00:00I had hosted a charity auction here quite a few years ago and I remember
00:06already being so kind of struck by the beauty of the space and the uniqueness
00:11of the space. I think there are many different mansions but this mansion has
00:14so many interesting elements right you've got Burmese sculptures kind of
00:19carved out in marble on the wall then you've got bats on the ceiling you've
00:23got stained glass windows I think all of those things was kind of created quite
00:28a mark for me. Sure, I'm on my way.
00:33Hello I'm Sarah Mao, Executive Director of Villa Ho Pa. I've been working in the arts
00:39and cultural industry for close to 20 years. My first degree was in English
00:44literature and philosophy. I then thought I might want to become a lawyer so I went
00:50back to London and did a law conversion and during my mini-pupillage I realized
00:55that it wasn't the type of work that I was hoping it would be. Just through kind
01:01of coincidence my father introduced me to a Chinese ceramic specialist who was
01:06working at Christie's at the time and he said why don't you see if you know maybe
01:10working in the arts would be something you'd like to do and so I did a summer
01:15internship at Christie's. I loved not just the art but the ability or the
01:19opportunity to write about the art, research the art, meet new people every day. I started
01:25out working at Christie's The Auction House and actually that's a job that lasted
01:30for close to 17 years and then I came here.
01:40The work I did at the Auction House was very transactional and commercial, right? The paintings
01:46have years and years of history, the collections have years and years of hard work and kind
01:51of thought put in but my role was really to create the transaction process. But here at
01:56Villa Ho Pa we really are hoping to create Hong Kong's next cultural landmark and we really
02:01want to bring different facets of art, culture and creativity to the general public for them
02:09to enjoy.
02:13When I came into the space no one will be unimpressed by the work that it took to create a
02:21space like
02:22this. Whether it's from the imported Italian windows to the different sculptures to the storytelling
02:28with the tiger, the relationship with Tiger Balm, I think so much of the stories, it had less
02:34to do with the memories of Tiger Balm Garden but to me it had more to do with the vision
02:38that Arthur, you know, himself had when he tended for this project. He approached me and spoke
02:45to me about wanting to turn this into something special for Hong Kong and to align it with some
02:50of the most notable villas, you know, famous kind of villas around the world and I think
02:56that really encouraged me and inspired me to want to do something like this for Hong Kong.
03:05My desire to want to create something that's not just a museum. We're calling it a cultural villa
03:11and the reason we are calling it that way is because we don't want it to be static. We want,
03:15you know, for you know, if somebody comes in the end of this year and they experience the space,
03:19when they come in again a year later they'll see that some things would have changed whether
03:24the design element of it has changed, the sound room has changed or we have a different artist
03:28in residence at the moment and so the continuous momentum allows us to create a lot of opportunities
03:33for cultural programming. So different workshops for example, student tours where I can share both
03:39the history and the vision for, you know, what culture is, you know, what does culture stand for
03:44in Hong Kong or what does culture stand for in Asia and how are we developing that? Like,
03:49how do we combine, you know, a cosmopolitan city that has people from all over the world,
03:55you know, having tried their luck here for the past 90, 100 years. I think all those stories
04:02is what makes this role very, very exciting for me.
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