Lee Nayo, Face to Face, 2026. Single-channel video, color, 1 min. 9 sec. South Korea

<Face to Face> 

Lee Nayo, 2026. Single-channel video, color, 1 min. 9 sec. South Korea

The person in the video is a friend from Hong Kong. One day in June, we went to watch a Hong Kong film together. The venue was covered with images associated with Hong Kong. I took a photograph of her there.

Hadn't she already seen these images countless times in Hong Kong? Were they Hong Kong images to her as well? How does Hong Kong exist within you?

She told me that Hong Kong had changed a great deal, and is still changing. Many of her friends immigrated to Canada because they did not want to witness their Hong Kong—and themselves—being overtaken by images they never wanted. But she has no intention of leaving.

She misses Hong Kong all the time.

"When do u miss HK?"

"Everyday."

It is not simply a feeling of loneliness. Over three years, she developed her own way of surviving and became accustomed to life in Korea. She now has many friends. She said she is not lonely. But at first, she was. It was the loneliness of riding the subway and feeling as though everyone was moving in a different direction from her.

I placed a black circle over her face. It functions as a mark of erasure, but it also resembles an orbit—the form of a being that has left, yet never fully departed.

We often imagine those who leave their homeland as existing somewhere between departure and arrival. But she was not on a straight line. She had left Hong Kong, yet she continued to move around it, as if orbiting a sun.

The Hong Kong images displayed at the venue seemed to follow a similar orbit. While the real Hong Kong continues to change, certain images are endlessly reproduced and circulated. They fail to explain reality, yet continue to linger around us.

What were those Hong Kong images to her? Home? Memory? Or perhaps a Hong Kong that no longer exists?

A circle is a closed form, but it is also a form of endless circulation. Departure and staying, loss and memory, present life and past place coexist without ever fully separating, tracing the same orbit.

She left Hong Kong, but she never truly left it.

The Hong Kong within her has not disappeared. It is still moving in orbit.

Nayo Lee

The director draws inspiration from a wide range of genres, including narrative cinema, experimental film, and art film. They are particularly interested in magical events that occur in everyday life. They believe that even the most ordinary moments can be extraordinary, and that while we can never fully understand everything about another person's life, it is important to accept their existence without judgment simply because they are who they are. 

Artist contact

Instagram @nowherenayo 

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