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Tuesday July 18, 2017

Organized by the Hong Kong Trade Develop-ment Council (HKTDC), the 28th edition of the

Hong Kong Book Fair will be held from July 19 to 25 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

Under the theme of “Reading the World — People, Places, Passions,” this year’s event attracts about 670 exhibitors from 35 countries and regions and more than 300 cultural activities will be held during the fair period, with the aim to encourage readers to travel around the world and broaden their horizons.

This year’s book fair adopts “Travel” as the theme of the year. Echoing the theme, a dedicated zone “Around the World Through Words” will introduce readers to nine Hong Kong travel writers of different backgrounds.

They include Leung Ping-kwan and Xi Xi (litterateurs), Albert Wong (cruise expert), Rebecca Lee (explorer), Sonia Ng and Jason Wordie (historians), Zhou Yijun (veteran international journalist), Kam Ling (novelist) and Celia Cheng (writer and photographer).

The zone will showcase how their works are derived from the items and photos which were used or collected during their journeys so as to enhance public understanding of their travel works.

During the book fair, Theme of the Year: Travel Seminar Series will be organized, with travel writers telling their own stories and scholars ana-lyzing different travel works.

At the “Beyond the Picture” zone, the organizer is in collaboration with the National Geographic magazine to showcase photos of cultures, landscapes, sceneries and architec-ture in Hong Kong and worldwide, including award-winning photos so that readers can experience the feel-ings and passions of photographers through their images.

Apart from travel related zones, this year’s Art Gallery will also feature “A Journey to Sichuan” exhibition. Exhibits will be cat-egorized into four main themes — exploring the ancient Sichuan civilization, understanding famous historical fi gures, appreciating the works of literary masters and view-ing the customs of ancient Sichuan. Interesting performances such as Sichuan “face-changing” operas, tea art performances and ancient string instrument performances will be arranged.

This year’s book fair features eight seminar series. The Consul-ate General of France in Hong Kong & Macao has invited French illustrator Cédric Fernandez, Afri-can-born French novelist Alain Mabanckou and Hong Kong-based French author Arnaud Lanuque to introduce their works at the World of Knowledge Seminar Series. With support from the British Council, bestselling crime fi ction writer Sophie Hannah and travel writers Tim Moore and Sara Wheeler have been invited to speak at the English Reading and Creative Writing Semi-nar Series.

(SD-Agencies)

HK book fair to open

Debra Lidebra_lidan@163.com

IN a small courtyard in Songzhuang Village in Beijing’s suburbs, art critic and curator Li Xianting fi rst met Wu Li, a young man he hailed as a “genius,” in June 2006.

“A strong smell of oil paint over-whelmed me the minute I stepped into his rented studio. The fl oors were covered in greasy paint and paintings occupied every inch of spare space in the rooms,” Li recalled.

The impressed curator gave the young talent a prominent position in his “Living in Songzhuang” exhibition the following year. Since then, Wu’s works have been exhibited in Taipei and Berlin apart from mainland cities and entered the collec-tions of museums and other artists like Yue Minjun.

Saturday afternoon, dozens of water color and oil paintings, the majority cre-ated by Wu in the past two years, debuted at an exhibition in Qianhai, giving locals a glimpse of the “genius” painter’s passions for life and art.

Wu’s oil paintings, full of tension and emotion, depict the most mundane subjects of life. With no trace of modern civilization in his paintings, people can feel the vitality of the earth and plants, intoxicated with the natural way of life.

“I only paint people and things familiar to me, like my parents, my wife and kid, or the laurel tree in my yard,” he said.

“Painting is part of my life and I paint my life. When I painted my own wife and son, I poured my truest emotions into the work, freezing that moment on canvas. It’s like keeping a diary and this process makes me happy.”

Wu thinks painting begins with observ-ing the world, but the process of creating a piece of art should be governed by one’s emotions. “It’s like an instinct. Visual art cannot lie. A sharp critic will be able to tell within 10 seconds if the artist was honest with a piece of work.”

Li once compared Wu’s painting to “strong, rich liquor extracted from life.”

One painting on show depicts fi ve ripe persimmons hanging from a tree. “Persimmons are everywhere in North China,” Wu said. “I came upon the per-simmon tree on a fall afternoon walk last year, and the way the sun rays shone on the ripe fruit immediately struck me.”

Born in 1983 in Hunan Province, Wu started painting in his early teens. Inspired by the biographies of artists he read, he decided to make painting his future career. He didn’t give up his dream even though he failed to enroll in an art college after the national college entrance exams.

“I don’t think it to my detriment that I lack a university degree in art. Isn’t it good when you can be different from others and be more faithful to yourself?” he asked.

Moving to Beijing in 2005, he rented a small courtyard with four rooms to be his studio for 4,000 yuan (US$588) a year. He lived in seclusion, eating very simple meals, spending all his time and savings on painting. Luckily for him, Taiwanese collector Xu Zhiping started to buy his paintings in 2006.

Using warm, thick and torrential colors, his oil paintings are reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh.

“I love colors extremely. But painting is not taking in everything you see. You also have to analyze and retain what touches you, and present it in a way that you think is aesthetically appealing,” he said.

Apart from oil paintings, Wu is show-casing watercolor works at the exhibition,

Self-taught artist living

to paint

which combine the freestyle brushwork of Chinese paintings with bold rich colors typical of Western paintings.

Time: 11:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m., through Aug. 22Venue 1: 1/F, ONE S, SPACE, 19 Vanke Enter-prise Mansions, 63 Qianhai Road One, Nanshan District 前海深港合作贸易区万科企业公馆19栋前海壹会1F艺术空间Venue 2: 1/F, C3 Space, North Area, OCT-LOFT, Nanshan District 南山区华侨城创意文化园北区C3栋一楼Admissions free

A painting on show depicts fi ve ripe persimmons hanging from a tree.

Courtesy of ONE S, SPACE

Wu Li in front of one of his paintings.

Watercolor painting “Beginning of Spring” by Wu Li.