HART HAUS is pleased to present Garden Whisperers: Attuning to Ecologies of Coexistence, an award-winning exhibition project from the Curatorship Incubation Programme. Curated by Mankit Lai, the group exhibition features works by Chen Dandizi, Melody Qingmei Li, Florence Yuk-ki Lee, Liao Jiaming, Green Mok, Tang Kwok Hin, Shawn Pakhin Tang, Timur Si-Qin, Tong Wenmin, Benjamin Ryser, Dorothy Wong Ka Chung, Chung Wong, and Woo Hannah. The exhibition is generously supported by Lead Sponsors HART HAUS, Octone Foundation, and Burger Collection. Its public programmes are supported by Programme Sponsors Zhun Zhun Zhai and Kame Collection.
Exhibition Details 展覽詳情
General Visit 公眾參觀
Date日期：12.9 - 6.12.2026 (Open from Mon to Sat 逢星期一至六開放)
Time 時間: 12noon - 18:00
Venue 地點：HART HAUS G/F & 3/F 三樓及地下
General admission begins on the first regular opening day after the opening reception.
公眾參觀於開幕酒會後的第一個正常開放日開始。
*Special Hours 特別開放時間：4.10 & 6.12.2026 12:00 - 18:00
Garden Whisperers transforms HART HAUS into a night garden. Neither wholly natural nor entirely human-made, the garden is a site rooted in the entanglement of socio-cultural and ecological forces, growing and evolving through the ongoing interactions between humans, more-than-human beings, and their shared environments. Taking the garden as a metaphor, the exhibition invites visitors to wander through the nocturnal landscape and attune to the subtle relationships that sustain coexistence.
Often imagined as a highly developed "concrete jungle," Hong Kong emerges instead as a unique metropolis where verdant mountains, coastlines, and rich ecologies meet dense urbanism. Taking this city as its point of departure, the exhibition brings together 13 artists working across Asia whose practices explore often overlooked dimensions of coexistence, extending and reimagining the entangled conditions of city and nature. Together, their works weave a tapestry of life's quiet whispers, inviting audiences to attend to the multiple dialogues embedded within symbiotic existence—adaptation, negotiation, conflict, collaboration, and care—while sensing the ever-moving pulse of life that course between urban and natural worlds.
At a time of urgent ecological challenges, the exhibition invites audiences to reconsider the fundamental relationship between city and nature. Subtitled Attuning to Ecologies of Coexistence, it proposes a post-urban vision that moves beyond human-centred perspectives, foregrounding our surroundings as living ecologies co-constituted by people, animals, plants, technologies, and cultures, and revealing how diverse forms of life continuously shape, influence, and depend upon one another.
Spanning HART HAUS's two gallery spaces and terrace garden, Garden Whisperers invites visitors to listen closely to the many "whisperers" who dwell alongside us. Here, the garden is not merely a metaphor but a place for the ongoing practice of attention, care, and coexistence—one that opens imaginative possibilities for a more sustainable future within an ever-evolving post-urban ecology.
Octone Foundation has long focused on the growth of young curators within Hong Kong’s art ecosystem. Through initiatives including the HART Curatorial Mentorship Programme, it offers practical platforms and resources for emerging curators, fostering the diversified development of local contemporary art.
About the Curator
Mankit Lai is a curator, researcher and writer. His research interests lie primarily in contemporary art, with a focus on ecology, socially engaged practices, and gender issues. Curatorial practices, installations, performances, and photography are his major fields of enquiry. He has worked on exhibitions and research projects at institutions including M+, the Palace Museum Beijing, and Asia Society Hong Kong. His writing was recognised with the third prize in Arts Criticism Recognition Programme 2024 organized by Hong Kong Arts Development Council. He received the 2021 Emerging Writer Award from the Journal of Curatorial Studies. In 2018, he was named the Laidlaw scholar, supporting his work on a research project examining gender representations in Chinese propaganda art at the University of Leeds and the University of Hong Kong.
About HART HAUS
HART HAUS is a not-for-profit arts organisation dedicated to supporting artists and nurturing Hong Kong's creative community.
Founded in 2018, HART HAUS has become a vibrant home for artists and creatives, providing them with a much-needed platform to explore, experiment, and develop their practices.