHo, deTour 2022 is bound to bring action to the crowd. Sponsored by Create Hong Kong of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the annual design festival is breaking the passive mold of art exhibitions with 40 interactive workshops, cultural activities, 12 dialogues, film screenings, guided tours and virtual galleries. The key event aims to visualize the power of collective participation with the art pieces echoing the voices of the people and reflecting on the information collected from the community’s social and behavioral traits. 

The overarching theme of deTour 2022, ‘Design as One’, is led by Shin Wong. Together with Chi-wing Lee, Kay Chan Wan Ki and STICKYLINE, the curators also act as narrators to connect different groups of people at the installations. Through asking questions, gathering and interpreting answers on diverse issues, the design event continually builds on this collaborative process as the collection of input transforms into human-centered exhibits. 

‘Bring Romie 18 to the East’ by Adelaide Lala Tam is an exhibition of evidence: that of a farm animal’s life journey and its posthumous offerings that would live on to become products our society enjoys. The display explores urgent topics such as animal breeding, morality in animal production etc, while following the journey of the cow and its parts. As a final tribute to the animal, the artist collaborated with fellow Design Academy Eindhoven alumni Niko Leung, a Hong Kong-based ceramic artist, to turn Romie 18’s ashes into bone china.

‘Grey Sculpture’ by Bryan Lee Long Yin and Eva Leung Ka Wai learns and grows by absorbing the hidden rules and unspoken habits in the daily life of every individual, gradually expanding as an erratic organic matter. The sculpture is a metaphor for a city—its character is constantly reinvented and added to by the choices and actions of every dweller, or, in the context of deTour 2022, every festival goer.

PMQ is honored to be collaborating with Domestic Data Streamers to create ‘About Time’. The exhibit is a series of installations that explore our relationship with time and memory through participation and data visualization, creating a reflective space that grows over the course of the festival. Time flies for the ones having fun and drags for the bored. Sometimes it works in a man’s favor; in other times it races against. Time inevitably destroys all things but also heals all wounds, but it nonetheless speaks of volumes about human culture, habits and character; it defines who we are and how we act.

from t-shiRt recycling to an athletic cigarette butt picking session

Whether it be hand painting home recipe-turned-graphic on Gangcai plates with plant-themed lino prints, upcycling old t-shirts back to daily relevancy with Tee Knitter, or joining the Cigarette Butt Committee’s butt picking athletic training session to re-examine street cleaners’ social treatment from a bottom up perspective, there’s a workshop to bring the creative side out of any visitors. 

A series of design dialogues is running in tandem until the grand opening of deTour 2022. The lecture on December 3^rd, ‘What are we paying for?‘, invites Devana Ng, the co-founder of Invisible Company, and Jorch Wong, the founder of The Loops Hong Kong, to share their experiences and observations on interacting with consumers and users, while Keith Tam, Head of Department of Communication Design and Director of the Centre for Communication Design at the Hong Kong Design Institute, and Katherine Tse, Lecturer at the Department of Communication Design and a Researcher at the Centre for Communication Design under HKDI, discuss the main considerations of manufacturers when deciding on packaging design. Consecutively on December 4th, the host of ‘Hello, Neighbours!‘ Eric Ho invites social and cultural workers such as Christopher Wong – Head Brewer and Co-Founder at Heroes Beer Co, SIN Chiu Hang Benjamin –  Senior Social Work Supervisor at Caritas Cheung Sui Kun Community Centre and Clara Chan Co-founder of Lion Head Culture, to let us into the secrets hidden amongst different neighbors and the community.

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project info:

event: deTour 2022 | @deTourhk 

virtual tour & website: https://detour.hk/

design festival dates: November 25 – December 04, 2022

virtual tour dates: November 25 – December 31, 2022

curators: Shin Wong; Chi-wing Lee | @milkdesignlimited; Kay Chan Wan Ki | @kaychanwanki; STICKYLINE | @stickyline

organizer: PMQ

sponsor: Create Hong Kong of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

location: PMQ, 35 Aberdeen street, Central, Hong Kong