With Hong Kong in the news for pro-democracy marches as the former British colony marks the 20th anniversary of its handover to China, travellers may be surprised to find an alternative arts centre where controversial subjects are openly addressed by local and overseas artists. The Cattle Depot Artist Village, in Kowloon’s backstreets, is a sprawling collection of listed red-brick industrial buildings that housed the city’s abattoir and cattle quarantine centre from 1908 to 1999.

It was reborn in 2001 as an avant-garde artists’ village with around 20 spaces taken over by an eclectic mix of painters and sculptors, video and multimedia creators and performers, theatre workshops and temporary exhibition spaces. The depot has had its ups and downs, with deliberately obstructive bureaucratic controls for the artists and a period when visitors were closely observed by the authorities. But today, the public can enter whenever they want, all but ignored by the security guards, with school groups and local art students regularly visiting.

Unesco-listed media art organisation Videotage has encountered no official blocks to its contentious exhibition examining Hong Kong’s handover, entitled 31 June 1997. As well as a regular programme of temporary exhibitions, events and performances, there are usually a couple of artist studios open for visits, such as that of the irreverent Frog King, who was the official representative for Hong Kong at the Venice Biennale. Other ateliers worth exploring are the On and On theatre workshop and cutting-edge gallery 1a Space.

• 63 Ma Tau Kok road, open daily day 10am-10pm, on Facebook