Commoning art for sustainable engagement with Hong Kong’s existential crises: a case study of Tak Cheong Lane Vegetarian Cooperative

The Tak Cheong Lane Vegetarian Cooperative has operated a restaurant in a converted art space in Hong Kong’s working-class neighbourhood since 2012. In this unique space, food and arts are essential elements of everyday life, and it’s known for its collective management and its free-pricing policy. By examining the practices of the Tak Cheong Lane Vegetarian Cooperative from the perspective of ‘commoning art’, we analyse how they elicit a dissensual aesthetic politics. Specifically, they reconfigure the fabric of sensory experience through their social economy practices; food production and provision; and expressions of alternative values. We argue that commoning art, through engaging with everyday realities and social issues, and pursuing social relations that promote justice and embrace otherness, is dynamic and adaptable. By practising dissensual aesthetics, commoning art offers a sustainable and transformative approach to counteract society’s social, economic and environmental challenges.