A4 Art MuseumEvents
OPEN-class Art CommunityCommunity Events

2025OPEN-class Annual Public Education Project｜AII Creatures Great and Small

  • Application Period
    2025.5.15 — 5.23
  • Screening & Selection Notices
    2025.5.22 — 5.25

Introduction

All Creatures Great and Small is James Herriot’s story about life; those vital activities of living entities, so often overlooked by humans, and the interweaving connections between different forms of life constitute the most touching narratives. Fungi, though minuscule organisms, represent the most resilient of existences. Entangled with all creation, they have spent a billion years breaking down rocks and decomposing waste—life is continuously transformed and reshaped by them. In May 2025, under the theme ‘All Creatures Great and Small’, OPEN-class commenced an annual exploration of public practice at the intersection of art and natural history.

The process of urbanisation resembles an assembly line for the ‘screening’ of life forms, wherein humans assertively dominate every inch of the city, preoccupied entirely with their own survival and quality of life. Yet, what are the perspectives of the flora and fauna that surround us? How are our lives entangled with theirs? What kind of city truly constitutes a liveable environment for multiple species? Furthermore, is there a possibility for us—as a multi-species collective—to move towards multiple futures and shape diverse worlds together?

At this pivotal juncture, we are relaunching our Community Curatorial Programme. Through this exploration of public practice, we look forward to convening the public, artists, and researchers from the fields of ecology, natural history, and anthropology into collaborative study, field investigation, and action groups. Together, we seek to reflect upon, discuss, and respond to these questions through tangible action, discovering how the collaboration between art and science might inspire our next steps.

  • Community Curatorial Programme

    The keywords for this iteration of the Community Curatorial Programme are ‘Flora, Fauna, and Urban Memory’ and ‘The Species Archive’. Whilst independent, these two themes are intrinsically interconnected, rendering this curatorial practice a collaboration between art and natural science. This is neither a simulation game confined to curatorial proposals nor an artistic experiment restricted solely to the gallery space. Instead, it demands an active engagement and collaboration with actual living entities, requiring participants to enter real ecological sites. It is a process-oriented practical action that yields tangible, concrete outcomes. We will invite curators, artists, and researchers from the fields of ecology, natural history, and anthropology to provide comprehensive support for the ‘Community Curators’ in areas such as field research, academic courses, investigation, and documentation.

  • Public Courses and Programmes

    1 Exchange ‘Bird Diaries’ with the Artist
    2 ‘Plants, Miasma, and Export Paintings’: How They Shaped Guangdong–Hong Kong Spaces and Natural Forms—Artist Screening &Discussion
    3 Come and See, Come and Hear: Artist Moving-Image Screenings & Post-Screening Discussions—’Practising with Nature’ Screening Programme

  • An artistic experiment concerning 'nature' is unfolding

    How to describe what is currently taking place here and what will be undertaken in the future remains, for the moment, perhaps impossible to determine. We have a tentative plan for this to be an artistic process centred around ‘nature’, agreeing that we may begin with ‘asking questions’ and spontaneous, everyday conversations. The blank space in the phrase ‘In nature, how does the trajectory of ____ extend’ reflects the manner of our current actions. Beginning now with this initial act of ‘asking questions’, we wish to make public here the exchange of certain reflections, perceptions, and experiences, inviting everyone to act as observers and watch how these developments unfold together.