Para Site, Fogo Island Arts, and Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Partner to Launch Residency for Hong Kong-Based Artists

In a landmark collaboration, Para Site, Fogo Island Arts (FIA), and the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA) are proud to announce the inception of the Fog & Mist Residency. This pilot project aims to foster cross-cultural exchange, provide a platform for emerging artists from Hong Kong, and cultivate connections between Asia and North America. The Fog & Mist Residency presents a unique opportunity for a Hong Kong-based artist to immerse themselves in a three-month residency on Fogo Island, Newfoundland, Canada, during the summer of 2024. The new program seeks to engage artists whose work reflects the dynamic discourses and practices relevant to Hong Kong as a place and concept, thereby bridging diverse cultural perspectives and fostering collaboration across borders. “We are very excited to work with Para Site and MOCA Toronto in joining artists, island places, and institutions together and charting new dialogues,” said Kitty Scott, renowned curator, and Strategic Advisor to FIA. The residency is envisioned as a means to strengthen the connections between Hong Kong, Fogo Island, and Canada,” added Billy Tang, Executive Director and Curator at Para Site. It is conceptualized as a migratory project with the goal of fostering artist mobility by cultivating a supportive diasporic network.”

The first selected artist for the inaugural Fog & Mist Residency is Wong Winsome Dumalagan. “Beyond offering Wong time and space to develop her ideas on Fogo Island, she will work with colleagues at Para Site, FIA, and MOCA Toronto to forge new connections — and we hope shef orms long-lasting ones,” said Claire Shea, Director of Fogo Island Arts. Supported by the generous contribution of Eleanor & Francis Shen, the Fog & Mist Residency will provide Wong with support and resources to work on her project, conduct research, and engage with local communities. Collaborative efforts with MOCA Toronto will further facilitate the realization of Wong’s project, culminating in a live or public programme in 2024.

“This pilot project exemplifies our commitment to fostering creativity, diversity, and dialogue within contemporary art,” said Kathleen Bartels, Executive Director at MOCA Toronto. “We look forward to bringing compelling narratives and experiences to the forefront, alongside artists and organizations from across the globe.”

About Wong Winsome Dumalagan 

Wong Winsome Dumalagan mainly works on videography and the sculpting of images. Through moving along with the camera, composing, and sculpting the texture and rhythm of images, she steps into and comprehends the essence of the mundane life. Thus, most of her work is about the everyday, created in the different cultural contexts she inhabits along her mobility. She’s currently exploring the ways of understanding different places, people, and relations discovered through planned or unplanned encounters and travels, especially around Southeast Asia, as well as the dynamics and different dimensions of knowledge of places and people constructed by narratives of different people, landscapes, and cityscapes. Delving into the dynamics of authority in images and art, sometimes she acts as an “agent” or “co-creator” of the works, and people she encounters are the provider of the raw materials of images, sounds, and journeys. She’s a member of Floating Projects Collective.

About Para Site

Founded in early 1996 as an artist run space, Para Site is Hong Kong’s leading contemporary art centre and one of the oldest and most active independent art institutions in Asia. It produces exhibitions, publications, discursive, and educational projects aimed at forging a critical understanding of local and international phenomena in art and society. Throughout its history, Para Site’s activities have included a range of different formats, among which P/S magazine (1997–2006), a bilingual publication, which was Hong Kong’s first visual arts magazine and a central platform for the development of art writing and of a discursive scene in the city and the Curatorial Training Programme (2007–2010). Since 2012, Para Site has been running an International Art Residency Program and has been organizing an annual international conference.This is accompanied, starting from 2015, by a new educational format aimed at training young curators and other art professionals.

About Fogo Island Arts

Fogo Island Arts is the founding program of Shorefast, a registered Canadian charity dedicated to unleashing the power of place so local communities can thrive in the global economy. Fogo Island Arts was founded in 2008 as an international artist residency program with the belief that artists are visionaries with a unique capacity to reveal and respond to the complexities of our time. The residencies enable artists, curators, and writers to think, create, and connect on Fogo Island, promoting discovery across perspectives and disciplines. The geographic specificity as an island off an island in the North Atlantic is a foundational platform for engagement around issues of
sustainability, ecology, economy, and belonging. Over the last 15 years, Fogo Island Arts has grown into a program of exhibitions, public programs, publications, and research projects that aim to explore art and ideas and bridge connections between the local and the global.

About MOCA Toronto

The Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto (MOCA) presents rotating exhibitions that prioritize twenty-first-century artistic production, primarily through commissioning of new work. Artists, partnerships, experimentation, and reciprocal initiatives are at the centre of MOCA’s mission as a locally rooted and internationally connected organization. Focused on core values promoting equity, inclusion, access, courage, and responsibility, MOCA fosters active participation and engagement to serve as a welcoming cultural hub in the hyper-diverse city of Toronto.

About Shorefast

Shorefast is a registered charity that is forging new paths at the intersection of community economic development, business, and philanthropy. Our community businesses, including Fogo Island Inn, Fogo Island Workshops, and Fogo Island Fish, are designed to beeconomic engines driving toward our mission: To unleash the power of place for local communities to thrive in the global economy. Among Shorefast’s holistic set of initiatives are Fogo Island Arts and Community Economies initiatives aimed at distilling learnings across other enterprising communities.

For more details and to experience Para Site, Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto, Fogo Island Arts, and Shorefast online, please visit:

Websites: para-site.com, moca.ca, fogoislandarts.ca, shorefast.org
Social Media: @parasite.hk, @mocatoronto, @fogoislandarts, @shorefastfogoislands