“Wild Togetherland”: ALAN Launches a Playful, Immersive Urban-Wildlife Art Experience at AIRSIDE Hong Kong

Gen de Art
2 hours ago
3 min read

ALAN (Artists who Love Animals and Nature), the Hong Kong–based non-profit merging ecological storytelling with emerging media, will debut the third edition of its acclaimed “Happy Zoo” exhibition series this winter. Titled Wild Togetherland, the show opens 12 December at GATE33 Gallery in AIRSIDE, presenting a multi-sensory survey of how animals navigate—and adapt to—urban environments.

Conceived as an immersive, digitally driven experience, Wild Togetherland brings together 10 international artist collectives from Hong Kong, Japan, and Italy. Their installations adopt interactive and playful forms, inviting visitors to consider the often invisible relationships between city dwellers and the wildlife that shadows human movement. Admission is free, with weekend and holiday docent tours available.

A Digital–Ecological Dialogue

Campaign Director Anita Lam, who leads ALAN’s curatorial vision, frames the exhibition as a “bridge between feeling and doing.” With a background in digital media and a long-standing commitment to animal welfare, Lam sees technology not as a distancing force, but as a means of reconnecting audiences to nature.

“Art creates a space for reflection; conservation demands action,” Lam tells Gen de Art. “Our goal was to merge those impulses—to turn emotional connection into engagement.” Instead of prescribing interpretations, the team designed the exhibition as a participatory system in which meaning evolves through audience interaction. Digital immersion, she argues, is uniquely positioned to encourage curiosity and open-ended exploration.

(L- R) Rendering of ‘Balanced Harmony’ by The Collective, Yoki Yao, and Ruby Mak; rendering of ‘Urban Animal Fables’ by Stickyline

Cross-Disciplinary Storytelling

The exhibition is anchored in ALAN’s three-part methodology:

Head (research), Heart (storytelling), and Hands (community action).

Scientific consultants ensure the ecological narratives are grounded in accurate data; artists then translate those findings into experiential forms, while NGO partners connect the project to on-the-ground impact initiatives. The balance, Lam says, ensures that the work remains “scientifically grounded and deeply human—impactful without drifting into instruction.”

Reframing Urgency Through Play

Despite dealing with topics such as habitat loss and ecological imbalance, Wild Togetherland maintains an optimistic tone. For Lam, the choice is practical as much as philosophical.

“Audiences today are saturated with crises,” she notes. “If a subject feels too heavy, engagement shuts down before the conversation starts.”

By adopting a bright, tactile, and hopeful aesthetic language, the show seeks to hold attention without relying on fear or guilt. “People may forget information, but they remember how an experience made them feel. That feeling keeps the message alive.”

A Mirror for the Urban Self

Wild Togetherland positions technology as a mediator—reconnecting visitors to a natural world that modern life often obscures. Lam hopes the show prompts city residents to reflect on the broader structures of power and participation within ecosystems.

“Are humans rulers, or simply one species among many?” she asks. Referencing George Orwell’s observation that “all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others,” she encourages audiences to consider how hierarchy—whether social or ecological—shapes the environments we build.

A New Direction for the “Happy Zoo” Series

Unlike its earlier chapters—BLUTOPIA (ocean) and Spirit of Sumatra (rainforest)—the latest iteration is not defined by a geographic zone. Instead, it investigates the universal complexities of urban coexistence. Without live animals, ALAN redefines the notion of a “zoo,” shifting away from enclosure-based models toward conceptual, imagined ecologies.

“Every city struggles with questions of territory and coexistence,” Lam says. “Our work is to ask—not answer—whose land it truly is, and what shared futures might look like.”

Wild Togetherland signals ALAN’s growing interest in philosophically driven, speculative environmental narratives—where art becomes a tool for rethinking how humans and wildlife inhabit space together.