Ise Bay Project: The story of Amanami

The Ise Bay Project is an addition to MAP Office long’s term research on coastal regions and their specific economies, ecologies and communities: from the Oran Laut sea gypsies in Thailand and Indonesia, to the floating villages in Hong Kong and Ningde, and the unique Jeju’s heritage with the Haenyeo in Korea. Most commonly, our mapping develops from a field survey, with photographic, video and interview of the local population. This time is no exception as we are challenging the idea to look into Ise Bay particular coastal landscape through a collection, transformation and use of seafood and especially seaweeds as an integral part of the cultural heritage. Japan keeps this old tradition very active, making it an obvious area of research to establish a complarative model with Hong Kong. If seaweed foraging has disappeared from Hong Kong’s culture, its usage as medecine it still valuable and available in most traditional medecine shop.

About MAP Office

The relation between bodies and territories is at the center of MAP Office’s research-based artistic production. With twenty years of multifaceted navigations, publications and exhibitions, our practice has evolved across multiple fields and disciplines. Along the way, the intentional shift in medium and audience, including residencies, biennales, gallery and museum shows, and film festivals, has created opportunities to explore new territories in the visual arts and time-based media. In recent years, we have developed a specific focus on islands and other liquid territories as a subject and object of study. Through these investigations, and after more than a decade of exploring the effects of globalization and urbanization on Hong Kong and China, our practice is for the last ten years investigating a new geography of archipelagoes that characterize the transient and globalized environment of the Anthropocene age.

About Laurent Gutierrez

Laurent Gutierrez is co-founder of MAP Office. He earned a Ph.D. of Architecture from RMIT. He is a Professor at the School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University where he leads the Master of Design Programs and the Master of Design in Design Strategies as well as the Master of Design in Urban Environments Design programs. He is also the co-director of Urban Environments Design Research Lab.

About Valérie Portefaix

Valérie Portefaix is an artist and architect. She is the principal and co-founder of MAP Office. After receiving a Bachelor of Fine Art, and a Master of Architecture, she earned a Ph.D. of Urbanism from University Pierre Mendes France. She is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.