Ahead of his ambitious multimedia project launching in Hong Kong later this month, we meet the groundbreaking Portuguese artist at his southside studio

Vhils 01 © King Fung.jpg

Photographed by King Fung (Hong Kong Tatler)

It’s mid-morning and in Alexandre Farto’s ground-floor studio in Wong Chuk Hang, his team are hard at work preparing for the celebrated Portuguese artist’s first solo show in Hong Kong. Titled “Debris”, the multimedia exhibition will open at Pier 4 on March 21, alongside Art Basel Hong Kong and the annual fair’s whirlwind of satellite events.

Vhils – the tag name by which the urban artist is known – has also mounted a month-long intervention on a working tram, using an iconic aspect of the city to connect his moving artwork with the hitatler_stories of its people. The tram is covered on the outside with a collage made by carving into layers of posters from the streets of Hong Kong, and began its slow trundle through the city on March 19.

This signature carving technique, which the artist has applied to an impressive array of materials from wood and metal to paper and Styrofoam, and for which he has gained an international following, is a kind of archaeology, he says.

The process of excavation came about during his earlier graffiti days, when he started to realise that the walls he was tagging “were not just walls, but they were also absorbing the history and the moments of a place”. Eventually, he says, “I came up with the idea of subtracting rather than adding, of scratching at the surface of these layers.”

Vhils' signature carving technique, which the artist has applied to an impressive array of materials from wood and metal to paper and Styrofoam, and for which he has gained an international following, is a kind of archaeology, he says

At the workshop, there’s a stack of antique wooden doors in one corner, salvaged from construction sites; in another, a pile of colourful billboard posters. In the middle of the room, large white sheets of paper are laid out and painted with Chinese ink, while an almost-finished neon work (Glimpse, 2016) displays a new technique that the artist developed with the help of a local neon master.

Vhils 03 © King Fung.jpg

Photographed by King Fung (Hong Kong Tatler)

Vhils has been living and working in Hong Kong since August last year, at the invitation of the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Foundation (HOCA). The aim of his next exhibition, he says, is to present a reflection of the little time he’s had here, as part of a more global exploration of identity in contemporary urban societies.

“I’ve always been fascinated by the energy that Hong Kong has” says the artist, who was first drawn to the city through the films of Wong Kar Wai, such as In The Mood For Love and 2046. Though he didn’t get to travel until later in his life, Vhils says cinema was his way of seeing the world.

When he did start to travel, the artist was struck by the similarities between the places he encountered, and the powerful links between urban cultures. He observes, “It’s almost as though there’s a culture of ‘cities’, like if you divided all the cities of the world into islands, they could form a country.”

Vhils 04 © King Fung.jpg

Photographed by King Fung (Hong Kong Tatler)

He notes that Hong Kong, with its hyper-capitalist attitude, unrelenting pace and improbable vertical density, is the “extreme experience of an urban environment”. For Vhils, it was difficult to resist its allure:

“I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with cities, which is what first drove me to create art in the public space. When I started out doing graffiti illegally, it represented to me a declaration of love for the city, and a desire to participate in a public dialogue.”

He remarks that we live in a unique moment, where urban populations are rising dramatically and the identities of cities are being constantly shaped. He worries, however, that urbanisation is costing us the traditions that make each culture different.

"I’ve always had a love-hate relationship with cities, which is what first drove me to create art in the public space." –Vhils

He stresses that his works “are not there to criticise but rather to reflect on this process of ‘destructive creation’, and to make the invisible visible. I’m trying to draw attention to a process of change that is happening everywhere.”

When Vhils first encountered art in the public space, as a child growing up in an industrial suburb of Lisbon, it was in the form of political murals created during the Carnation Revolution of 1974, and these paintings would have a lasting influence on his outlook.

Vhils 05 © King Fung.jpg

Photographed by King Fung (Hong Kong Tatler)

“The muralist movement was very active during the revolution, but, by the late ‘80s, when I was born, it was almost completely forgotten”, he says. “The murals were fading away, which seemed like a metaphor for how my country had dealt with the upheaval.”

Vhils believes that creating art is in itself “an act of defiance”, though his own works are not overtly controversial. “There are different ways for art to be political, to empower communities and shine a light on situations that are [unjust],” he says.

Arriving in Hong Kong just months after the Occupy protests, an artist concerned with disenfranchised urban communities must have had his pick of inspiration. Vhils reveals only that he’s “researching a number of issues in Hong Kong” to discover where his work might have the most impact. He says, “I truly think art can help to make a fairer world.”