A sound installation titled Open Home by Leung Chi Wo is specially produced at the residence of critic Jaspar Lau Kin Wah who named his home for art as mMK. About 20 to 30 monologues, all recorded in Hong Kong with one third in English and the rest in Cantonese, of different people talking about their home will be played in the living room of this small flat in Kwun Tong of East Kowloon for the unique exhibiting context.

Since 2004, artist LEUNG Chi Wo has been visiting Hong Kong people’s home, from cheap rent-public housing to expensive apartment on the Peak for his photo project Domestica Invisibile  which explores the living space of the people of the city and their intimate relations with it. So far almost 40 places have been visited.

In addition to collecting images of corners of their home, Leung also talked to them and made recordings of their monologues about reality and ideas of living there. These soundtracks are stories of individuals and also somehow constitute certain collectiveness (and diversities) of the city that we all live in.


Background
In October and November 2005, Leung Chi Wo made visits to 21 households in Sapporo of Japan and listened to the stories about their living spaces. Afterwards, their recorded monologues were played separately with small speakers installed all round inside an ordinary apartment at street level open to public in Sapporo. Upon entering, it was a room of multiple whisperings until the audience moved toward each speaker to listen to each story. The idea of home is expressed with reference to the diverse background of each individual, in spite of probably a collective value of living situation in Sapporo. This first version of Open Home not only encouraged the audience’s contemplation of one of the most banal subjects, but also blurred the border between the private and the public realm in the name of art.