Press | Tai Kwun

Hong Kong's Cultural Heart Glows with Joy: The Hong Kong Jockey Club Presents 'Simple Gifts of Joy' at Tai Kwun

30 Nov 2023, Thursday

Christmas comes but once a year – together, Tai Kwun and The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), as an annual tradition, invite Hong Kong to a jolly jamboree, as Tai Kwun unwraps a spectacular 12-metre tall Christmas tree, along with a merry light shows, up-close and interactive Circus Plays, F&B and shopping experiences to celebrate the season from 1 Dec 2023 to 1 Jan 2024!

A magnificent transformation is underway as Tai Kwun becomes a Christmas playground, where cherished childhood memories are set to be rekindled with the annual festivities of HKJC Presents Simple Gifts of Joy. The enchanting event comes to town on 1 December, evoking nostalgia across generations and featuring thrilling performances of the Tai Kwun Circus Plays. As visitors enter the festive wonderland, they will be greeted by the magic of Christmas and the allure of classic games, like slides, croquet, and other playground facilities. Imagine the delight as you embark on a journey through time, rediscovering the joy of yesteryears. Adding to the festive magic is a grand 12-metre-tall Christmas tree adorned with decorations that are bound to captivate yulephiles’ hearts. A daily Christmas light show and the Gift of Music will fill the air with a splendid atmosphere. Throughout this grand month, the shops and restaurants at Tai Kwun will be offering special treats, and TK Fan-exclusive activities to bring added excitement. It promises to be an unforgettable holiday experience for all our cherished visitors and guests.

Illuminating Skies and Merry Music Performance

Amid the enchanting backdrop of Tai Kwun the essence of Christmas comes to life, reminding us that our most cherished moments are the ones that are shared. A genuine smile, an affectionate hug from a friend, an impromptu sing-along, or an unexpected burst of laughter – these are the treasures of the season, more valuable than any tangible gift. Standing at a glorious height of 12 metres and symbolising togetherness, Tai Kwun’s Christmas Tree serves as a gathering point for friends and families. As dusk falls, the tree emblazens the night with a daily light show, captivating all who visit. The official Tree Lighting Ceremony, marked with The Gift of Music, will have its inaugural showing at 6:30pm on 1 December. The façade of Tai Kwun’s historic buildings have been draped with fairy lights to offer a festive glow, ensuring that Tai Kwun will twinkle into the night.

In the spirit of togetherness, Tai Kwun welcomes visitors of all ages to enjoy a lovely range of playful games and facilities within the vibrant and joyous Playground. The area is adorned with an array of vivid colours evoking beloved childhood memories, perfectly complementing Tai Kwun Circus Plays and promising a holistic experience for all. Adding musical charm to the festivities, The Gift of Music, an opening concert series featuring heartwarming Christmas carols by NOĒMA. These melodies will resound through Tai Kwun, uniting the public in a celebratory atmosphere throughout the festive season.

Christmas Light Show
Date: 1 December 2023 – 1 January 2024
Time: Every half an hour from 6pm – 9:30pm*
Venue: Parade Ground, Tai Kwun
Price: Free of charge
*The light show may be cancelled without prior notice due to the on-site performances

The Gift of Music – Tree Lighting Ceremony
Date: 1 December 2023
Time: From 6:30pm
Venue: Parade Ground, Tai Kwun

The Gift of Music
Date: 2, 8 & 9 December 2023
Time: From 6:30pm - 7pm
Venue: Parade Ground, Tai Kwun

A Mesmerising Circus Extravaganza: Tai Kwun Circus Plays

Tai Kwun Circus Plays returns with a resounding celebration of Christmas and awe-inspiring performances, attracting a congregation of both local and international circus luminaries. Be bedazzled as the artists bring their exceptional talents to the forefront and set the stage for a spellbinding display of world-class contemporary circus performances that promise to spread immense joy across every corner of Tai Kwun. With wild laughter, and incredible shows, these are not just passive performances – they are an opportunity for audiences to engage, enjoy, and interact with the magic of circus arts. Beyond the showstopping performances, from 15 Dec to 1 Jan, Tai Kwun Circus Plays unfurls as a dynamic arena where those connect with circus artists to forge a vibrant exchange of creativity and knowledge. This dynamic synergy propels contemporary circus from its street origins to a theatrical apex, positioning it as a global spectacle that transcends boundaries and conventions.

A Global Circus Odyssey: International Acts at Tai Kwun

Starting from 15 Dec, Tai Kwun Circus Plays showcases an unforgettable lineup of international artists for the Tai Kwun Circus Plays, making it a truly global extravaganza. Step into the world of The Receptionists, a comedy show produced by an award-winning physical theatre and contemporary circus company where two office ladies transform a small reception area into a 'five-star' hotel, delivering five-star acts including clown performances, dance, mime, and physical theatre in the process. Those who are lucky might also encounter the larger-than-life Giraffes from Spain's Xirriquiteula Teatre, an exquisite non-verbal street puppet performance beloved by audiences around the world. Hailing from Sweden, Catalonia, and Belgium, Gregarious and Screws promise to defy the laws of physics, providing a poetic and anti-heroic take on the contemporary circus that blurs the lines between competition and fraternity. Guaranteeing giggles galore, award-winning British clown Fraser Hooper’s Funny Business promises to be a barrel of laughs.

Unveiling the Stars: Celebrating Local Circus Brilliance

At the heart of the event, Tai Kwun is dedicated to paving the way for local circus performers. In collaboration with Circus Bootcamp, circus artist Jason Lee leads the charge, connecting up-and-coming circus stars with seasoned professionals, nurturing their talents to new heights. Among these emerging talents, the two performing units of New Boom in Circus, Dennis Law and Rare Circus, have ascended the ranks. Having made their mark at last year's Circus Playground, a platform for street performers, they now take centre stage at JC Cube this year, showcasing their growth and evolution as stage performers.

The event's lineup is a testament to the transformation of these artists. Huang Ho Yin and Ho Ho Yeung of Rare Circus kicks the show off with their diabolo and crystal ball skills while Dennis Law impressed the audience with a dazzling array of performing arts. Circus Wulin will have visitors explore uniquely tailored experiences and craft their own circus adventures while the exciting Ting-koo-ki Mad Skills Battle features international circus performers vying for the prestigious title of “Circus King”. These events serve as culminating highlights of the event, guaranteed to captivate spectators both on and off the stage.

Unmissable Ticketed Circus Programmes

Making his way back to the stage, Fraser Hopper will also serve as the tutor for Circus Camp for Professionals sharing his masterful skills in improvisation and clown performance with local artists. Together with The Receptionists and New Circus in Booms, tickets for these programmes are available at art-mate.net. Please refer to the appendix for more Circus Plays information.

A Month of Delights: Exclusive Treats, Delectable Dining, and Festive Gifting

With dedication to rival Santa’s elves, the shops and restaurants at Tai Kwun have been hard at work creating magical experiences that combine artistic presentations with hands-on craft activities, adorned by a delightful array of seasonal flavours.

Offering a Thai twist on the season, Aaharn will delight and spoil diners with its festive dinner-tasting menu that comes with a complimentary glass of Bollinger Champagne. To keep visitors warm, Café Claudel has infused red wine and brandy with seasonal spices, bringing together cinnamon, star anise, cloves, and orange to craft the perfect cup of mulled wine. Proving that one needn’t travel to France for a Bûche de Noël, Madame Fù - Grand Café Chinois has fired up its oven to wow chocolate lovers with a traditional, iconic and festive Chocolate Yule Log Cake. And be sure to celebrate the holidays with a touch of sweetness from Stecco Natura, where adorable reindeer-shaped gelato popsicles adorned with pretzel antlers make for the perfect festive treat.

Throughout December, one can embrace the season at LockCha Tea Shop, with their Christmas Flower Tea Gift Set, a collection of carefully curated teas that capture the essence of the holidays. Creative spirits will find themselves welcome at Touch Ceramics which will host a unique Contemporary Kintsugi workshop, transforming imperfections into beauty. Meanwhile, Yuen's Tailor brings the charm of Scottish Tartan to Tai Kwun, offering a selection of clothing and accessories that exude timeless style, along with a Tartan workshop, where can craft your own Tartan bag, card holder, skirt, and accessories.

Visitors can enhance the festive experience by downloading the Tai Kwun App and becoming a TK Fan. Those who do so will be awarded with a delightful stocking stuffer upon their visit to Tai Kwun in December. Furthermore, TK Fans can take part in the Stamp of Joy campaign and be eligible for an additional festive reward when they join three HKJC Presents Simple Gifts of Joy programmes using their TK App during December. These gifts are limited, so Christmas-goers should act swiftly!

About Tai Kwun

Tai Kwun is Hong Kong’s beating cultural heart, enabled by The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) in partnership with the Hong Kong SAR Government. A vibrant, welcoming space that brings people together, Tai Kwun is committed to inspiring the community through arts, culture and heritage. Located in the heart of Central, Hong Kong, Tai Kwun brings creative energy into our city by providing the people of Hong Kong with access to a variety of immersive, world-class experiences. It is open for all members of our community to enjoy, nurturing appreciation for arts, heritage and culture.

Tai Kwun supports youth in our community with the skills and development opportunities needed to thrive in the creative industries. Together with HKJC, Tai Kwun aspires to contribute to a culturally vibrant Hong Kong, amplifying the city’s role as a thriving arts and cultural hub in the region and the global arena.

The relationship between HKJC and Tai Kwun continues HKJC’s longstanding role as a supporter of the city’s iconic arts and cultural institutions, which aligns with HKJC’s purpose of acting continuously for the betterment of our society. HKJC funded the revitalisation and continues to fund the ongoing operation of Tai Kwun, which consist of three Declared Monuments – the former Central Police Station, Central Magistracy and Victoria Prison – transforming the historic site into an accessible world-class centre for arts, culture and heritage. In 2019, Tai Kwun received the Award of Excellence in the 2019 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.

For more information, please visit

Website: https://www.taikwun.hk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taikwunhk

IG: https://www.instagram.com/taikwun.hk/

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Examining the History and Meaning of Victoria Prison through Multivocal Narratives: Tai Kwun Launches New Permanent Heritage Exhibitions In B Hall & D Hall

15 Nov 2023, Wednesday

Examining the History and Meaning of Victoria Prison through Multivocal Narratives: Tai Kwun Launches New Permanent Heritage Exhibitions In B Hall & D Hall

The new galleries kickstart a multiyear project for refreshing and enriching curatorial interpretation across the site to deepen understanding of its heritage values.

The beginning of a multiyear project that aims to inspire continuous discovery of the site, Tai Kwun unveils two brand-new permanent heritage exhibitions Victoria Prison: B Hall & D Hall, open to the public from 16 November 2023.

Based on newly uncovered research that deepens our understanding of the site's complex histories, real people, and their experiences within the prison walls, the two galleries curated by Dr. Anita Chung, Head of Heritage, alongside Curatorial Research Fellow Maggie Chan, reveal the layered legacies of the defunct prison. The new heritage interpretation highlights the multiple dimensions of Victoria Prison as a monument, an experiential reality, a metaphor, and a heritage place. History enthusiasts, culture lovers and the general public alike are invited to deepen their understanding of Victoria Prison’s design, functionality, evolution, and uncover how it embodies histories imbued with meaning for today and for the future.

Featuring multivocal narratives about the prison — including the voices of retired correctional officers, ex-inmates, and a prison chaplain Rev. Prof. Tobias Brandner, alongside various creative expressions such as graffiti and music created by inmates that reveal touching moments of reconnecting with memories, loved ones, and freedom — the exhibitions showcase the different dimensions of authenticity in heritage. The interpretation highlights the historic prison as a transformed heritage site for reconciliation, for transcending the wall of separation, and for connecting all people, including the vulnerable and the marginalised.

“The planning and creative process of the new heritage exhibitions have involved audience surveys, expert consultation workshops, and transdisciplinary research that directly engages stakeholders, especially those who have personal experiences of the historic prison. It is this process of collaboration—which underlines the value of inclusive participation and the respect for different voices—that has made the realisation of this project meaningful and fulfilling,” said Anita Chung, Head of Heritage at Tai Kwun.

More than a cultural heritage site, Tai Kwun is also a valuable educational resource which holds enormous learning opportunities for all age groups. Since opening, Tai Kwun has welcomed 542 primary and secondary schools, and tertiary institutions to further engage over 54,000 students with participatory learning about history, heritage conservation, and sustainability.

To accompany the new heritage exhibitions, a new series of Tai Kwun Conversations devoted to the prison themes — such as prison chaplaincy, prison ministry, prison literature and restorative justice — as well as another series of Discover Tai Kwun — an online video documentary series about personal experiences of the prison — will be released in parallel with the opening of the B and D Halls.

“In the past 5 years, Tai Kwun has deployed a number of audience engagement strategies to present programmes about its history and heritage values, and has recorded a footfall number of over 4 million visitors to the heritage exhibitions across the site. We would like to invite the public to continue to discover the heritage site and explore how the historic prison continues to create meaning for our present society,” said Chin Chin Teoh, Director of JCCPS.

B Hall: What is Prison Life Like?

Unfolding the site’s complex histories, this gallery answers an essential question: “When a historic prison becomes a heritage place, what is its cultural significance for past, present, and future generations?”.

D Hall: What Hurts? What Heals?

Housed in the last remnant of the radial plan prison, the D Hall exhibition probes into the wounds of incarceration and celebrates the human spirit’s ability to mend. Rare historical photographs tell the story of how Victoria Prison witnessed prison reform and incorporated rehabilitative measures over time. It incorporates creative works that express the inner state of mind and the transformative process of those in custody.

Public Programmes:

Programmes	Schedule
Tai Kwun Conversations: PRISON Series–Transcending the Walls of Separation	Date: 4 December 2023 (Monday) Time: 7pm-8:30pm Venue: JC Cube, Tai Kwun Speakers: Rev. Prof. Tobias Brandner and Nancy Loo
Tai Kwun Conversations: PRISON Series–Dai Wangshu and Literary Maps of the Central and Western District	Date: 8 January 2024 (Monday) Time: 7pm-8:30pm Venue: JC Cube, Tai Kwun Speakers: Prof. Chan Chi Tak and Prof. Wong Nim Yan
Tai Kwun Conversations: PRISON Series–The Healing Walls	Date: 5 February 2024 (Monday) Time: 7pm-8:30pm Venue: JC Cube, Tai Kwun *More details will be announced in December
Discover Tai Kwun III	Online series to be released in Spring 2024

— End —

Editor’s notes:

New permanent heritage exhibitions
Victoria Prison: B Hall & D Hall
From 16 November 2023
11 am to 7 pm
B Hall and D Hall, Tai Kwun
www.taikwun.hk

Please click here to download hi-res images.

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PRISON YARD FESTIVAL: MUSIC FROM WITHIN RETURNS TO TAI KWUN, LIBERATING HEARTS AND MINDS THROUGH MUSIC

26 Oct 2023, Thursday

Tai Kwun hosts West-Eastern Divan Ensemble alongside several of Hong Kong’s finest classical musicians to bring audiences eight powerful programmes, most of which take place in the open air in Hong Kong’s idyllic autumn weather.

After the success of last year’s festival, Tai Kwun is bringing Prison Yard Festival: Music from within back for its second year. Spanning November 20^th to November 30^th 2023, for 10 days, Tai Kwun’s Prison Yard will be transformed into a performance space, where music wafts above the imposing background of the granite-textured prison structure. Guests can immersive themselves in the tranquil and intimate atmosphere, as music melts in and out of walls that were built to imprison, reimagined as eager spectators to free expression. Music lovers are invited to be moved by the liberating power of performance, as it engages humanity’s primal response to music as its passport, and the act of communal music-making as a form of intuitive diplomacy.

Prison Yard Festival: Music from within brings together like-minded musicians, talented instrumentalists, composers, performers, and audiences to create and share music in and around the walls of the former prison. 8 wide-ranging programmes will be presented, including the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble debut performance in Hong Kong, the principal players of which originate from an orchestra formed with a profound commitment to peace in the Middle East.

Emanating from deep in Tai Kwun, Music from within commences inside the JC Cube with a chance to gain insight into the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble’s approach to music-making from the Arab and Israeli musicians of the group, in conversation with Dr Joanna Lee. The ensemble's approach is heavily intertwined with their mission to break once-thought insurmountable boundaries by rehearsing, performing, collaborating and touring together, playing side-by-side in the shared pursuit of a musical ideal. The ensemble’s founding philosophy – a call for a peaceful solution in the Middle East, and the conversation followed by two concerts on the Prison Yard stage exemplify the musicians’ shared commitment to peace and reconciliation.

Hong Kong-born pianist Chiyan Wong, fresh from his performance at Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and the premiere of his new feature-length concert film Encore!, gives the piano recital format a distinctly personal twist in a perfect reflection of an artist driven by insatiable curiosity and an appetite challenging conventions. Revisiting a Mozart piano concerto from the perspective of the celebrity composer-as-performer, Chiyan riffs with the string players of the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble in Mozart and leads us into the superhuman virtuosity of Paganini and Liszt. And by broadening the musical spectrum from the French baroque to the jazz-inflected 1920s, Chiyan highlights one of music’s most enduring sources – dance, whether it’s a courtly gavotte from Versailles or a Charleston from a smoke-filled cabaret in Berlin.

On the night of the November full moon, Hong Kong pianist Shelley Ng presents her own, highly personal response to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, and throughout the Festival, 100 metronome on the Laundry Steps remind us why, even on the 100^th anniversary of his birth, the music of György Ligeti remains truly avant-garde.

Over the weekend, the Prison Yard stage is given to a talented group of Hong Kong’s next generation classical musicians. Under the mentorship of some of Hong Kong’s finest musicians and visiting guest artists, they will curate their own daytime concerts from the repertoire which they have been working on.

West to east meanderings closes this year’s Prison Yard Festival with an uplifting musical trek. The music of JS Bach is the Magnetic North that fixes the compass of every classical musician, and violinist Wang Liang firmly establishes this point of departure before inviting his Hong Kong Philharmonic colleagues to ruminate with Brahms at his most elegiac and then follow Bartok’s footsteps in folk dances across Transylvania, Romania and Turkey, glimpsing the Arab world and culminating in the raucous celebration of a Jewish wedding.

Each evening concert in the Prison Yard will be preceded by short “pre-concert” performance on the Laundry Steps, each of which includes a performance of the notorious Poème Symphonique for 100 metronomes, in a centenary salute to the birth of avant-garde Hungarian composer György Ligeti.

Tai Kwun’s Prison Yard Festival: Music from within runs from 20 November to 30 November 2023; tickets for the programmes are available at URBTIX and art-mate.net. Please visit the Tai Kwun website for the programme details.

Tai Kwun Conversations │ 20.11.2023

Date & Time: 20 November 2023 (Monday), 7pm – 8:30pm
Venue: JC Cube, Tai Kwun
Ticket: Free of Charge

West-Eastern Divan Ensemble (Hong Kong Debut)

Programme I │ 21.11.2023

Date & Time: 21 November 2023 (Tuesday), 7pm – 8:30pm
Venue: Prison Yard, Tai Kwun
Ticket: $480

Programme II │ 22.11.2023

Date & Time: 22 November 2023 (Wednesday), 7pm – 8:30pm
Venue: Prison Yard, Tai Kwun
Ticket: $480

Wong Time to Play │ 23.11.2023

Performed by: Chiyan Wong (Piano Solo) with musicians from the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble

Date & Time: 23 November 2023 (Thursday), 7pm – 8:30pm
Venue: Prison Yard, Tai Kwun
Ticket: $380

Weekend Yard Music │ 26.11.2023

Performed by: Various up-and-coming artists

Date & Time: 26 November 2023 (Sunday), 2pm – 5pm
Venue: Prison Yard, Tai Kwun
Ticket: Free of charge

Beethoven by Moonlight │ 27.11.2023

Performed by: Shelley Ng (Piano Solo), with Andres Hui (Violin), Chi Li (Violin), William Lane (Viola), Richard Bamping (Cello) and Simon Hui (Bass)

Date & Time: 27 November 2023 (Monday), 7pm – 8:30pm
Venue: Prison Yard, Tai Kwun
Ticket: $380

West to east meanderings │ 30.11.2023

Performed by: Wang Liang (Violin), Gui Li (Violin), Kaori Wilson (Viola), Richard Bamping (Cello), Lorenzo Iosco (Clarinet)

Date & Time: 30 November 2023 (Thursday), 7pm – 8:30pm
Venue: Prison Yard, Tai Kwun
Ticket: $380

Ligeti’s 100 Metronomes │ 20-30.11.2023

To celebrate the birth centenary of composer György Ligeti (1923-2006), Poème Symphonique will be presented at Laundry Steps multiple times over the festival week alongside Ligeti’s delightful Six Bagatelles as the opener of other Prison Yard Festival programmes.

Veiled in mystery owing to its scarcity in public performance, the hundred pyramid-shaped metronomes, each set to a different tempo by 10 operators to be “conducted” for Poème Symphonique, create a mesmerising spectacle of audio and visual stimulation that is sure to dazzle and amaze!

Date & Time: 20 to 30 November 2023, 6pm – 6:30pm
Venue: Laundry Steps, Tai Kwun
Ticket: Free of Charge

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Tai Kwun and The Hong Kong Jockey Club greet the festive season with the Simple Gifts of Joy

20 Oct 2023, Friday

Bringing good tidings and cheer to Hong Kong from 1 Dec 2023 to 1 Jan 2024, a 12-metre-tall Christmas tree will be unwrapped along with a festive light show and the action-packed Contemporary Circus Plays

As the city readies itself for the graceful transition of autumn to winter, an undeniable sense of excitement permeates the air. Streets are adorned with fallen leaves, while dusk greets the sky earlier, and cheeks are gently kissed by the chilled breeze. What is the perfect gift for the holiday season? Often, it is the intangible things that have the most lasting impression – those spontaneous smiles, those warm embraces, those moments shared together. Christmas is that special time of year where these little things take on an extra special meaning. Together, Tai Kwun and The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC), as an annual tradition, will present a resplendent season of play and joy, infusing new meaning and setting the stage for an unforgettable Christmas season in the Parade Ground of Tai Kwun this December.

Truly bedecked with more than boughs of holly, the annual festivities of HKJC Presents Simple Gifts of Joy will thrill Hong Kong with everything from Christmas carols to experimental contemporary circus spectacles, including comedies, a parade of giant giraffe puppets, gravity-defying acrobatics and a competitive playoff of edgy circus skills, all within the twinkling glow of the towering Christmas tree in the Parade Ground. Singers and circus performers from Hong Kong will be featured alongside brilliantly entertaining international acts such as Gregarious (from Catalonia/Sweden), Giraffes (Spain) and Funny Business (UK) as each weekend of December grows and buzzes with more excitement and joy for everyone to enjoy.

A beacon of togetherness: the 12-metre-tall Christmas tree

At a towering 12 metres in height, the Christmas Tree, adorned with elegant decorations, beckons friends and families to gather and celebrate the spirit of togetherness at Tai Kwun. With a daily light show starting from 1 December, the evening sky atop Tai Kwun will transform into a breath-taking spectacle of lights and colours. Visitors can immerse themselves in the Christmas ambience at the Parade Ground as the heritage buildings' façade will be covered in fairy tale lighting, enveloping the area in an enchanting glow.

Christmas Light Show

Date: 1 December 2023 - 1 January 2024

Time: Every half an hour from 6pm – 9:30pm*

Venue: Parade Ground, Tai Kwun

Price: Free of Charge

*The light show may be canceled without prior notice due to the on-site performances

The Gift of Music: Embracing the Festive Spirit through Carolling

Music lovers will be delighted at the chance to embrace the beloved tradition of carolling at Tai Kwun at "The Gift of Music". A beautiful musical experience that resonates with the spirit of the festive season, the public is invited to join in the celebration.

The Gift of Music – Tree Lighting Ceremony

Date: 1 December 2023

Time: From 6:30pm

Venue: Parade Ground, Tai Kwun

Price: Free of Charge

The Gift of Music

Date: 2, 8 & 9 December 2023

Time: 6:30pm – 7:10pm

Venue: Parade Ground, Tai Kwun

Price: Free of Charge

Tai Kwun Circus Plays: A World of Wonder

Prepare to be dazzled as Tai Kwun Circus Plays returns with an even grander spectacle. Against the backdrop of Christmas and New Year, the annual event is a highlight of mid-December and early January, featuring the finest contemporary circus artists and street performers from around the world. Circus Plays showcases the latest trends in circus arts, enthralling audiences with extraordinary performers and a series of captivating circus programmes on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and public holidays. The lineup includes both local talents and international sensations, allowing visitors to witness the fusion of culture and creativity only offered by Tai Kwun.

To enrich the diversity of performing arts in HKJC Presents Simple Gifts of Joy, innovative performances from the world are invited to join the programme and share the fun with the public.

The Receptionists (Finland)

A physical comedy shows revolving around the theme of customer service, presented by two talented Finnish female clowns, The Receptionists features everything from clownery, dancing, and miming to physical theatre. Throughout the performance, these components combine to create an engaging experience, showcasing five-star customer service both at the table and beyond.

Date & Time: 15 December 2023 7pm | 16 – 17 December 2023 4pm & 7pm

Location: JC Cube

Ticketing information to be announced in early Nov

Funny Business (UK)

This award-winning clown show will be performed by festival favourite Fraser Hooper.

Date & Time: 16 – 17 December 2023 1pm & 5pm | 23 – 26 December 2023 1pm & 4:30pm

Location: Parade Ground

Gregarious (Catalonia /Sweden)

A contemporary circus gem that portrays the human side of sports, challenging the traditional depiction of athletes as heroes.

Date & Time: 16 – 17 December 2023 3pm | 23 – 26 December 2023 3pm & 6pm

Location: Parade Ground

Giraffes (Spain)

A family-friendly large puppet show, featuring a charming household of giraffes strolling through the city.

Date & Time: 23 – 26 & 28 – 30 December 2023 2pm, 4pm & 7pm | 31 December 2023 – 1 January 2024 2pm & 4pm

Location: Parade Ground

Screws (Belgium)

Curated by Alexander Vantournhout, the performance guides audiences along a route of reverberating micro-performances, from short solos and duets to pointed group choreographies.

Date & Time: 23 – 26 December 2023 2:30pm & 4:30pm

Location: Prison Yard

With the mission of nurturing and discovering homegrown talents, Tai Kwun has invited local creative artists to prepare joyous performances for a wide array of rich programming.

Circus Wulin (HK x Macau)

This upcoming production, a spin-off of Arts Delivery by the renowned Macau theatre group Po Arts Studio, promises to be an enchanting circus-themed addition to their immersive and magical performances.

Date & Time: 20 – 26 December 2023 3pm – 7pm

Location: Site-wide

New Boom in Circus (HK)

A double-billed performance showcasing the incredible skills of Hong Kong’s contemporary circus talents, Dennis Law, Charles Huang, and Ho Ho Yeung. New Boom in Circus features juggling and contemporary circus acts.

Date & Time: 23 December 2023 7pm | 24 – 26 December 2023 4pm

Location: JC Cube

Circus Bootcamp (HK)

A stage for the professionals to come together and help young circus performers shine, Circus Bootcamp acts as a breeding ground to showcase the potential of emerging circus artists.

Date & Time: 28 – 29 December 2023 3pm & 5pm

Location: Laundry Steps

Ting Koo Ki Mad Skills Gala and Battle (HK x Taiwan)

Featuring artists from Hong Kong and all over the world, Tai Kwun’s ever-popular signature circus battle returns for a fifth year.

Date & Time: (Gala) 30 – 31 December 2023 | (Battle) 1 January 2024 2:30pm

Location: Parade Ground

A Month of Delight: Exclusive Treats, Delectable Dining, and Festive Gifting

Throughout December, Tai Kwun will offer an array of activities, including TK Fan exclusive offerings, and delectable festive F&B and gifting options from the shops and restaurants at Tai Kwun that will elevate anyone’s visit.

Conserved and revitalized by HKJC, Tai Kwun is more than just a destination; this Christmas, Tai Kwun will transform into a sanctuary of joy, a realm of giving, and a celebration of togetherness. With more details to come, festive fanatics and visitors alike can stay tuned for more exciting details, soon to be revealed in November.

About Tai Kwun

For more information, please visit

Website: https://www.taikwun.hk

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taikwunhk

IG: https://www.instagram.com/taikwun.hk/

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Maria Hassabi's first exhibition in Asia, I’ll Be Your Mirror, debuts at Tai Kwun Contemporary (13 Oct to 26 Nov 2023)

13 Oct 2023, Friday

Tai Kwun Contemporary is delighted to announce a new exhibition by the visual artist and choreographer Maria Hassabi (b. Cyprus), I’ll Be Your Mirror, the artist’s first solo presentation in Asia. As the latest exhibition in Tai Kwun Contemporary’s live art programme, I’ll Be Your Mirror will premiere two new works by Maria Hassabi, who has for the past two decades pioneered a distinctive artistic practice based on the relationship between the live body, the still image, and the sculptural object. Curated by Xue Tan with Louiza Ho, I’ll Be Your Mirror will be live from 13 October to 26 November 2023; over the course of the exhibition, dancers perform the artist’s choreography throughout the opening hours of Tai Kwun Contemporary.

One of the leading figures of live art, Maria Hassabi moves freely between the contexts of museums, theatres, and public spaces. With a signature choreographic style defined by sculptural physicality, stillness, and quietness, her works challenge our expectations as viewers within the museum space. By exploring the relationship that the human figure has with the still image and the sculptural object, the two connected live installations in I’ll Be Your Mirror seek to leave lasting impact on the way we perceive ourselves and those around us.

This new exhibition is elaborated in the architectural space of the top floor galleries of JC Contemporary. Bringing together her choreographic practice, sound, sculpture, photography, and painting, the exhibition confronts the notion of one’s own image through a gold scheme of reflections. The works invite the spectators to question the fluidity of an image, one that is similar to the fleeting nature of a dance — ungraspable unless documented, which in turn subtracts from its liveness and thus realness. The tension between the live body and the still image, the spectacular and the everyday, the subject and object all come in play.

Hassabi's iconic language of stillness and deceleration references representations of human figures based on mannerisms throughout history; her works generate resistance to the accelerated anticipation of our contemporary life. The exhibition thus uncovers and recovers a sensitivity redacted by our hybrid ways of receiving and processing visual information today — where we listen but not see, or watch but not hear. With the artist’s high-tension choreographic work evolving throughout the duration one spends in the space, the work shifts the dynamics between the dancer and the spectator, spurring on questions: What are we looking at? Who is performing? Who is more vulnerable?

More generally, Hassabi’s distinctive works have contributed to a broader shift — where museums today are often animated with live situations rather than being a “mausoleum” of the past and still objects. Such dance and performative experimentations have led efforts in rethinking the museum’s role in the 21st century, and such works are no longer seen as an event but as a lasting exhibition format, timed with the institution’s opening hours and coexisting with the exhibits of paintings and sculptures. Hassabi has referred to these performative works she creates and presents within museums and exhibition spaces as “live installations” — a genre-defining term.

Trained in visual art and dance, Hassabi studied at CalArts in Los Angeles before moving to New York City in the mid-1990s, where she was amongst contemporaries from visual arts, performance, and music. With an interdisciplinary practice, Hassabi employs choreography as a vessel of image-making in real time and space. Her works are often distilled to the most crucial relationship: the relationship between the performer and the spectator in a shared space and time.

“We are honoured to present Maria Hassabi’s new works in Hong Kong. Her ground-breaking works make us reconsider the concepts of time, the nature of the object and subject in museums, and our relations with others. She has been a key artist at the centre of the paradigmatic shift in museums worldwide where choreography, performance, and social situations have been installed as works of art in exhibition spaces. With this exhibition, we show our deep devotion in supporting bold formats of artistic expression and interdisciplinary collaborations. We are proud to have established an institution that enables artistic experimentation, with a live art programme that is distinctive in Asia and that will continue to commission and present artists at the forefront of visual arts and performance. ” said Xue Tan, Curator of I’ll Be Your Mirror, and Senior Curator of Tai Kwun.

Dr Pi Li, Head of Art at Tai Kwun, remarked, “We are thrilled to be presenting Maria Hassabi’s first solo exhibition in Asia. Tai Kwun Contemporary’s engagement with unconventional exhibition formats, as in I’ll Be Your Mirror, is testament to our continual support of breakthroughs by artists. This is very much a part of our mission to transform the experience of contemporary art and deepen our understanding of the world we live in, as part of Tai Kwun’s vibrant and distinctive programming.”

The exhibition is equally complemented by a range of public programmes that guides participants on a journey of life-long learning and to a deeper understanding of art. These include a Tai Kwun Conversations on 18 October; Teacher’s Morning and Teacher’s Workshop; curator’s tours and other guided public tours. In the After Hours series, the audience will get the chance to listen to a fascinating spectrum of speakers working in art, photography, literature, as well as academia who chat and discuss on a broad range of matters. Finally, the Hi! & Seek corner at the 2/F is a space of dialogue and exploration. The space is open for visitors of all ages and provided different ways of interacting and conversing.

Maria Hassabi: I’ll Be Your Mirror

Date: 13 October to 26 November 2023

Tuesday–Sunday, 11 am to 7 pm

Monday, CLOSED

Curated by Xue Tan with Louiza Ho

Dancers: Marah Arcilla, Elena Antoniou, Sylvie Cox, Li De, Maria Hassabi, Adam Russell Jones, Mickey Mahar, Tasos Nikas, Yuma Sylla, Sara Tan, Solong Zhang

Architectural Study: Maria Maneta, Maria Hassabi

Sound Design: Stavros Gasparatos, Maria Hassabi

Clothing Design: Victoria Bartlett, Venia Polyhronaki

I’ll Be Your Mirror is constructed with performances which run daily from 11am to 7pm Tuesdays to Sundays, performed by dancers from Hong Kong and around the world. The artist will also be present in the exhibition for the first half of the exhibition period.

About Maria Hassabi

Since the early 2000s, Maria Hassabi (b. Cyprus) has carved a unique artistic practice based on the relationship between the live body, the still image, and the sculptural object. Her works reflect on concepts of time and the human figure, while employing a variety of media to emphasise the complexity of formal organisation. In most of Hassabi's works the performing body is the main subject, often embedded within imposing installations. Through meticulously crafting her material—every action, even the gaze, is subject to counts and cues—a constant negotiation between the body's relation to gravity, time and space, reveals the physical side effects of labour, anchoring both dancers' and viewers' awareness to the present moment. Her works are always in dialogue with a site's unique architecture, while conventions and hierarchies common to theatres, museums, and public spaces are taken into consideration.

Maria Hassabi has had numerous solo exhibitions and presentations around the world, including LUMA Arles; OGR, Turin; Secession, Vienna; Centre Pompidou, Paris; K20, Düsseldorf; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Centre d’Art Contemporain, Geneva; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; The Kitchen, New York; documeta14, Kassel; Performa, New York; 55th Venice Biennale, amongst others.

About Tai Kwun Contemporary Live Art

Maria Hassabi: I’ll Be Your Mirror is the latest exhibition of Tai Kwun Contemporary’s unique live art programming. This series of exhibitions commissions and features artists who work in the intersection of visual art, performance, moving image, music, and sound. Previous presentations have included artists such as Pan Daijing, Tino Sehgal, Scarlet Yu & Xavier Le Roy, Nile Koetting, Mette Edvardsen, and Eisa Jocson.

— End —

Editor’s notes:

Please click here to download the hi-res images with captions.

Visitor information

The entire site of Tai Kwun is open to the public daily from 8am to 11pm, while Tai Kwun Contemporary at JC Contemporary is open from Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm (closed on Mondays).

Programme details are subject to change, so please refer to the Tai Kwun website for news and updates.

About Tai Kwun
Tai Kwun is Hong Kong’s beating cultural heart, enabled by The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) in partnership with the Hong Kong SAR Government. A vibrant, welcoming space that brings people together, Tai Kwun is committed to inspiring the community through arts, culture and heritage. Located in the heart of Central, Hong Kong, Tai Kwun brings creative energy into our city by providing the people of Hong Kong with access to a variety of immersive, world-class experiences. It is open for all members of our community to enjoy, nurturing appreciation for arts, heritage and culture.

Tai Kwun Contemporary is the not-for-profit visual art programme of Tai Kwun. Realising six to eight exhibitions a year and curatorially driven, Tai Kwun Contemporary showcases and commissions artists from Hong Kong and beyond, while offering an extensive range of public programming. With the aspiration to contribute to and transform the experience and understanding of contemporary art in Hong Kong, Tai Kwun Contemporary is devoted to

inspiring the Hong Kong public with an inquisitive attitude and committed to offering a conducive platform for learning and experimentation.

For more information, please visit our website: https://www.TaiKwun.hk.

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TAI KWUN ANNOUNCES 2023/24 PROGRAMME GUIDE: A YEAR OF HOLISTIC EXHIBITIONS AND CULTURAL DELIGHTS

12 Oct 2023, Thursday

Tai Kwun — the vibrant cultural heart of Hong Kong, is thrilled to announce a spectacular array of programming from now until summer 2024.

The subtle freshness in the evening air is the planet quietly letting us know that we can finally leave summer behind, move the beach chairs out of the shade and enjoy the full spectrum of arts and culture indoors and out as Tai Kwun announces its full 2023/24 programme from autumn to summer. While our superb indoor spaces such as JC Contemporary, JC Cube, F Hall Studio and Duplex Studio continue to house fascinating exhibitions, performances and talks, our incomparable outdoor spaces — Parade Ground and Prison Yard — where imposing heritage edifices and striking contemporary architecture protectively surround these generous expanses of open space, come fully to life with outdoor shows — free-of-charge, full of fun — entertainment and perhaps a few unexpected surprises.

Throughout 2023/24, Tai Kwun’s programming is typically eclectic, born out of our unique old-meets-new collection of heritage and contemporary architecture which in turn inspires us to bring old worlds and new worlds together, to welcome pioneering artists and performers from the rest of the world to share their vision with us alongside Chinese artists whose works radiate the vitality of the arts in our region and, from time to time, to revisit those quirky taken-for-granted Hong Kong eccentricities which, in the hands of our most imaginative artists, can put a wry smile on our face.

Three new art exhibitions will open in turn to create Tai Kwun’s Autumn/Winter exhibition season. One of the most distinctive contemporary art forms which has found such a natural home in Tai Kwun is Live Art, involving dancers and performers who bring artworks to life throughout exhibition hours; our live art programmes have been igniting curiosity in our contemporary art programming since Tai Kwun’s opening. This month, Tai Kwun unveils a captivating new chapter with Maria Hassabi's I’ll Be Your Mirror (from 13 October), where works blur the lines between performers and spectators, subjects and objects, and confront audiences as living sculptures. As the days shorten in early winter, the Duplex Studio becomes home to the psychedelic solo exhibition Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk, which reimagines the resurrection of legendary Chinese poet Qu Yuan in a cyberpunk future, weaving together elements of animation, sound, and neon art. Just before the holiday season, Green Snake: women-centred ecologies features a diverse roster of artists, exploring women-centred ecological themes through various mediums to showcase the complex relationships between gender, environment, and culture.

As spring breathes new life into the art world, Tai Kwun's JC Contemporary sets the stage for an invigorating fusion of American creativity and Asian perspectives. American artist Sarah Morris takes the spotlight with ETC, her cinematic exploration of everyday Hong Kong locales and iconic figures, capturing the city's evolution in the post-Covid era. The climax of the 2023/24 season of contemporary art will be a first not only for Hong Kong but for all of Asia: the large-scale survey exhibition, co-curated with Pinault Collection and mounted exclusively for Hong Kong, of US-born pioneering visionary Bruce Nauman will fill the galleries of JC Contemporary and F Hall Gallery throughout the summer of 2024. Encompassing over five decades of Nauman's diverse artistic experimentation, the showcase delves deep into his profound influence on art movements like post-minimalism and conceptual art, impacting a generation of artists around the world and in Asia particularly.

Amidst the summer heat, an artistic and literary oasis awaits with BOOKED: Hong Kong Art Book Fair at Tai Kwun Contemporary. Returning for its sixth edition, the exceptional event gathers over 100 artists, publishers, and booksellers to celebrate the profound role of books as a medium for artistic expression and a conduit for intellectual exploration.

Two newly renovated heritage galleries, Victoria Prison: B Hall & D Hall, will debut permanent exhibitions in autumn, marking the beginning of a multiyear project aimed at enhancing the interpretation of heritage throughout the site. These exhibitions, which include new research, multi-vocal narratives, ex-inmates’ voices, and creative works, emphasise the prison's historic transformation and how a confinement space for inmates can also offer a transformative–journey of rehabilitation. As these newly interpreted historic spaces open to the public, deeper insights revealing some of the newly uncovered research into the Victoria Prison will be the subject of an entire series of Tai Kwun Conversations as well as a new series of Discover Tai Kwun — an online video documentary series to be released in parallel with the unveiling of B and D Halls.

With a growing reputation for creative performances which respond to or make inventive use of the highly distinctive and quite unconventional spaces, Tai Kwun’s performing arts encompass music, theatre, dance, circus, cabaret and film. The Prison Yard Festival: Music from within sets the stage against the imposing background of the granite-textured Prison Wall and conjures a magical and intimate atmosphere to give audiences a series of unforgettable musical events, performed by Hong Kong’s finest classical musicians side by side with some of the world’s most exceptional performers. With the last notes of the Prison Yard Festival still ringing in our ears, the lighting up of Tai Kwun’s towering Christmas Tree on 1 December signals the joy of giving which is at the heart of Simple Gifts of Joy — The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s month-long Christmas extravaganza of free entertainment in the Parade Ground: heart-warming Christmas carols, encounters with giant giraffe puppets who can be found strolling amongst the crowds and some gravity-defying aerial skills which will make your heart leap. Circus Plays supports the best young circus talent in Hong Kong and stimulates their creativity by inviting international artists known for bringing a contemporary edge to a foundation of extraordinary personal skill.

The winning artwork from the Open Call: Tai Kwun Neon Connection will continue to pay homage to Hong Kong's iconic neon lights, creating a captivating bridge between the Parade Ground and the Prison Yard, further enriching the unique cultural experience Tai Kwun offers. InnerGlow has captured the imagination of the public since its first season in 2022 and returns with a completely new show which will transform, illuminate, animate and play with the huge historic façade of the Barrack Block, providing free, awe-inspiring entertainment for family throughout the CNY period. As the season progresses, the fourth edition of SPOTLIGHT: A Season of Performing Arts is set to sparkle with site-specific theatre productions, technological marvels, and theatrical masterpieces. Tai Kwun is honoured to open Spotlight with a profound and meditative performance by the legendary Tsai Ming-liang before diversifying the Spotlight season to encompass a wide range of disciplines, several productions having been developed over the last 2-3 years as Tai Kwun enables creative and performing artists in the fields of theatre-making, music and dance.

Announcing the 2023/24 season, Director of Tai Kwun Arts, Timothy Calnin said, “Presenting a suite of programming which takes us from the autumn through all four seasons until next summer provides Tai Kwun with the opportunity to demonstrate our breadth of programming, aimed at making high-quality arts and heritage experiences available, accessible and attractive to the whole Hong Kong community. It is also a chance to articulate some of our overarching themes and highlight certain types of programmes which we have developed over a number of years as we provide insights into our artist development programmes which evolve organically in order to offer the right support for young and emerging home-grown artists at the right time. Our confidence in making these long-term commitments is only possible with the unwavering support of The Hong Kong Jockey Club, which, having revitalised Tai Kwun in the first place, has committed to supporting Tai Kwun and our many programmes into the future. It is thanks to the Club that Tai Kwun is increasingly described by regular visitors as, ‘my favourite place in Hong Kong’”.

***

Prison Yard Festival-Music from within

Date: 20-30 November 2023
Venue: Prison Yard & JC Cube

The sounds of music cannot be imprisoned by lofty walls, barred windows and barbed wire. As music freely escapes from Tai Kwun’s Prison Yard, wafting gently upward into the night sky, music just as effortlessly drifts across land borders and vast oceans, using humanity’s common primal response to music as its passport, and the act of communal music-making a form of intuitive diplomacy.

Revered conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim and the late Palestinian public intellectual Edward Said shared both a passion for music and a profound commitment to peace in the Middle East. By forming an orchestra of Israeli and Arab musicians, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, every rehearsal, performance, recording and concert tour would be irrefutable proof that living, working and playing side by side in a shared pursuit of a musical ideal can create the common ground from which can grow empathy, understanding and reconciliation.

Tai Kwun is immensely proud to host the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble as our ensemble-in-residence in November 2023, comprising eight principal musicians from the Orchestra, directed from the violin by Michael Barenboim. The residency includes two full concerts featuring the whole ensemble in music by Elliott Carter, Fanny Mendelssohn, Beethoven and Schubert, a community outreach programme, an exciting collaboration with outstanding Hong Kong pianist Wong Chiyan and opens with a Tai Kwun Conversation in which Hong Kong audiences will hear about the musicians’ experience of performing in the ensemble and the orchestra, gain insights into the challenges and triumphs which have defined the West-Eastern Divan’s 24-year history, and have the opportunity to participate in a Q&A on the opening night of the Prison Yard Festival.

Several of Hong Kong’s finest classical musicians perform throughout the Festival, including Shelley Ng to whom we handed the challenge to devise her own, personal Beethoven by Moonlight recital under the November full moon on 27 November, by using the Moonlight Sonata as a launch pad for a highly personal musical flight of imagination. Violinist Wang Liang once again assembles a close-knit quintet of like-minded musicians for Brahms’s serene and autumnal Clarinet Quintet before racing off in an easterly direction, dancing frantically in Bartok’s Transylvanian, Romanian, Arab and Turkish footsteps to arrive just in time for a Jewish wedding.

Before each concert in the Prison Yard, we salute the centenary of the birth of the avant-garde Hungarian composer György Ligeti (1923-2006) with a series of short pre-concert concerts on the Laundry Steps, each of which includes a performance of the notorious Poème symphonique for 100 metronomes.

Tai Kwun Neon Connection

Inspired by the overwhelming public response to Vital Signs — our summer exhibition that paid tribute to Hong Kong’s distinctive neon culture in the second half of the 20^th Century — Tai Kwun invited Hong Kong’s creative minds to participate in Tai Kwun Neon Connection and use neon light to illuminate Tai Kwun Lane, with the objective of enticing visitors in the Parade Ground to explore the Prison Yard and vice versa.

From a pool of impressive submissions, Tai Kwun’s judging panel, comprising experts in the fields of design, architecture, heritage conservation, neon science, contemporary art and engineering were thrilled and inspired by the 24 entries which were received, but, faced with the daunting task of selecting only one winning entry, the panel agreed that YARD Architecture Studio’s concept Memoir in Neon not only met all of the stringent judging criteria but also dazzled with its flair, creativity and boldness, while respecting the authentic heritage setting in which it is to be installed. The winning entry of Neon Connection will be switched on in late January 2024 to coincide with the opening of InnerGlow 2024.

Installation Date: Late January 2024
Venue: Tai Kwun Lane
Supported by: Bloomberg Philanthropies

HKJC Presents Simple Gifts of Joy

Tai Kwun and The Hong Kong Jockey Club celebrate Simple Gifts of Joy this festive season

What’s the perfect gift for the holiday season? Often, it’s the intangible things that have the most lasting impression — those spontaneous smiles, those warm embraces, those moments shared together. Christmas is that special time of year when these little things take on an extra special meaning. This is the spirit in which Tai Kwun and The Hong Kong Jockey Club (“HKJC”) conceived this entire Christmas season in the Parade Ground where Simple Gifts of Joy will encompass Christmas carols, circus spectacle, comedy, a parade of giant giraffe puppets, gravity-defying acrobatics and a competitive playoff of edgy circus skills, all within the twinkling glow of Tai Kwun’s towering Christmas tree. Singers and circus performers from Hong Kong are featured alongside brilliantly entertaining international acts such as Gregarious (from Switzerland), Giraffes (Spain) and Funny Business (UK) as each weekend of December grows and buzzes with more excitement and joy, all offered free of charge for everyone to enjoy.

Date: 1 December 2023–1 January 2024
Venue: Site-wide

Tai Kwun Circus Plays is Tai Kwun’s laboratory for contemporary circus arts, providing all the promise and potential of Hong Kong’s home-grown talent with the chance to experiment, and explore new skills and concepts with access to a carefully selected cohort of international artists who are distinguished by the quirky originality and uniqueness of their performances and for opening up new and unexpected horizons for contemporary circus. Circus beginners can find their way in through Circus Bootcamp and work their way towards professionalism through New Boom in Circus and Circus Wulin, and compete for the audience’s longest and loudest applause in Ting-koo-ki Mad Skills Battle in the season’s finale.

Date: 1 December 2023-1 January 2024
Venue: Site-wide

InnerGlow 2024

In a very short space of time, InnerGlow has captured the imagination of the Hong Kong public and a sense of curiosity and anticipation is developing as InnerGlow 2024 approaches. Tai Kwun’s Creative and Technical Partner for InnerGlow is The Electric Canvas — the brilliant minds behind so many of the architectural projection mapped spectacles that pulled the world’s focus onto Vivid Sydney from its very first year. Apart from taking the creative lead in the first two seasons of InnerGlow, The Electric Canvas has been working closely with Tai Kwun to spot talent for future productions of InnerGlow so that, through this remarkably generous partner, Tai Kwun can help to build up Hong Kong’s capability in this highly specialised field in which the lines between creative artists and technical geeks become blurred while the end results come ever more sharply into focus. Having worked with, coached and mentored a highly skilled and talented cohort of Hong Kong artists, illustrators, animators, sound producers and technicians, The Electric Canvas has now stepped back into a mentor and adviser role in the creation of a new show for the Barrack Block and handed the creative lead to Oliver Shing, the highly distinctive Hong Kong film-maker, and his creative team at Daaimung, who will conceive, create and direct InnerGlow 2024. Details are still very much under wraps, but rumours suggest that one of Tai Kwun’s most prominent themes of 2023 — Hong Kong’s unique visual identity as expressed through the medium of neon signs —will find its way into the aesthetic looks of InnerGlow 2024.

Meanwhile, the search remains open to bring more of Hong Kong’s young creative talents into the world of InnerGlow, and by expanding the reach of InnerGlow up to the Prison Yard this year, Tai Kwun can provide students of art, creative media, film and design with the unique opportunity to try out their ideas under the guidance of The Electric Canvas, to rethink and rework, expand their practice and bring them back to the Prison Yard, which becomes their massive creative workshop space.

Date: 26 January–14 February 2024
Venue: Parade Ground, Pottinger Ramp, Prison Yard
Principal Sponsor: CLP Holdings Limited

SPOTLIGHT: A Season of Performing Art

Eyes on Hong Kong, mind on the world — Tai Kwun Performing Arts Season: SPOTLIGHT has always advocated for interdisciplinary collaborations, where local artists break free from conceptions of space and form to explore new possibilities of the performing arts. As the season enters its 4^th edition, we are now seeing previous commissions gradually making their way onto the international stage, showcasing the vibrant vitality of new creations.

In a time of global recovery, Tai Kwun dedicates its efforts to foster collaborations between Hong Kong and international artists. The season will feature the Spanish award-winning outdoor theatre production Dormitory Town adapted to the Hong Kong context; as well as The Algorithmic Theatre, a newly-established Danish collective working alongside Hong Kong director Wiki Lo to explore the relationship of technology and human lives. The season continues to embody the spirit of local commissions and the introduction of masterpieces, such as renowned film director Tsai Ming-liang's theatre work The Monk from Tang Dynasty. More programmes to be announced.

Date: April 2024
Venue: Site-wide

Victoria Prison: B Hall & D Hall

To inspire continuous discovery of Tai Kwun, two heritage galleries located in the former Victoria Prison — B Hall & D Hall — will unveil new permanent exhibitions in autumn 2023. The two remodelled galleries will kick off a multiyear project for refreshing and enriching heritage interpretation across the site. Asking new questions — such as “What is Prison Life Like?” “What Hurts? What Heals?” — the new exhibitions are based on newly uncovered research that deepens our understanding about the site's complex histories, the real people, and their experiences within the prison walls. The historical realities of corporal and capital punishment, racial discrimination, physical and psychological pain are juxtaposed with the redemptive themes of rehabilitation, family and social support, and inner and spiritual freedom.

Multivocal narratives about the prison — including the voices of correctional officers, ex-inmates, and a prison chaplain — showcase the different dimensions of authenticity in heritage. The interpretation highlights the historic prison as a transformed heritage site for reconciliation and peacemaking, for transcending the wall of separation, and for connecting all people, including the vulnerable and the marginalised.

Curated by Anita Chung and Maggie Chan
Date: 16 November 2023 onwards
Venue: B Hall & D Hall

Bruce Nauman

Tai Kwun Contemporary and Pinault Collection will host a survey exhibition of the US-born artist Bruce Nauman, inspired by “Bruce Nauman: Contrapposto Studies”, presented at Punta della Dogana, Venice, in 2021. Based on works from the Pinault Collection and realised in collaboration with the Bruce Nauman Studio, the exhibition at Tai Kwun Contemporary takes the form of a survey covering aspects of the artist’s entire career, the first show of this kind to be presented in Asia.

Bruce Nauman (b. Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1941) is considered as one of the most influential artists working today. From the 1960s to the present day, Nauman has constantly experimented with various artistic languages — from photography to performance, from sculpture to video — exploring their potentialities, and producing a body of work that questions the very definition of what constitutes artistic practice. This upcoming exhibition at Tai Kwun Contemporary highlights the experimental character of the artist’s work by including a wide diversity of media, developed over five decades

Part of Tai Kwun Contemporary’s series of major summer exhibitions, which put the spotlight on major pioneering artists.

Artist: Bruce Nauman
Curated by Caroline Bourgeois (Pinault Collection), Carlos Basualdo (Philadelphia Museum of Art), and Pi Li (Tai Kwun Contemporary)
Date: May–August 2024
Venue: JC Contemporary
Based on works from the Pinault Collection and realised in collaboration with the Bruce Nauman Studio; special thanks to Angela Westwater and Sperone Westwater Gallery

Green Snake: women-centred ecologies

Green Snake: women-centred ecologies focuses on the connections between art and larger themes of ecology in the context of the climate crisis. The exhibition asks what alternative narratives are activated through artists’ visions that celebrate nature as an all-encompassing and generative force, many of them grounded in notions of care and interrelationship that are central to ecofeminism — that natural sustainability is based on the equality of human, nature, and other beings.

The exhibition references the mythological snake figure in East Asian culture, which often takes the form of a woman when walking amongst humans. Highlighting the green snake’s potential for transformation and renewal — when snakes grow, they shed their skins — the exhibition is directly inspired by an ancient Chinese folktale, dating back at least 1000 years, about two powerful snake-demon sisters, White Snake and Green Snake, whose story reveals themes of agency, sisterhood, and gender fluidity. On another level, in the exhibition, the snake’s sinuous curves echo the geomorphology of river systems and the vital energy of the water flowing through them. A number of artists in the exhibition have long been interested in and researching specific river ecosystems and mythologies. The exhibition thus deepens the dialogue between works by artists whose practice is rooted in geographies with longstanding political and environmental issues. The figure of an all-encompassing circle of planetary and cosmic renewal emerges in a symphonic call for a radical reorientation of the human within the whole.

Artists: AFSAR (Asian Feminist Studio for Art and Research), Yussef Agbo-Ola & Tabita Rezaire, Maria Thereza Alves, Lhola Amira, Minia Biabiany, Adriana Bustos, Seba Calfuqueo, Cao Minghao & Chen Jianjun, Carolina Caycedo, Stephanie Comilang & Simon Speiser, Valentina Desideri & Denise Ferreira da Silva, Rohini Devasher, Gidree Bawlee, Guo Fengyi, Manjot Kaur, Jaffa Lam, Candice Lin, Lavanya Mani, Marzia Migliora, Ann Leda Shapiro, Karan Shrestha, Dima Srouji, Cecilia Vicuña, Tricky Walsh, Dana Whabira

Curated by Kathryn Weir and Xue Tan, with assistant curators Tiffany Leung and

Pietro Scammacca
Date: 20 December 2023–1 April 2024
Venue: 1/F JC Contemporary & Prison Yard
Lead Sponsor: Indosuez Wealth Management

Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk

Immortal souls, past lives, and cyberpunk futures fuse in a psychedelic solo exhibition by the Hong Kong artist Kongkee, which follows legendary Chinese poet Qu Yuan (c. 339-278 BCE), a singular commemorated hero of the annual Dragon Boat Festival holiday.

Kongkee’s animated film Dragon’s Delusion begins after Qu Yuan’s untimely ending, in which he drowned himself in a river, dejected and in despair over the state of affairs of those tumultuous times. From there, Kongkee imagines the poet’s resurrection 2,000 years after his death, from the waters of the Kingdom of Chu into a cyberpunk future. As his soul wanders a landscape filled with cyborgs and surprising romantic reunions, several worlds collide, reflecting Kongkee’s own philosophical outlook on the past, and Qu Yuan’s futuristic language that possessed its own wandering quality and inspired generations of artists.

Part comic book, part motion picture, part speculative journey, Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk is an immersive experience complete with a large-scale LED installation and site-specific neon works, transforming Tai Kwun’s heritage site into a cyberpunk universe that bridges the past and the future.

For the presentation of Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk at Duplex Studio in Tai Kwun, apart from selected works from the previous exhibition, Kongkee will develop new site-specific works in connection with Hong Kong that reflect on the world we live in today. The exhibition is first organised by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and curated by Abby Chen, Head of Contemporary Art and Senior Associate Curator and this presentation at Tai Kwun is co-curated by Ying Kwok, Senior Curator at Tai Kwun.

Artist: Kongkee (aka Kong Khong-chang)
Curated by Abby Chen and Ying Kwok
Date: 9 December 2023–3 March 2024
Venue: Duplex Studio, Block 01
Lead Sponsor: Oriental Watch Company

Sarah Morris: ETC

Commissioned by M+ and Tai Kwun Contemporary, Sarah Morris’s newest film ETC (2023) is a cinematic portrait of Hong Kong made in the spring of 2023. ETC will screen for the first time on the M+ Façade facing the city skyline, and in March, ETC will screen on the Tai Kwun Contemporary galleries; alongside a site-specific commissioned wall painting, the feature film also includes an exclusive soundtrack composed by the artist Liam Gillick.

The film documents the city post-covid, recently reopened to the outside world. In an era marked by rapid change, ETC meditates on the psychology, architecture, and culture of Hong Kong, layering daily life with complex histories.

ETC charts both iconic and lesser-known city locations, including HSBC headquarters, LegCo, ATL Logistics Centre, Sham Shui Po’s Electronic Market, Hop Cheong Pens & Lighters Co., and Hong Kong West Kowloon Station. The feature-length film also features notable Hong Kong residents such as graphic designer Henry Steiner, architect James Kinoshita, and actress Josie Ho, amongst many others.

Since Morris’s 1998 debut film, Midtown, which captures a day in the life of the city of New York, she has filmed ten global metropolises including Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Beijing, Rio de Janeiro, among others. ETC continues Morris’s examination of the chain of global sites in the electronic and digital age post-pandemic. The title plays with the designs of Henry Steiner, alluding to the history of Hong Kong as a global banking center, yet forming a futurist abbreviation and shorthand for Morris’s latest film.

Artist: Sarah Morris
Curated by Tobias Berger
Date: March 2024
Venue: 3/F JC Contemporary

BOOKED: Hong Kong Art Book Fair

Tai Kwun Contemporary's BOOKED: Hong Kong Art Book Fair 2024 is returning for its sixth edition! Featuring over 100 artists, booksellers, organisations, and publishers from Hong Kong and around the world, BOOKED: Hong Kong Art Book Fair will also include special displays, dynamic projects, and a wide roster of thought-provoking conversations, performances, and workshops.

BOOKED: Hong Kong Art Book Fair underscores Tai Kwun Contemporary's dedication to providing a platform for creative practitioners and publishers who are invested in books as a medium of artistic and intellectual expression, particularly around publishing as artistic practice and artists’ books.

Date: End of August 2024
Venue: JC Contemporary
Artistic Team: Daniel Szehin Ho, Ingrid Pui Yee Chu, Louiza Ho

Maria Hassabi: I’ll Be Your Mirror

The artist and choreographer Maria Hassabi (b. Cyprus) has long pioneered live installations that explore the sculptural body, image-making, and the deceleration of time. Frequently involving dancers moving at a glacial, barely perceptible pace, Hassabi’s works confront visitors as living sculptures. Her works bring the performing body into museums, theatres, and public spaces, which shift the boundaries between visitors and performers, subjects and objects.

Maria Hassabi: I’ll Be Your Mirror is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Asia. Comprising elements of performance, sound, photography and painting, the exhibition brings her pathbreaking practice to Hong Kong, with all works newly commissioned for Tai Kwun's architectural environment. The central body of work on 3/F gravitates around the production of image through the usage of mirrors dressed in gold, playing with the myriad meanings and representations of gold in ancient and contemporary myths — as a colour in divinity, as a symbolic representation of capitalism, or even a kitsch sample from pop culture. The paradox between the immutability of gold and the shifting perceptions of its representation echoes the tensions in Hassabi’s practice — between subjects and objects, dance and sculpture, the live body and still images, the spectacular and the everyday.

Artist: Maria Hassabi
Curated by Xue Tan, with Louiza Ho
Date: 13 October–26 November 2023
Venue: 3/F JC Contemporary

— End —

Editor’s notes:

Please click here to download hi-res images.

About Tai Kwun

The relationship between HKJC and Tai Kwun continues HKJC’s longstanding role as a supporter of the city’s iconic arts and cultural institutions, which aligns with HKJC’s purpose of acting continuously for the betterment of our society. HKJC funded the revitalisation and continues to fund the ongoing operation of Tai Kwun, which consist of three Declared Monuments — the former Central Police Station, Central Magistracy and Victoria Prison — transforming the historic site into an accessible world-class centre for arts, culture and heritage. In 2019, Tai Kwun received the Award of Excellence in the 2019 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.

For more information, please visit our website: https://www.taikwun.hk.

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Tai Kwun Neon Connection: Winner Announced YARD Architecture Studio's Work Will Be Realised at Tai Kwun in Late January 2024

10 Oct 2023, Tuesday

Tai Kwun is delighted to announce YARD Architecture Studio with proposal name: Memoir in Neon as the winner of the Open Call: Tai Kwun Neon Connection. Inspired by the overwhelming public response to Vital Signs – an exhibition that paid tribute to Hong Kong’s distinctive neon culture in the second half of the 20^th Century which concluded on 3 September 2023 – Tai Kwun openly invited Hong Kong’s creative minds to participate in Tai Kwun Neon Connection and use neon light to illuminate Tai Kwun Lane, with the objective of enticing visitors in the Parade Ground to explore the Prison Yard and vice versa.

Hailing from fields such as art, design, architecture, and the broader creative industry, these talented individuals and groups were challenged to create an illuminated public installation that would be integrated in one or more heritage buildings while preserving the historical authenticity of the former Central Police Station and Victoria Prison. The results exceeded expectation, with artistically bold and technically ingenious entries pouring in.

From a pool of impressive submissions, Tai Kwun’s judging panel, comprising experts in the fields of design, architecture, heritage conservation, neon science, contemporary art and engineering were thrilled and inspired by the 24 entries which were received, but, faced with the daunting task of selecting only one winning entry, the panel agreed that YARD Architecture Studio's concept not only met all of the stringent judging criteria but also dazzled with its flair, creativity and boldness, while respecting the authentic heritage setting in which it is to be installed.

The winning entry of Tai Kwun Neon Connection will be switched on in late January 2024 to coincide with the opening of InnerGlow 2024. The public is invited to come and witness this exceptional design. This Tai Kwun Neon Connection has been made possible with core funding provided by The Hong Kong Jockey Club through its Charities Trust, and with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Visitors can also access exclusive content of the winning artwork through the Bloomberg Connects App.

"While Memoir in Neon takes the spotlight, the panel was genuinely astounded by the overall calibre of entries. It serves as a testament to Hong Kong's distinct embrace of neon as a vibrant part of the city's cultural fabric," said Timothy Calnin, Director of Tai Kwun Arts.

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TAI KWUN CONTEMPORARY’S “KILLING TV” EXHIBITION TUNES INTO HOW ARTISTS HAVE DISRUPTED TV AS A MEDIUM (27 Sep to 19 Nov 2023)

28 Sep 2023, Thursday

Tai Kwun Contemporary is thrilled to present Killing TV, a new exhibition about how contemporary artists deploy, disrupt, and deconstruct television as a medium. The artworks in the exhibition — dating from the 1970s up to the present day, by 15 artists from around the world — shed light on how television has influenced art, particularly how artists have reflected on and challenged television’s pervasive power on culture as a whole. Curated by Jill Angel Chun and Tiffany Leung, Killing TV runs from 27 September to 19 November 2023.

For decades, television has been a major mass medium globally, transforming how we have consumed information, news, and entertainment. With social media on the rise, however, television — especially live TV and broadcasting — has been overtaken by digital platforms and steaming technologies. While Killing TV does not offer an exhaustive survey of artists’ responses to television, the featured artworks in the exhibition do show how television has provided a fertile ground for examination and critical reflection by artists.

A notable highlight of the exhibition takes the form of a revolving black carousel of obsolete TVs which serve as “canvases” for five artworks. Resting on a sofa, a viewer can look at the artworks coming and going. Appearing when in front of the sofa, each artwork’s signal fades out once it is outside the viewer’s gaze, as if an invisible hand were controlling the remote control. Evoking memories of a bygone era when television shows adhered to fixed schedules, drawing families and friends together for communal viewing, it stands in stark contrast with today’s atomising on-demand streaming culture.

With video works that take in performance art as well as sculptural installations — from parodying TV shows to appropriating TV commercials — the broad range of works in Killing TV invites audiences to embrace artistic experimentation and discover unfamiliar formats and settings. Together, the different artists explore issues of identity, consumerism, and human relationships in society, thus probing the mass psychological and social impact of television from new perspectives. Ultimately, these artists offer us different way of looking at television as a medium — a medium which has fundamentally affected the way we understand ourselves and the world.

Television is dead — long live television! While broadcast television appears to be under threat, we are at the same time also living the “Golden Age of TV” — witness the widespread popularity of television dramas streamed online. In some form or another, television continues to influence and even mould society. At the same time, contemporary artists continue to disrupt and deconstruct television in the expanded field. Don’t switch channels just yet!

Education & Public Programmes

Over the course of the exhibition, Tai Kwun Contemporary will be hosting a range of public programming and educational events that dive into the deeper themes raised by Killing TV. These include Tai Kwun Conversations; Teacher’s Morning and Teacher’s Workshop; curator’s tours and other guided public tours. In the After Hours series, the audience gets the chance to listen to a fascinating spectrum of speakers working in art, photography, literature, as well as academics who will be chatting and discussing a broad range of topics. Finally, the Hi! & Seek corner at the 2/F, a space of dialogue and exploration, will as usual be open for visitors of all ages, providing different ways of interaction and conversation.

Artists in Killing TV

Ant Farm

Dara Birnbaum

Chris Burden

Chow Chun Fai

Shigeko Kubota

Kwan Sheung Chi

Li Ran

Grace Ndiritu

Nam June Paik & Jud Yalkut

Daniel Pflumm

Alex Prager

Aled Simons

Ryan Trecartin

Magdalen Wong

— End —

Editor’s notes:

Please click here to download the hi-res images with captions.

Killing TV

Curators: Jill Chun and Tiffany Leung

27 September–19 November 2023

(Closed on Mondays, except when a public holiday falls on Monday)

11am–7pm

1/F F Hall (entry through JC Contemporary)
https://www.taikwun.hk/

Visitor information

Killing TV runs from 27 September to 19 November 2023, every Tuesday to Sunday from 11am to 7pm at the art galleries in Tai Kwun. Admission is free, with guided public tours and related public programmes available. Along with Killing TV, visitors can visit I'll Be Your Mirror, a new live art exhibition by the trailblazing artist and choreographer Maria Hassabi from 13 October to 26 November 2023.

The entire site of Tai Kwun is open to the public daily from 8am to 11pm.

Programme details are subject to change, so please refer to the Tai Kwun website for news and updates.

About Tai Kwun

accessible world-class centre for arts, culture and heritage. In 2019, Tai Kwun received the Award of Excellence in the 2019 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.

public with an inquisitive attitude and committed to offering a conducive platform for learning and experimentation.

For more information, please visit our website: https://www.taikwun.hk.

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Tai Kwun’s Vital Signs Exhibition Shines A Light On Hong Kong's Neon Heritage (30 Jun To 3 Sep 2023)

27 Jun 2023, Tuesday

Tai Kwun, in association with Tetra Neon Exchange, is proud to present Vital Signs, a new exhibition that celebrates Hong Kong’s unique and distinctive visual identity through its iconic neon heritage. The exhibition invites contemporary artisans to follow in the footsteps of the pioneering neon masters who came before them, and pays tribute to the skill, craftsmanship, audacity, competitiveness, precision, and can-do mindset that define this vibrant art form.

Visitors to Vital Signs will be able to experience and appreciate up close the neon signs, master craftsmen, and vibrant streetscapes that were once synonymous with Hong Kong’s visual culture. The exhibition spans two entirely separate spaces within Tai Kwun, commencing in the Duplex Studio in Block 01 where visitors can marvel at the sheer size and audacity of over 20 neon signs, many of which have been conserved and recommissioned by Tetra Neon Exchange and are on public display for the first time.

The neon tour then continues at Laundry Steps, which are transformed into a riotous electrified streetscape crowned by another cluster of 5 authentic and original Hong Kong neon signs. The exhibition highlights the flair and imagination, as well as the ingenious problem-solving of Hong Kong's legendary neon masters, and invites visitors to step back into the Wan Chai, Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay of the 80s and 90s, where distinctive canopies of dazzling, blinking, multi-coloured neon signs in Chinese characters (and occasionally English) competed for attention in the streets of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island – an image instantly recognizable around the world, capturing in a single polaroid shot the vitality, excitement, and opportunity that drew the world to Hong Kong.

“Far from being the exclusive domain of huge international brands, neon was the medium embraced by thousands of local companies and family businesses in Hong Kong who could grab the public’s attention through quirky and creative design,” said Timothy Calnin, Director of Tai Kwun Arts. “Vital Signs, while being a joyous celebration of this vivid and unmistakable look, also pauses to reflect on how much of this radiant past has been lost. We hope that Vital Signs, as the name implies, reveals a living visual medium rather than a sunset industry, and that our nostalgia for neon finds new friends, fans and exponents to preserve this wondrous legacy and lead it in new directions.”

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity to tour visitors through the Vital Signs exhibition and look forward to sharing with the public our passion and affection for the signs which evoke Hong Kong at its best – bold, confident and brimming with possibility,” said Cardin Chan, General Manager of Tetra Neon Exchange. “As a non-profit organisation dedicated to rescuing and conserving pieces that preserve Hong Kong’s authentic neon identity, we are very excited to bring these huge and elaborate artefacts back into full public view.”

Vital Signs runs from 30 June to 3 September 2023 and is open from 12pm to 8pm every day. The exhibition has been made possible with core funding provided by The Hong Kong Jockey Club through its Charities Trust, and with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies.

To further promote the art of neon and support Hong Kong's neon industry, our open call, Neon Connection, is inviting local artists, designers and architects to conceive their own large-scale public sculptures using the medium of neon, to create a visual thread which links Tai Kwun's buzzing Parade Ground with the more introspective Prison Yard, via Tai Kwun Lane. The winning design will be fully realised by Tai Kwun and installed next January.

Along with the exhibition, Tai Kwun will host a series of public programmes beginning on 11 July 2023, including a series of workshops, talks, screenings, and tours, designed to immerse Vital Signs visitors in the unique cultural heritage of Hong Kong’s neon industry. These programmes aim to explore the remarkable craftsmanship behind neon artworks and their significance in shaping Hong Kong's future.

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Patricia Piccinini's HOPE opens at Tai Kwun Contemporary

12 May 2023, Friday

Tai Kwun Contemporary is excited to announce HOPE — a large-scale summer exhibition of the sculptures, paintings and moving image works by the renowned Australian artist Patricia Piccinini from 24 May to 3 September.

Best known for her hyper-realistic sculptures whose human scale and touchingly expressive features belie their non-human limbs, fins, wings and scales — cute, intriguing, grotesque — Piccinini’s vision explores the unexpected consequences of tampering with nature. Featuring more than 50 fascinatingly detailed and highly imaginative works across different media, including paintings and moving images in addition to her distinctive sculptural works, HOPE offers visitors an engrossing, perplexing and deeply touching view of a fantastical imaginary world, yet one with which we identify naturally and instinctively.

Piccinini has been featured in many highly successful exhibitions around the world, including a pavilion presentation at the Venice Biennale in 2003. While her work raises questions about scientific progress and mankind’s destructive power over nature, a resilient optimism shines through as the scale and expressiveness of her works speak of tenderness, care and empathy.

HOPE is Patricia Piccinini’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong and encompasses all of the gallery spaces of JC Contemporary. Among the largest works in the show is Celestial Fields — a vast immersive installation comprising 4,500 individual flower stems sprouting both upwards from the floor and downwards from the ceiling, drawing the visitor into its embrace where it poses questions on the nature of progress. Elsewhere, Piccinini responds to the signature spiral staircase of JC Contemporary with a 20-metre-high installation of multi-coloured wigs spun together and suspended down the void from the ceiling of the top floor.

Ultimately, much of Patricia Piccinini’s work explores the notion of interdependence: the interdependence between humans and artificial objects — such as shoes, cradles, chairs — or the interdependence between humans and other creatures. The artist is fascinated by what she calls “artificial nature”: she imagines awe-inspiring and somewhat unsettling mixtures of creatures, where humans may be combined with living beings concocted in the imagination — or in the laboratory. These “chimeras” fundamentally ask questions about how technological advances are opening new horizons, given that humanity appears to be on the cusp of being able to design and create new forms of life and new forms of living-mechanical hybrids. For the artist, this prospect triggers both hope and anxiety about the nature of progress; at the same time, the artist imagines how living with such creatures will demand love, care, and empathy — the same love and care that humanity is morally compelled to show to other living creatures we share the planet with. Visitors to HOPE will therefore not only experience the artist’s spectacular vision but will also be invited to delve more deeply into broader questions about progress, science and technology, as well as the ethics of care.

“After last year’s wildly popular Behind Your Eyelid summer exhibition, we are honoured to present another spectacularly large-scale exhibition by such a legendary artist at Tai Kwun Contemporary. Our preconceived notions about biology are challenged by Piccinini\'s works, which force us to confront the limits of genetic experimentation, technology, the arts, and, of course, humanity itself. Moreover, this exhibition reflects a longer cycle where Tai Kwun Contemporary explores the notion of ‘future bodies’ and the question of nature. HOPE will offer an artistic response — or perhaps rather than an answer, the artist poses more questions about the state of science and technology and progress in the world today,” said Tobias Berger, Curator of HOPE — Patricia Piccinini.

Timothy Calnin, Director of Tai Kwun Arts, commented, "An exhibition of the breadth, and vision of HOPE is a significant commitment for any contemporary art institution, and would have been unimaginable without the unwavering support from The Hong Kong Jockey Club and this exhibition’s Lead Sponsor Indosuez Wealth Management, We salute the Club and Indosuez for enabling Tai Kwun to bring the extraordinary art of Patricia Piccinini to Hong Kong for this summer exhibition. We are tremendously proud to bring Patricia and her studio of skilled technicians and artisans to Hong Kong and very grateful to Tobias for once again curating a stunning exhibition which we know will win fans for the artist, for contemporary art in general and for Tai Kwun. Less visible to our visitors is the outstanding behind-the-scenes work of Tai Kwun’s small but dynamic Contemporary Art team, led by Head of Art Dr Pi Li, who have once again gone above and beyond the call of duty to guarantee a wonderful experience for all visitors from the moment the gallery doors open.”

“At Indosuez, we are committed to supporting the vibrant arts and cultural landscape in Hong Kong. We believe that the arts have the unique ability to connect and inspire the communities we live and operate in, and are thrilled to be the Lead Sponsor of HOPE by Patricia Piccinini at Tai Kwun,” said Olivier Livenais, CEO, Hong Kong, at Indosuez Wealth Management.

Over the course of the exhibition, Tai Kwun Contemporary will also be hosting a wide range of public programming and educational events that dive into the deeper themes raised by Piccinini’s works, including her references to classical Greek mythology and art historical iconography, as well as broader ethical questions about science, progress, and ethics.

These include Tai Kwun Conversations: HOPE — A Dialogue between Patricia Piccinini and Tobias Berger; a series of film screenings chosen by the artist in Patricia Piccinini’s Choice; Workshop: Making of HOPE — Patricia Piccinini; Teacher’s Morning and Teacher’s Workshop; curator’s tours and other guided public tours. Of particular interest to families with children will be the Family Day events held throughout the run of the exhibition. Finally, Patricia Piccinini After Hours will be offering intimate conversations with special guests and speakers, who will chat about topics such as ethics and morality in biotech and genetics, climate crisis and extinction, and human creations of life.

HOPE will also present a small number of artist editions and merchandise in the Tai Kwun Contemporary kiosk in the gallery reception area.

Tickets to the exhibition is available on Klook. HK$60 for general tickets and HK$50 for concession tickets (Full-time students with ID, people with disabilities, and senior citizens over the age of 60).

Tickets will also be available at the JC Contemporary reception: HK$70 (general) and HK$60 (concession).

Children under the age of 5 can enjoy free admission.

Meanwhile, Tai Kwun will offer limited qualities of buy-one get-one free admission tickets exclusive to TK Fan on a first come, first serve basis.

For more details about the exhibition, various activities, and ticketing information, visit: https://qrs.ly/vsetej4

Lead Sponsor: Indosuez Wealth Management

HOPE

Artist: Patricia Piccinini

Curator: Tobias Berger

Date: 24 May to 3 September 2023

Tuesday – Sunday, 11 am to 7 pm

Monday, CLOSED

On-site: HK$70 (Adults) | HK$60 (Concession)

Online: HK$60 (Adults) | HK$50 (Concession)

About Patricia Piccinini

Born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in West Africa in 1965, Patricia Piccinini grew up mainly in Australia, where her family moved in 1972. At the beginning of her artistic career, she spent a substantial amount of time in medical museums, making drawings of preserved specimens. Indeed, her works usually begin with her drawings, which then are translated by the artist and her team of technicians into three-dimensional objects. Since the 1990s, Piccinini’s work has combined the cute and the grotesque, spurring viewers to overcome a sense of revulsion and to see the beauty of all forms, however unsettling, deformed, or artificial. In 2003, Piccinini represented Australia at the Venice Biennale, and since then she has had numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world.

— End —

Editor’s notes:

Please click here to download the hi-res images with captions.

Visitor information

The entire site of Tai Kwun is open to the public daily from 8am to 11pm, while Tai Kwun Contemporary at JC Contemporary is open from Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 8pm (closed on Mondays), and Fridays to Saturdays from 11am to 9pm.

Programme details are subject to change, so please refer to the Tai Kwun website for news and updates.

About Tai Kwun — Centre for Heritage and Arts

Tai Kwun is Hong Kong’s Centre for Heritage and Arts — a cultural destination for inspiration, stimulation and enjoyment. We aspire to offer the best heritage and arts experiences, and to cultivate knowledge and appreciation of contemporary art, performing arts and history in the community.

Tai Kwun invites all visitors on a journey of discovery that unites across multiple genres of arts, heritage, culture and lifestyle in Hong Kong. Here, visitors will discover the rich heritage of the site through the thematic exhibitions and immersive public programmes that explore Hong Kong’s history and culture, alongside a multitude of vibrant and inclusive contemporary art presentations and performing arts offerings all year round.

Opened in May 2018 and operating on a not-for-profit model, Tai Kwun is the fruition of a joint partnership between The Hong Kong Jockey Club and the Government of the HKSAR to conserve and revitalise the buildings of the historic Central Police Station compound, which represents one of the most significant revitalisation projects in Hong Kong. The site comprises three Declared Monuments of Hong Kong – the former Central Police Station, Central Magistracy and Victoria Prison – all have been meticulously conserved, with unfailing attention to authenticity. The site also includes two new buildings – JC Contemporary and JC Cube, by renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron – and several outdoor spaces – Parade Ground, Prison Yard and Laundry Steps – providing an exciting venue for the public programmes presented by Tai Kwun and its partners.

Tai Kwun, which means “big station” in Chinese, is the colloquial name used by Hong Kong people to refer to the former police headquarters and the surrounding compound. The name has been adopted as a reminder of the historical importance of this living heritage site.

In 2019, Tai Kwun received the Award of Excellence in the 2019 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation. This is the highest honour of the prestigious Awards, which bestows an international recognition of the outstanding achievement in the conservation and revitalisation efforts of Tai Kwun.

For more information, please visit our website: https://www.TaiKwun.hk.

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With over half a decade of arts and cultural delights, Tai Kwun celebrates its milestone as Hong Kong’s premiere arts and culture centre

2 May 2023, Tuesday

Join Tai Kwun as the compound invites you to Feel Your Heart Beat in an anniversary celebration like no other this May with heartfelt programmes such as Unfurl, Stepping Up, Hidden Spaces Tour and HOPE—Patricia Piccinini

For over half a decade, Tai Kwun has delighted and enlightened visitors and guests, immersing them in arts, culture and heritage. This month Tai Kwun celebrates its fifth anniversary, inviting you to feel your heart beat with us, as we unveil spectacular performances and exhibitions that honour the community for helping to transform the compound into the extraordinary space it is today and will continue to be in the future.

Since opening its doors to the public five years ago, the heritage site has come alive with culture, heritage and internationally renowned art exhibitions, musical and performing arts performances, films, docent tours and more. Over 12 million visitors have visited Tai Kwun over the years, enjoying the 3,900 programmes that have graced the galleries, venues and shops within the compound.

While The Hong Kong Jockey Club conserved and revitalised Tai Kwun, and through its Charities Trust provides the core funding for Tai Kwun’s arts and heritage programmes, Tai Kwun belongs to the people of Hong Kong as they are the true owners of the heritage site. In celebration of its fifth anniversary, Tai Kwun is launching a myriad of exciting art and culture programmes under the Feel Your Heart Beat initiative, bringing back treasured moments while creating new transformative experiences that touch the community to become the vibrant heart of Hong Kong. The abstract form of a beating heart represents Tai Kwun's mission in promoting cultural participation and community engagement, and visitors are invited to experience the city's finest artistic and cultural delights, all the while feeling their heart beat inside the historical compound of Tai Kwun.

Welcoming all to come along and be immersed in the familiar environment alongside one’s favourite people to truly feel at home, Tai Kwun is celebrating the milestone with heartfelt programmes such as Unfurl, Stepping Up, Hidden Spaces Tour, HOPE—Patricia Piccinini and limited-time visitor gifts along with an exclusive TK Fan giveaway.

Unfurl

The Parade Ground is set to be transformed into a unique garden full of light, colour, and sound by the Asian debut of Unfurl from 23 to 31 May, with installations that enchant both crowds and individuals. Nature, art and technology have combined to create this visual spectacle consisting of 19 plants, nine of which are massive robots. The interactive, gentle giants in Unfurl are made from fabric and air, towering as high as five metres. They form a dreamscape where plants can sense that you’ve come to visit and thus reach out to connect, enabling a joyful experience not to be missed that celebrates the wonder and intelligence of nature’s design sensibilities, and makes space for human connection and play.

Date	23 – 31 May 2023
Time	2pm – 10pm
Venue	Parade Ground, Tai Kwun
Price	Free of Charge

Stepping Up

Welcoming home artists and performers who have performed at Tai Kwun since its opening in 2018, the centre will be filled to the brim with live performances of the special programme Stepping Up held over the long weekend of 26 – 28 May. The music performance on 26 May, curated by music producer Janet Yau who has collaborated with Tai Kwun since 2018, will showcase a diverse mixture of classical Western music and contemporary Chinese music, from standard ensemble to mixed ensemble. On 27 – 28 May, circus newcomers and veterans will return with Circus Box, who made their debut performance at Tai Kwun in 2020. The long weekend performance will be hosted by Vivek Mahbubani, a local sought-after stand-up comedian who is one of the first artists to perform at Laundry Steps at Tai Kwun’s opening. Visitors are welcome to come and enjoy these first-rate and vibrant performances in the inviting atmosphere of the Laundry Steps.

Date	26 - 28 May 2023
Time	2pm – 6pm
Venue	Laundry Steps, Tai Kwun
Price	Free of Charge

Hidden Spaces Tour

heritage spots strewn around the Central Police Station Compound, where secluded architectural traces may well be located inside the Hidden Spaces Tour, including underground passages to the courthouse, Tai Kwun’s prison cell revitalisation, and air-raid shelter.

Date	26 - 28 May 2023
Time	11:15am (Cantonese) / 12pm (Cantonese) / 12:45pm (Putonghua) / 1:30pm (Cantonese) / 2:15pm (Cantonese) / 3pm (English) / 3:45pm (Cantonese) / 4:30pm (Cantonese)
Venue	Side-wide, Tai Kwun
Price	Free of Charge
Registration	qrs.ly/2les93v

HOPE—Patricia Piccinini

Not to be missed is the intriguing, large-scale exhibition HOPE—Patricia Piccinini held at JC Contemporary starting 24 May, supported by our corporate patron Indosuez Wealth Management as the Lead Sponsor of the exhibition. As renowned Australian artist Patricia Piccinini’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong, HOPE showcases more than 60 artworks, ten of which have been specially commissioned for Tai Kwun Contemporary across two series. Featuring hyperrealistic and surreal sculptural, photographic and film works by the artist, the immersive exhibition HOPE addresses crucial concerns about the nature of history, progress, and technology, as well as our potential to come together and live in harmony.

Date	24 May – 3 September 2023
Time	11am – 7pm
Venue	JC Contemporary, Tai Kwun
Price	Online Tickets: $60 (Regular) / $50 (Concession) On Site Tickets: $70 (Regular) / $60 (Concession)
Ticketing	Tickets are available at KLOOK

TK FAN Exclusive

Truly a place for the people, members of TK FAN may redeem one token to use at the exclusive 5^th-anniversary capsule machine and receive a celebratory gift during the festivities period of 23 – 31 May 2023. There will be a limited daily quota on a first-come-first-served basis.

Date	23 – 31 May 2023
Time	10am – 8pm
Venue	Outside of Visitor Service, Tai Kwun

For more details about the exhibition, various activities, and ticketing information, visit: https://qrs.ly/3xesogm

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Tai Kwun In Bloom 2023: Blooming and Beyond…

4 Apr 2023, Tuesday

Venture into the realm of sustainability in full bloom

Hong Kong, 04 April 2023 -- “Tai Kwun In Bloom” returns to the Parade Ground for its third year from today until 10 April! Bursting with botanicals just before the Easter weekend, the annual flower extravaganza offers an abundance of lush and lavish experiences for this entire week. Visitors of Tai Kwun can experience the compound in full bloom once again and delight in the unforgettable garden, which puts sustainability and eco-friendliness at the forefront of its celebration. Eighteen handpicked local brand partners are set to join the jubilee, with lovely workshops, botanical-inspired bites, and offerings, and plenty of spectacular and sustainable "Instagrammable" displays focusing on promoting a greener lifestyle for all.

Blooming and Beyond…

Tai Kwun is dedicated to finding the right balance between extravagance and sustainability in addition to bringing eco-friendly lifestyle offerings to people in Hong Kong and beyond. This year Tai Kwun wishes to share the uniqueness and beauty of flowers during Tai Kwun In Bloom 2023, and has crafted new practices that will offset carbon emissions caused by refrigeration and long-haul transportation. The flower show collaborates with nearby flower farms in an effort to substitute imported flowers with locally produced flowers, reducing the market's carbon emissions.

To further minimise environmental impacts, In Bloom is set to lower its installation wastage by up to 90%. Most of the festival’s fixtures have been made from upcycled materials, and over 95% are designed to be reusable. Now, ready to be given a second life, Tai Kwun will collaborate with local groups to transform the fixtures into home furniture for local families in need. All the suitable flowers and plants used at the set-up will also be given away to local NGOs and ready for adoption by the end of the market. Stay tuned to Tai Kwun’s Facebook and Instagram for the adoption details to enhance your home garden and give these plants a lovable second life!

A kaleidoscope bursting with blooms

This year's market features a plethora of Hong Kong-owned brands, including florists, botanical stores, lifestyle, and even food and beverage brands! The market features a range of floristry brands, including Flower Flows in You, Give Her Flower, nao florist and FLORISTRY by ART OF LIVING, from fresh flower boutiques to single-stem flowers and weekly flower orders. For those who are looking for exotic botanical and plant options, Forest Round Round, ROOT and Uncle Caudex are here for you. Meanwhile, those who consider themselves to be short on time with no wiggle room for plant babies can explore the never-withered hand-dyed fabric flowers from Timeless Flower!

Local bakery Solight Studio, Kombucha brand Fruitable Hong Kong and agro-food brand LoCoFARMS also join the celebration, supplying the market with food and drinks that not only deliver flavour, but also a delectable journey with lovely stories from locally farmed produce.

As the first season of Tai Kwun In Bloom that visitors can enjoy bites and sips at the market, there are plenty of plates to discover, such as the true Spanish flavours from 22 Ships, who have brought their traditional yet modern tapas and drinks from chef Antonio Oviedo. Meanwhile, Between is set to present delicious modern Japanese café bites, as well as signature blends and wellness beverages crafted by seasoned baristas. Botanical buddies can be sweetly reminded to embrace sustainability and bring their own cutlery for some quick and easy treats.

Tai Kwun In Bloom is a market for people to buy environmental friendly. GREEN BITCH loves the earth and is the perfect spot for one to find all the goodies needed for enhancing a sustainable urban lifestyle. Designs have been crafted to last a lifetime at Tiny Island Maps, while SOULMATTE‘s plant-based vegan leather handbags offer a beautiful alternative to animal leather. Not to mention DayDaySoap, Conceptu Home and Yiwooo.co, three top-notch local brands embracing craftmanship and sustainability with natural ingredients.

Budding in green treats

A sure way to find oneself rewarded with a bed of roses, TAI KWUN FAN who spend an accumulated HK$500 or above at Tai Kwun In Bloom partner’s booths, will also receive a HK$50 Tai Kwun e-voucher that can be used at selected shops and restaurants at Tai Kwun (terms and conditions apply).

Green-themed plates and lifestyle options from shops and restaurants

Tai Kwun is set to blossom not only inside the Parade Ground, but also within the restaurants and shops where visitors can find extravagant bouquets, baskets and green-themed plates and lifestyle offerings. Gin lovers will be delighted upon entry to the Botanical Garden, and the evening can only become more magical with a signature cocktail from Dragonfly! For those embracing sobriety, floral-inspired cold brew tea from LockCha Tea House is served not only as a soothing beverage, but as a work of art. Finally, those who have a sweet tooth for bites instead of drinks can head to The Chinese Library and discover splendid cakes and other desserts.

For those wanting to get crafty, one’s inner gardener can be released during bonart’s Mounted Rabbit’s Foot Fern Workshop, while PAP Studio’s glass mosaic workshop allows for one to enter a zone of absolute concentration as the class teaches the beauty of moving light and shadows. With workshops galore, visitors can also paint their own white porcelain bowl with different flower gods at Touch Ceramics. Last, but certainly not least, book lovers are invited to indulge in "Paper Blossoms" from TASCHEN.

Fabulous Sustainable-Themed Workshops

Tai Kwun In Bloom 2023 has joined hands with two participating local brands: “Yiwooo” and “Fruitable Hong Kong”, to present a functional and aesthetically pleasing “Tai Kwun x Yiwooo Bamboo Crafting Workshop” and “Tai Kwun x Fruitable Hong Kong Kombucha workshop”. Participants will learn basic bamboo-weaving techniques to create bamboo trays without using any glue, and how to brew kombucha with locally farmed products.

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BOOKED: HONG KONG ART BOOK FAIR WELCOMES INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITORS BACK TO TAI KWUN CONTEMPORARY WITH NEW PROJECT

3 Apr 2023, Monday

Tai Kwun Contemporary's BOOKED: Hong Kong Art Book Fair 2023 is returning for its fifth edition, with local, regional, and international exhibitors joining in person. Extending across the gallery spaces of JC Contemporary and F Hall in Tai Kwun from 28 April to 1 May 2023, this latest edition also launches "Sounds Like Print”, a project that explores the intersection of “sound” and “print”.

For the first time since 2020, BOOKED: is welcoming exhibitors from outside the city physically back in Hong Kong, including Printed Matter (New York), Nieves (Zurich), onestar press / Three Star Books (Paris), Self Publish Be Happy (London), Afterall (London), Jakarta Art Book Fair (Jakarta), aBC (Beijing/Shanghai), Jiazazhi (Ningbo/Shanghai), and more. Additionally, Display Distribute and Reading Room will respectively bring along a special selection of books from lumbung kios and lumbung publishers, previously featured in Documenta 15. This inspiring range of artists and exhibitors reasserts BOOKED: as a major regional art book fair.

Venturing into new horizons, BOOKED: 2023 includes the project "Sounds Like Print" (28 April – November 2023), co-curated by Ingrid Pui Yee Chu and Edward Sanderson, and co-organised with Daniel Szehin Ho. “Sounds Like Print” explores how the visible and the audible overlap: on the one hand, the ways in which sound and music—what we hear and listen to—are recorded in print, in the packaging around sound and music, as well as magazines, zines, and flyers, and on the other, how printed matter can trigger or generate sounds. Created in affordable, multiple copies for distribution and circulation, music/sound recordings as well as printed matter have remarkable similarities to one another, particularly in opposition to the classical notion of “art” considered as valuable and unique. There is thus an accessible, indie or self-made spirit here.

The project launches with a special display of sound art and experimental music primarily from the Mainland, on loan from the archive of Hong Kong-based curator and scholar Dr. Edward Sanderson, alongside several "Notations" exploring associated themes. Other artworks by Samson Young (Hong Kong), Dave Muller (Los Angeles) and mmmmor studio (Düsseldorf/Hong Kong) are set among the Artists' Book Library. During BOOKED: 2023, “Sounds Like Print” features a durational piano performance spearheaded by Samson Young as part of his larger Furniture Music series, which combines repurposed furniture with books and recorded sound as a way to visually represent sound as well as its silences.

Featuring more than 80 artists, publishers, organisations, and booksellers, BOOKED: Hong Kong Art Book Fair also includes special displays by the Hong Kong photographer Kurt Tong, the Swiss independent publishing house Nieves, and the high-end French publisher onestar press / Three Star Books, along with a wide range of public programming such as talks, workshops, and performances. Of note is an on-site performance by BASE (Florence Lam and Pang Jing), who will walk through the fair and interact with books in a variety of acrobatic ways, generating new definitions of female "bodily knowledge".

BOOKED: Hong Kong Art Book Fair underscores Tai Kwun Contemporary's dedication to providing a platform for creative practitioners and publishers who are invested in books as a medium of artistic and intellectual expression while providing an opportunity for public audiences to enjoy and engage with these materials as art, and as an important resource for learning and research.

Tickets will be available on KLOOK from 3 April, HK$40 for Adults and HK$30 for Concession; limited numbers of tickets will be available on site.

Highlighted participants this year include:

Printed Matter (New York)

- Founded in 1976, Printed Matter, Inc. is the world's leading non-profit organisation dedicated to the dissemination, understanding and appreciation of artists' books and related publications.

onestar press / Three Star Books (Paris)

- Onestar press / Three Star Books has produced over 300 books, 300 multiples and artists' films since 2000, allowing for collaboration among international artists on a variety of projects. This has enabled them to access and use new technologies.

David Zwirner Books (New York)

- David Zwirner Books is a publishing house dedicated to publishing the highest quality art publications. It focuses on projects that are artist led or inspired, and commissions texts by novelists, poets, and journalists. It was founded in 2014 and publishes over 25 titles a year, available worldwide in museum stores, independent bookstores, online, and in all gallery locations.

Jakarta Art Book Fair (Jakarta)

- Further Reading Press is an independent multi-format publishing platform with a production and distribution unit, that seeks to engage in discourse within design practices by exploring the wider contexts through various programmed experiences, such as online publication, printed periodicals, pop-ups, and residency.

- The Jakarta Art Book Fair showcases a range of Indonesian independent publishing.

Jiazazhi (Ningbo/Shanghai)

- Hailing from Shanghai, Jiazazhi is a photo art publisher devoted to exploring the possibilities of photo work presentation.

Reading Room (Guangzhou)

- Reading Room offers publications from an active network of art collectives and cultural commons, and is a part of the "lumbung" presentation by BOLOHO (in documenta 15). Based in Guangzhou, they share a regional perspective as a member of Lumbung Publishers.

Self Publish Be Happy (London)

- Self Publish Be Happy is dedicated to shaping contemporary photography and visual culture through publishing, online and offline events, and education programmes.

Nieves (Zurich)

- A one-man publishing house, founded in 2001, Nieves focuses on producing artist publications and zines.

Case Publishing & shashasha (Tokyo)

- Case Publishing is a Tokyo-based publisher founded in 2015. For nearly a decade they have spotlighted Japan's artistic culture showcasing contemporary art, photography and design.

P_PAL (Beijing)

- Beijing's latest up-and-coming magazine focused on artists' books and independent publishing.

abc (art books in China fair) (Beijing)

- One of the largest art book fairs in the Mainland, abc hosts fairs in metropolitan Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, and beyond.

Highlighted Local Exhibitors

mini press @ Tiana Cloudland

- mini press is a publishing project of Tiana Cloudland, which advocates publishing independent publications in limited editions, mini-sizes and hand-binding.

This Bakery

- A fantastic, mystical world of stories including but not limited to comics, storytelling and illustration.

YeP YeP

- Featuring works by emerging local artists, YeP YeP is an experimental fashion and art magazine published in Hong Kong.

ACO Books

- An independent bookshop located in Hong Kong, ACO Books believes in freedom of expression and the sharing of knowledge. It is a space for connecting art practitioners, cultivating humanity and sensibility through art and cultural collaboration activities.

Kan Tai Wong

- Kan Tai Wong began a long career as a photojournalist when he joined the Hong Kong Press in the late 1970s, after attending the Tokyo Institute of Polytechnics to study photography.

Asia Art Archive

- Asia Art Archive is a catalyst for new ideas that enrich our understanding of the world through the collection, creation, and sharing of knowledge around recent art in Asia. An independent non-profit, the archive documents the multiple and recent histories of art in Asia, with a valuable collection of art.

For more information, please visit https://www.taikwun.hk/en/programme/detail/booked-hong-kong-art-book-fair/1193.

#BOOKEDHK2023 #BOOKEDHK

— End —

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“SPOTLIGHT: A Season of Performing Arts” Returns with Seven Spectacular Multi-Disciplinary Programmes from Hong Kong and the Mainland’s finest artists

28 Feb 2023, Tuesday

Tai Kwun is delighted to announce the return of SPOTLIGHT: A Season of Performing Arts, which will showcase seven versatile performing arts programmes from April through May 2023. The programmes offer a wide spectrum of culture and talents from Hong Kong and the Mainland at Tai Kwun's distinctive venues and outdoor spaces, enabling talented local artists to produce work that is unique in nature with a focus on audience engagement, evolution and continuity.

This season’s SPOTLIGHT features original productions by all-new talent and returning artists who delighted audiences in 2021, continuing Tai Kwun’s dedication to establishing close and lasting collaborative relationships with artists in the performing arts community. Following Tri Ka Tsai and LauZone, multi-talented music artists Anna Lo and Rick Lau continue with the poignant yet playful The Farewell Comeback Tour, the third and final episode of the Hong Kong-style cabaret trilogy that sings tribute to the language and slang that shape the city’s generational identity. Choreographer and dancer Gigi Yang and visual artist Chow Chun Fai give witness to the stories in our lives through dance, images, and sound with The Forgiving Trees. Meanwhile, music and installations performance Since When, guided by the text of Chow Yiu Fai, music of Joyce Tang, visuals and installations of Chan Wai Lap and performances of iii (Iris Liu), Hong Kong New Music Ensemble and a choir of young signers, invites audiences to reclaim their lost sounds. Presenting tales of the diasporic community awash in magic realism, Guangzhou choreographer He Qiwo (ErGao) presents Butterfly Island, while playwright Chan Kwan Yee and director Yan Pat To make their collaborative debut with I will die in my home, a story told from the perspective of three generations of Hong Kong women about ancestral homes. Spanning across Tai Kwun is site-specific theatre The Sublime Progressions by award-winning Vividly, which takes theatregoers on an intimate journey of migration and diaspora that traverses time and space. Finally, the HKAPA drama students continue their work Last Ride, Fresh Eyes, developed in 2022 and enthrals with a podcast that encourages the audience to listen closely to the faint echoes and whispers of the city as they rally together support for Hong Kong artists.

Stretching across four weeks, SPOTLIGHT: A Season of Performing Arts invites

arts lovers and audiences across the city to celebrate the very best of performing artists inside Tai Kwun’s iconic and dazzling venues.

【Hong Kong-style Cabaret】The Farewell Comeback Tour │ 07–09.04.2023

A diva is preparing for her final show as her swan song…or is she? Following the critically acclaimed productions Tri Ka Tsai and LauZone created in Tai Kwun Performing Arts Season in 2019 and 2021, music artists Anna Lo and Rick Lau continue their musical odyssey in The Farewell Comeback Tour, the third and final instalment of the Hong Kong-style cabaret trilogy that examines our generational identity crisis through the evolution of language and slang. With playful music and drama, the show will tug at your heartstrings and tickle your funny bone.

Date & Time: 07 April 2023, 8pm; 08–09 April 2023, 3pm and 8pm

Venue: JC Cube, Tai Kwun

Ticket: HK$280

【Dance X Moving Images X Sound】The Forgiving Trees │ 07–09.04.2023

In her first collaboration with Tai Kwun, dance artist Gigi Yang teams up with visual artist Chow Chun Fai, moving image designer Wilfred Wong and soundscape designer Lawrence Lau to create The Forgiving Trees, which transforms Tai Kwun's F Hall Studio into a new realm through dance, visuals, and music. The audience is encouraged to move around the F Hall Studio space to fully experience the immersive fusion of dance, moving images, and music.

Date & Time: 07–08 April 2023, 2pm and 7pm; 09 April 2023, 2pm

Venue: F Hall Studio, Tai Kwun

Ticket: HK$280

【Music x Installations】Since When │ 14–17.04.2023

Since When invites Tai Kwun audiences to embark on a quest of seeking, finding, remembering, imagining – hopefully recognising – and reclaiming what used to belong to us. The production, a music and installation project in search of the lost voice, is the first lyrical and musical collaboration between lyricist Chow Yiu Fai and composer Joyce Tang. Together with visual artist Chan Wai Lap, singer iii (Iris Liu), Hong Kong New Music Ensemble and a team of young singers and sound archivers who will bring audience to various locations at Tai Kwun with theatrical experiences of the journey of lost and found.

Date & Time: 14 April 2023, 8pm; 15–16 April 2023, 4pm and 8pm; 17 April 2023, 8pm

Venue: JC Cube and Tai Kwun site-wide

Ticket: HK$280

【Dance Theatre】Butterfly Island │ 15–16.04.2023

Butterfly Island is the brainchild of the quirky and charismatic choreographer He Qiwo (ErGao), who is regarded as one of the Mainland’s brightest stars in contemporary dance. After hisproduction of Disco-teca blended visuals, installations and dance with kitsch-chic in Tai Kwun in 2018, ErGao has assembled a sizable number of visuals on diaspora for his most recent work, Butterfly Island, which features dancers from the millennial to Gen Z generations. Various spaces of Tai Kwun will be transformed into a “synthesise scene” for performances enveloped in magical realism, telling the tales of the fictional island nestled between the discordant past and unresolved future, where people from different regions and eras meet and bid farewell to each other, just as butterflies’ momentary encounters.

Date & Time: 15–16 April 2023, 1pm and 6pm

Venue: Prison Yard & F Hall Studio, Tai Kwun

Ticket: HK$280

【Theatre】I will die in my home│21–23.04.2023

Local playwright Chan Kwan Yee and director Yan Pat To collaborate for the first time to chronicle the century-old ghosts that linger within Wan Chai. Set at Wan Chai, the narrative theatre traversing time and space sets forth a story a woman who chose to stay and a tale of bygone years that relates to the city’s cultural changes. The story begins with a home bought by a Hong Kong grandmother. Built in the last century and once the home of glitz, with guests coming and going, it is now the place where the grandmother prophesies to her daughter-in-law about her granddaughter’s eventual passing. I will die in my home explores the idea that people, just like homes, will be forgotten eventually… just like the unrecorded last words of abandoned souls.

Date & Time: 21 April 2023, 8pm; 22–23 April 2023, 3pm and 8pm

Venue: F Hall Studio, Tai Kwun

Ticket: HK$280

【Site-specific Theatre】The Sublime Progressions│28–30.04.2023; 01, 03–06.05.2023

As humans, we share a special bond with land on our planet Earth. As we survive and expand our footprint on land by establishing cities, we also heed the urge to wander and choose to roam and migrate. Following The Inner Études produced by artist group Vividly in Tai Kwun in 2021 – an immersive theatre inspired by the Victoria Prison and the geological history of Hong Kong’s granite rocks that received four nominations at the HK Theatre Libre Awards and became a Design Mark recipient of Taiwan's Golden Pin Design Award – The Sublime Progressions this year explores themes of migration and diaspora by species and tribes, taking audiences on a journey through time and space in Tai Kwun. Through multi-dimensional soundscapes, lighting, projections, scenery, and performances in various locations, the site-specific theatre offers audiences the chance to rediscover their connection to the land and revelations of life, overcoming challenges and venturing into the unknown.

Date & Time: 28–30 April 2023, 7pm and 9pm; 01, 03–06 May 2023, 7pm and 9pm

Venue: Site-wide, Tai Kwun

Ticket: HK$280

【Online Podcast】Last Ride, Fresh Eyes │ 04–05.2023

Created and produced by the Drama School of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Last Ride, Fresh Eyes first premiered in 2022 as an immersive online performance in Tai Kwun “Onstage Online”. This year, the team presents a five-episode podcast adaptation of Last Ride, Fresh Eyes that transports listeners on a recreated voyage, witnessing how the lives of four Hongkongers become intertwined during a hitchhike ride from Central to East Kowloon. Recorded with ASMR technology alongside rearranged original songs, echoes and whispers of our city have been reimagined in an original audio journey, where audiences can experience together how Hongkongers overcome their struggles with perseverance in the face of difficulties. We don’t know what’s going to happen to our city tomorrow, but at least we still have today.

Date & Time: April - May 2023 (Exact schedule to be announced)

Venue: Online

Ticket: Free

Please visit Tai Kwun website for more details.

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TAI KWUN EMBRACES ITS PRISON HISTORY IN “DIGIRADIANCE” TO TRANSPORT VISITORS DIGITALLY TO SPACES OF CONFINEMENT

16 Feb 2023, Thursday

The memories and spaces of Victoria Gaol—Hong Kong’s first prison—are the focus of Tai Kwun’s brand-new digital programme DigiRadiance. The heritage digital exhibition consists of two parts: a 30-minute immersive show transforming the F Hall Studio into an immersive project space; and five Augmented Reality checkpoints across the Prison Yard and D Hall that will take visitors on a nostalgic journey to explore Tai Kwun’s history.

Bringing the old Victoria Gaol to life, the new heritage digital exhibition at Tai Kwun, curated by Ying Kwok and Jims Lam, Curators of Heritage Department, allows visitors to experience the past by stepping into the digital world. The first and longest-operating prison in Hong Kong, Victoria Gaol, opened in 1841 and is said to be one of the first buildings constructed of durable material in the city. Now, reimagined and interpreted in a digital context, the prison has been transported back in time to visualise the development of law and order in Hong Kong from artists’ perspectives.

Placing emphasis on architectural materiality and spatial configuration of the 19th century Victoria Gaol, the DigiRadiance exhibition has been designed into two parts. The first programme presented at F Hall Studio takes the original radial plan of Victoria Gaol as a point of departure to revisit Tai Kwun’s prison history and its significance to Tai Kwun as a heritage compound today. Through a 30-minute immersive video experience created by artists Vvzela Kook and Ng Tsz Kwan, the visual production evokes the experience of imprisonment and guides visitors through the prison’s extended implications in societal discourse, such as discipline, punishment, and reform. In the second part, a journey through five Augmented Reality checkpoints across the Prison Yard and the D Hall then leads visitors on a continuous journey that explores Tai Kwun’s history.

Five carefully selected checkpoints centre around the ground-breaking radial plan prison, and its evolvement during the first hundred years when it was first built. The building had experienced dramatic changes, which reflect the changing needs for prison capacity and the ideology for imprisonment. Echoing the artists’ video, the checkpoints highlight the remaining structures of Victoria Gaol and demonstrate how architecture design and spatial configuration reflect the needs.

Ying Kwok, Curator of DigiRadiance and Senior Curator of Tai Kwun, said, “Through reimagining and reinterpreting our historical buildings in a digital context, we hope to bring our visitors back in time, not only to visualise how our buildings have evolved over time, but also to learn and understand how and why these buildings are designed and built as they had. And through these learnings, we hope the visitors can develop a deeper relationship with our historical site, and continue to value and treasure heritage sites such as Tai Kwun. “

DigiRadiance runs from 17 February to 16 March 2023 and starts on the hour and half-hour between 11am and 7pm every day (the last session begins at 6:30pm). Each show has a capacity of 30 people.

Join artists Vvzela Kook and Ng Tsz Kwan as Tai Kwun hosts an artist sharing session for DigiRadiance audiences on 7 March 2023. Together, the artists will delve into the making of DigiRadiance, the depths and challenges of creating cybernetic journeys, and much more. The session is open to the public and is free of charge.

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TAI KWUN WELCOMES NEW HEAD OF ART

14 Feb 2023, Tuesday

Tai Kwun welcomes Dr Pi Li who joins Tai Kwun Culture & Arts Company Limited in the position of Head of Art, with effect from 13 February 2023. Dr Pi will be responsible for leading the Art Team in setting the overall artistic and curatorial direction, guiding strategy as well as the curation and presentation of art experiences at Tai Kwun. He joins Tai Kwun as the institution prepares to celebrate its 5^th anniversary, and assumes the role from Mr Tobias Berger, who conceived and led Tai Kwun’s contemporary art programme from the outset and, with a small but highly motivated team, rapidly established Tai Kwun Contemporary as a major player in the arts and culture landscape of Hong Kong. Dr Pi will build on this impressive legacy as Tai Kwun deepens its relationship with the Hong Kong public and sustains its commitment to support Hong Kong’ creativity and its emerging and established artists across genres and disciplines.

A veteran of the M+ museum project in Hong Kong for the past ten years, Dr Pi has worked there since 2012 as the Sigg Senior Curator and and then as Head of Curatorial Affairs at M+. Before joining M+, the exhibitions Dr Pi curated include Media City Seoul (2006), After Shock: Contemporary British Art 1990-2006 (2006), Under Construction: New Dimensions of Asian Art (2002) and Moist: Asian-Pacific Media Art (2002). He also served as the curator for the Shanghai Biennial in 2002, and Allôrs la Chine at Centre Georges Pompidou in 2003. Dr Pi was the Chinese Fellow of Aspen Institute and obtained his PhD in art history from the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Dr Pi Li, Head of Art at Tai Kwun, said, “It is my pleasure to join Tai Kwun as Head of Art, and am passionate about contributing to the rapidly evolving cultural landscape of Hong Kong with Tai Kwun being a vibrant platform of experiment, engagement, and dialogue with local and global art scene, and welcoming visitors from all over the world to experience truly world-class and moving art experiences.”

Mr Timothy Calnin, Director of Tai Kwun Arts and Ms Chin Chin Teoh, Director of The Jockey Club CPS Limited said, “We are delighted to welcome Pi Li as the new Head of Art at Tai Kwun, and very much look forward to working closely with him to realize his vision for our contemporary art programme, which will build on the tremendous achievements of Tai Kwun’s high performing Art Department under Tobias’s energized and inspirational leadership. The Art Team is very excited about working with Pi Li, who is so highly regarded by his peers across the arts sector in Hong Kong and internationally, and we are very fortunate to be able to maintain an ongoing relationship with Tobias who becomes our Curator-at-large.”

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INNERGLOW RETURNS TO TAI KWUN, REIMAGINING THE PARADE GROUND WITH 3-D ARCHITECTURAL PROJECTIONS, THAT PAY HOMEAGE TO THE CITY’S NEON VIBRANCY

26 Jan 2023, Thursday

The three themes of InnerGlow 2023—Particles, Geometry, and Neon—are combined with Hong Kong imagery and moods to welcome the Lunar New Year with the utmost elegance

Tai Kwun is set to captivate Hong Kong’s evening skies once again as the second season of InnerGlow takes on a deeper dimension from 26 January to 12 February 2023; inviting some of Hong Kong’s brightest and most original talents to join hands with the compound’s Creative Partner, The Electric Canvas, to devise and create an entirely new programme. Following the enormous public success of the first season of InnerGlow in September 2022, a new series of abstract themes will play with and animate the Parade Ground to such an extent that the imposing classical architectural elements are transformed, morphed and choreographed right before Hong Kong’s eyes.

While InnerGlow 2022 told the imagined history of the Barrack Block, InnerGlow 2023 takes audiences into an entirely different world in which the pure architecture of Tai Kwun becomes the main player. Those longing for a distant time in the city’s history will be delighted by the familiar Hong Kong images and moods woven into the show’s three themes of Particles, Geometry and Neon. Particles set off the show with a burst of fireworks and images of traditional Chinese festivities, while the foundational logic of mathematics, science, engineering and building structures are shifted in Geometry. Next, Neon takes one of the most defining genes of Hong Kong’s DNA, twisting and turning it into abstract forms into a celebration of the city’s vibrancy.

What’s more, InnerGlow 2023 grants audiences the unique opportunity to project light and shadow animations, such as Lunar rabbits, fireworks, Chinese lanterns and many more, on the spot through interactive technology placed on site. Visitors of the light extravaganza can project their creations onto the compound’s famous mango tree to show their creativity.

InnerGlow 2023 is created and produced by The Electric Canvas. Once again, it includes contributions from several individual Hong Kong illustrators and animators, recommended by Tai Kwun, ensuring that Hong Kong’s distinctive landscape is infused with the city’s unique style. This fine group of Hong Kong artists has assumed a greater role, joining filmmaker and Associate Director, Oliver Shing for InnerGlow 2023. Shing directs several scenes in InnerGlow 2023 in a collaborative partnership with The Electric Canvas. Meanwhile, the dramatic and emotional soundtrack of InnerGlow 2023 is edited and produced by Roy Cheung.

InnerGlow has been devised as a multi-year project to bring an annual series of startling public events to Hong Kong by the world-renowned production company, The Electric Canvas. Through the event, Tai Kwun is developing homegrown talent in 3D architectural mapping, art direction, digital design, animation, illustrating, sound producing and technical delivery to enhance Hong Kong’s capability in this genre of large-scale public installations and entertainment. By January 2024, the creative lead will reside with the Hong Kong InnerGlow team as The Electric Canvas steps back to provide advice and mentorship in specific fields.

The programme is made possible with core funding provided by The Hong Kong Jockey Club through its Charities Trust as one of Tai Kwun’s arts and heritage programmes, and CLP Holdings Limited as the Principal Sponsor.

Peter Milne, Managing Director and Technical Director of The Electric Canvas, remarks, “It seems like only yesterday that we were in Hong Kong delivering InnerGlow 2022 after the delays the inaugural project faced due to the pandemic. We are thrilled that InnerGlow 2023 is returning to its scheduled time slot in January and are excited to continue sharing our knowledge and experience with local skills and talent. It gives us great pleasure to be supporting the team at Tai Kwun for this second iteration of the event.”

Mrs. Betty Yuen, CLP Power Hong Kong Limited Chairman and CLP Holdings Limited Non-executive Director, says, “CLP prides itself as the energy partner of Hong Kong. For 122 years, we have been providing a reliable electricity supply, lighting up the city just like InnerGlow lights up our night sky. We are grateful that Tai Kwun is bringing this project back after a successful first edition, and this time coinciding with the Chinese New Year. InnerGlow sees the collaboration and exchange between overseas experts and local artists which exemplifies the core strength of Hong Kong as an international metropolis. We hope the light show will inject vitality and hope for the city’s great economic recovery in the Year of the Rabbit.”

Creative Partner	The Electric Canvas
Participating Artists	Daaimung Creative & Visual Director: Oliver Shing Producer: Annisa Au CG Artists: Wyatt Lau Tsun Wai, Pong Chan, Sindy Ho, Cheng Suet Gei, Thomas Leung Projection Consultation: HIKO Studio Music and Sound Design: Martin Lai Vocal: Siulung Penguin Lab Kongkee@PenguinLab
Sound Producer	Roy Cheung
Tai Kwun Team	Tai Kwun Executive Producer: David Rees Production Manager: Mike Ho Technical and Production: Juk Cheung, Joel Ma, Stephanie Tang, Irene Cheung, Dang Hung, Shandy Leung, Hang Cheung, Bobby Lai, Terrence Choi, Myra Cheung, Neal Lee, Adonic Lo, Cyris Kong Project Management: Louise Lo
Technical Support	Serious Staging Harry Yeung Lun Lam Terence Chan

Date: 26.01 – 12.02.2023 (except for 30.01 & 06.02.2023)

Time: 6:30pm, 7pm, 7:30pm, 8pm, 8:30pm, 9pm

Venue: Parade Ground

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TAI KWUN CONTEMPORARY LAUNCHES MYTH MAKERS—SPECTROSYNTHESIS III (24 Dec 2022 to 10 Apr 2023)

23 Dec 2022, Friday

Tai Kwun Contemporary is proud to present Myth Makers—Spectrosynthesis III, the first major survey exhibition on LGBTQ+ perspectives in Hong Kong. Curated by Inti Guerrero and Chantal Wong, and co-presented with Sunpride Foundation, Myth Makers circles around the core notion of “queer mythologies”. At the same time, the exhibition explores contemporary mythologies and practices of the body by gathering a diverse range of artistic vocabularies related to LGBTQ+ perspectives from over 60 artists from Asia and its diasporas. Myth Makers includes over 100 artworks in all Tai Kwun Contemporary galleries, with one third of the works loaned from Sunpride’s collection; the exhibition expands on the “Spectrosynthesis” series, starting with Taipei, Bangkok, and now Hong Kong. Moreover, a publication collaboration with Queer Reads Library is also featured.

Myth Makers draws inspiration from artists addressing “queer mythologies”, who highlight either same-sex love/desire or gender fluidity as found in ancient belief systems and traditions in Asia. The exhibition also foregrounds the “new traditions” of our times, of spectacle and celebrity, playful and/or transgressive, along with non-normative bodily practices and histories in artworks by contemporary artists. The exhibition unfolds through three distinctive chapters and encompasses more than 100 works, which include new productions, historical works from the 1940s to the 1990s, and artworks on loan from the collection of the Sunpride Foundation. In bringing together such a plethora of artistic perspectives and vocabularies, Myth Makers endeavours to present a multiplicity of conversations, representations, and anti-representations of stories, individuals and communities. While the bulk of the exhibition focuses on living artists, some visionary and transformative figures of the past will also be underscored, including artists who lived in times when present-day LGBTQ+ identifications were not possible.

***

Chapter 1 Queer Mythologies: On and Off the Stage

“Queer Mythologies: On and Off the Stage” brings together artists who evoke mythological figures, creation stories, and traditions based on homoeroticism, androgyny, cross-dressing, and gender ambiguity. In doing so, they probe the possibilities of “queering” dominant cultural values—including religion—and highlight queer mythological representations that already exist in traditions across Asia. In counterpoint, other artists playfully unpack idol veneration in contemporary celebrity culture, a mass cultural formation with a significant role in weaving contemporary mythologies, which bind collective identities across the continent.

Chapter 2 Body Politics: Criminalisation, Control, and Counter-Narratives

“Body Politics: Criminalisation, Control, and Counter-Narratives” is firmly weighed down by the violence of history, delving into body politics, power, control, and criminalisation. Such themes moreover reflect the historic location of F Hall: originally a government printing shop, F Hall was later turned into a reception and fingerprinting office with remand cells as well as visitation booths. The physical venue thus offers a historical prism through which to engage the curatorial theme.

Chapter 3 Queer Futurities: Dematerialisation, Transformation, and New Vocabularies

“Queer Futurities: Dematerialisation, Transformation, and New Vocabularies” presents a darkness that suggests without revealing, for obscurity brings a sense of freedom, self-determination, and disinhibition. The body alludes and is alluded to, forming a ground for exploration and potentiality. By darkening the gallery space, the body is removed from sight, opening up the possibility for new meanings and horizons; at the same time, one moves away from a notion of the body as stable—in the imagination of Eurocentric science and medicine—or as sacred, as taught by different religions. On the contrary, the body is reconceived as a site of transformation and potentiality, made up of cells, atoms, organs: a site that can be disassembled, re-designed, and morphed. It is not a limit but a ground to be reclaimed.

Over the course of the exhibition, Tai Kwun Contemporary will also host a wide range of public programming and educational events. These include “Tai Kwun Conversations” series; “Myth Makers After Hours” in collaboration with Dr. Sonia Wong, Corrupt the Youth, and various guests, deconstructs the world of Myth Makers from the perspectives of literature, philosophy, subculture and gender studies; Teacher’s Morning and Teacher’s Workshop; Family Day; other guided public tours. (See appendix)

Already rich in its gender offerings, the current heritage exhibition Gender & Space (until 15 January 2023) explores the contrasting elements of the former prison compound’s masculine and female traits. Past exhibitions have explored issues related to the body and sexuality at Tai Kwun, including; Performing Society: The Violence of Gender in 2019, which articulated power and made traces of brutality that had previously been concealed and rendered invisible, and, as well as My Body Holds Its Shape in 2020 and trust & confusion in 2021.

This exhibition contains sensitive and sexually explicit content that may not be suitable for children or young adults.

Exhibiting artists include

Bunny Cadag, Oscar Chan Yik Long, Shu Lea Cheang, Christopher Cheung, Isaac Chong Wai, Club Ate (Justin Shoulder & Bhenji Ra), Roy Dib, Jes Fan, Chitra Ganesh, Sadao Hasegawa, Fan Chon Hoo, Hosoe Eikoh, Hou Chun-Ming, Yuen Hsieh, Andrew Thomas Huang, Bones Tan Jones, Siren Eun Young Jung, Bhupen Khakhar, Jiaming Liao, Amy Lien & Enzo Camacho, Zihan Loo, Ly Tran Quynh Giang, Zoë Marden & Sonia Wong Yuk Ying, Josef Ng, Patrick Ng Kah Onn, Alfonso Ossorio, Beatrix Pang, Ellen Pau, Sornchai Phongsa, Khairullah Rahim, Ren Hang, Anne Samat, Joshua Serafin, Tejal Shah, Shang Liang, Raqib Shaw, Sin Wai Kin, Sputniko!, Ho Tam, Hiram To, Kwong Chi Tseng, Virtue Village, Danh Vō, Wang Shui, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Ka Ying Wong, Martin Wong, Wu Jiaru, Xiyadie, Maru Yacco, Yau Ching, Trevor Yeung, Alex Yiu & Kei Ying Wong, Kohei Yoshiyuki, Samson Young, Zheng Bo, Bruno Zhu

Queer Reads Library in the Artists’ Book Library

Can’t Get You Out of My Head: From Kary, to Hiram

A display with archival/personal ephemera and artworks from Kary Kwok, on his friendship and partnership with Hiram To; co-curated by Kary Kwok and Queer Reads Library.

Queer Reads Library_Corner

A display with over thirty new books and zines inspired by Myth Makers, including special selections by Queer Reads Library (Kaitlin Chan, Rachel Lau, Beatrix Pang).

Myth Makers—Spectrosynthesis III

24 December 2022–10 April 2023

11am-7pm (Tuesdays to Sundays)

Closed on Mondays

Tai Kwun Contemporary

Special holiday schedule: open on public holidays (24–27 December 2022 and 1–2 January 2023) but closed for maintenance on 28 December 2022 and 3 January 2023.

For Chinese New Year, the galleries are closed on 22–23 January and 26 January 2023.

www.taikwun.hk

About the curator

Inti Guerrero

Independent curator and art historian, Inti Guerrero has curated exhibitions across Asia, Europe, and Latin America. He was the artistic Director of bap - bellas artes projects in the Philippines (2018–2022), the Estrellita B. Brodsky Adjunct Curator at Tate, London (2016–2020), curator of the 38th EVA International, Limerick (2018) and Artistic Director of TEOR/éTica, San Jose. He has also curated or co-curated many exhibitions around the world, including: “Soil and Stones, Souls and Songs” (touring at MCAD, Manila, Para Site, Hong Kong, and Jim Thompson Art Center, Bangkok, 2016–2017); “Afterwork” (touring at Para Site, Hong Kong; and ILHAM, Kuala Lumpur, 2016–2017); “A Journal of the Plague Year” (touring at Para Site, Hong Kong; The Cube, Taipei; Arko Art Center, Seoul; and Kadist Art Foundation and The Lab, San Francisco; 2013–2015). He has edited and contributed his writing to numerous books, magazines, and exhibition catalogues and has taught and lectured at different universities, art academies, and institutions. Recently, he was named co-Artistic Director of the upcoming 24th Biennale of Sydney (2024).

Chantal Wong

Chantal Wong is the co-founder of three charities in Hong Kong: Things That Can Happen, an art space set up to connect art to the socio-political context of the city; Learning Together, empowering refugee and asylum seeker youth to take on leadership through access to education, scholarships, and leadership training; and Women’s Festival, a platform promoting gender awareness and equality through public discourse. She is a Ford Global Fellow, a global community working to combat inequality brought together by the Ford Foundation.

From 2017 to 2021 she was the founding director of culture at Eaton in Hong Kong, a purpose-driven hospitality brand where she led a culture and programming team to transform the property into a champion for creativity, artistic experimentation and safe-space for intersectional communities, in particular those who have been historically marginalised, and activists. Prior to this she worked with Asia Art Archive, a research centre and archive of modern and contemporary art from Asia as head of strategy helping to build up an invaluable resource for the (re)writing of histories with post-colonial perspectives from the region.

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Tai Kwun and The Hong Kong Jockey Club celebrate Simple Gifts of Joy this festive season

2 Dec 2022, Friday

The city’s cultural heart becomes the Christmas destination for the moments that matter

What’s the perfect gift for the holiday season? Often, it’s the intangible things that have the most lasting impression – those spontaneous smiles, those warm embraces, those moments shared together. Christmas is that special time of year where these little things take on an extra special meaning.

It’s this spirit that Tai Kwun and The Hong Kong Jockey Club (“HKJC”) have channelled this Christmas with Simple Gifts of Joy.

HKJC presents Simple Gifts of Joy

Simple Gifts of Joy is all about sharing in the joyous experiences that bring us together. It’s a month-long celebration of joy, giving and togetherness; where we can come together with family and friends, revel in the spirit of the season, and savour those moments that truly matter. The first of a series of annual festive celebrations presented by HKJC together with Tai Kwun, Simple Gifts of Joy aims to inspire the community through arts and culture and welcome new vibrancy and energy back to the city.

On 1 December, Tai Kwun transformed into a glorious festive destination full of colour, music and fun, where joyous performances came alive and filled the air with celebration. Of course, there is a Christmas tree – a grand, 12-metre-tall beauty that will be the centrepiece of Tai Kwun’s Parade Ground, accompanied every evening by a dazzling light show. Throughout the month, there are an array of circus performances, Christmas music, delightful surprises and hidden treats that create a unique festive atmosphere right across the complex.

Conserved and revitalised by HKJC, Tai Kwun has become Hong Kong’s beating cultural heart since opening in 2018 – a destination where heritage, world-class arts and culture, and rich stories all come together in a unique, joyous landmark for Hong Kong. And now, has become home of a whole new Christmas tradition for our city.

Tree of Togetherness

At the heart of Simple Gifts of Joy is a magical scene that sees Parade Ground transform in a sea of festive light, colour and music – a beautiful backdrop where families and friends celebrate together.

The Simple Gifts of Joy journey began across the Parade Ground: at the centre is the soaring, beautifully adorned Christmas tree that has become a festive Hong Kong icon. Every evening from 6pm – 9:30pm, the tree glows with a magical light show, creating a special atmosphere across the space. The historic buildings surrounding Parade Ground also come alive with a symphony of dramatic lighting.

Simple Gifts of Joy Light Show

Date	1 December 2022 - 2 January 2023
Time	Every half an hour from 6pm – 9:30pm
Venue	Parade Ground, Tai Kwun
Price	Free of Charge

The Gift of Music

The magic began with an opening concert and lighting ceremony on 1 December, where Bernard Chan, Steward of The Hong Kong Jockey Club, switched on the enchanting Christmas scenes together with the visitors. Bearing witness to the stunning Christmas tree light up, glittering and sparkling, the celebration of the joyful season was spent with one another. Continuing from 2 to 4 December, the newly founded Hong Kong choir NOĒMA performs three additional evenings of exquisite choral music under the baton of Sanders Lau.

Share the Joy

Christmas is a time for creating memories that will last a lifetime. As visitors make their way through Tai Kwun, they will come across festive “Snap the Joy” photobooths to capture those spontaneous moments of happiness with friends and family. Visitors can choose to print these photographs as a reminder of these special times or as heartfelt Christmas gifts to loved ones. The photobooths will be available for all Tai Kwun Fans and tenant customers, along with limited walk-in slots.

Special gifts will be given to Tai Kwun visitors to help them share and create happy memories. From specially curated gingerbread cookies to festive hard candies and popcorn, visitors will discover an array of delectable gifts and treats along the way.

To spread the cheer even further, there will be an interactive Festive Instagram Filter to add an extra touch of Christmas spirit to your social media.

“Snap the Joy” Photobooths

Date	1 December 2022 - 2 January 2023
Time	12pm - 8pm
Venue	Parade Ground, Tai Kwun
How to participate	Free online registration is exclusive for “Tai Kwun Fans” (Limited walk-in slots available for new TK Fans registration) – link here Tai Kwun visitors can also enjoy the photo booth experience upon any spending at Tai Kwun’s tenants, just present an eligible receipt at the photo booth entrance (No pre-registration and limited quota per day)

Tai Kwun Circus Plays

Inspiring the community through art, culture and heritage is at the heart of Tai Kwun and HKJC, the complex has transformed into a circus of fun with a rich programme of joyous performances, events and workshops. Tai Kwun Circus Plays features a line-up of diverse and delightful acts from around the world. Some of the highlights taking place across different locations of Tai Kwun include:

LIFE Event No. 2

The UK’s Gandini Juggling, one of the world’s most celebrated juggling groups, with a choreographed juggling performance that pays tribute to contemporary dance masters Pina Bausch and Merce Cunningham.

Rock It! Unicycle

Japan’s acclaimed performance group UniCircle Flow showcases extravagant unicycle skills in a style known as “figure skating on land.”

Ho! Ho! Ho! Monkey King is Coming to Town!

Based on the legendary tale of “Monkey King”, Hong Kong’s TS Crew and choreographer Mui Cheuk Yin fuse contemporary circus and physical theatre with local culture.

Ting-Koo-Ki Mad Skills Battle

Featuring artists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Chile, Tai Kwun’s ever-popular signature circus battle returns for a fourth year.

Only Bones v1.0

This award-winning, Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s sold-out one-man show is performed by New Zealand mime artist Thom Monckton.

New Boom in Circus

A double-billing of juggling and contemporary circus performances spotlighting Hong Kong circus and street art talents Patrick Pun and the CBO Juggling Team.

See the Appendix for details on all performances, events and workshops.

The Merriest of Markets and Meals

Over 30 outlets at Tai Kwun have already unloaded Santa’s sleigh and are ready to spread Christmas cheer with a mix of festive flavours, seasonal goodies, art presentations and hands-on craft experiences. The turkey isn’t the only thing that’s stuffed this season, as Executive Chef Junno Li of The Chinese Library presents a limited eight-course dinner to satisfy your Christmas cravings. Nibble on the city’s best Thai tidings and treats at Aaharn, while enjoying the view of Tai Kwun’s extraordinary Christmas tree over limited-edition dishes. One doesn’t need to travel to the North Pole to spot a reindeer as Stecco Natura presents a very special Reindeer Popsicle. PAZTA is rolling out toothsome plates and new traditions with their exquisite menu, while Dragonfly is serving up warm glasses of mulled wine spiked with spices and fruity sweetness.

Yulephiles can discover seasonal treasures from Tai Kwun’s incredible range of shops. If you are dreaming of a woodsy season, look no further than Ora-Ora: the art gallery will be showcasing paintings inspired by 18^th century Flemish tapestries, redolent of the heroic deeds of the forest. For those looking for family-friendly activities, PAP Studio will host a stained-glass photo frame workshop, giving everyone a chance to hone their skills from copper foil wrapping and colour dyeing. Meanwhile, Touch Ceramics is teaching everyone about Kwon-glazed porcelain painting with their wondrous Christmas workshop.

Going on a shopping spree? Be rewarded upon spending HK$1,000 at TASCHEN Store and receive a complimentary handcrafted bookmark designed by renowned local designer ZOEE. Finally, warm up with tea-riffic gift sets from LockCha Tea Shop, as the teahouse is brewing up six floral teas to keep you cosy all season long.

Your festive spirit is just waiting to be unwrapped! Find yourself inspired by Tai Kwun’s charming shops and restaurants as you stroll along Hong Kong’s winter wonderland.

Visitor information

All visitors will be required to use the "LeaveHomeSafe" App upon entering Tai Kwun and must either provide a COVID-19 vaccination record or the relevant exemption certificate for inspection upon request in accordance with the Vaccine Pass Direction. Some exhibition and event spaces in Tai Kwun may be subject to active checking of Vaccine Pass. Visitors are encouraged to plan their visits with the newly launched Visitor Planner via https://www.taikwun.hk/en/visitor_planner prior to visiting.

Programme details are subject to change; please refer to the Tai Kwun websites for news and updates.

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IN THE MOOD FOR CELEBRATION—TAI KWUN 2022 WINTER SEASON

29 Nov 2022, Tuesday

This December, Tai Kwun and The Hong Kong Jockey Club prepare for the solstice with the heart-warming theme of “Simple Gifts of Joy” to invite visitors to embrace a month-long celebration of joy, giving and togetherness as the city’s cultural heart becomes the Christmas destination for the moments that matter. Gleaming with good tidings and cheer, Tai Kwun relishes in the apricity of the season’s days to present the dazzling Tai Kwun Circus Plays, an immersive and magical bazaar for adults and children.

Host to an absolute cracker of concerts, Tai Kwun’s Prison Yard Festival: Music from within showcases the healing power of music, bringing together a series of intimate concerts featuring some of Hong Kong’s finest musicians and an extraordinary international ensemble and stellar soloist. Turning the spotlight onto gender and sexuality, Myth Makers—Spectrosynthesis III invites one to explore the core notions of “queer mythologies” and examine the emerging “new traditions” of our times, as spectacle and celebrity fuse into playful and transgressive art forms. Gender & Space adopts a gender lens to redress the underrepresentation of women in the gendered spaces of the Central Police Station compound from 1841 to 1941, bringing forth new ideas of representation and delineation in the broader context of Hong Kong’s urban history.

Then in January, InnerGlow 2023 returns triumphantly to rekindle the magic of 3D Mapping technology as it projects breath-taking animations and images onto the facades of Tai Kwun’s historic buildings to celebrate the New Year. Following in February, F Hall Studio will be transformed into an immersive digital project space with DigiRadiance, spotlighting Tai Kwun’s prison history and its significance in the early formation of Law and Order in Hong Kong.

HKJC Presents Simple Gifts of Joy

It’s this spirit that Tai Kwun and The Hong Kong Jockey Club (“HKJC”) are channelling this Christmas with Simple Gifts of Joy. It’s a month-long celebration of joy, giving and togetherness; where we can come together with family and friends, revel in the spirit of the season, and savour those moments that truly matter.

Starting from 1 December, Tai Kwun will transform into a glorious festive destination full of colour, music and fun, where joyous performances will come alive and fill the air with celebration. Of course, there will be a Christmas tree – a grand, 12-metre-tall beauty that will be the centrepiece of Tai Kwun’s Parade Ground, accompanied every evening by a dazzling light show. And during the month, there will be an array of circus performances, Christmas music, delightful surprises and hidden treats that will create a unique festive atmosphere right across the complex. (1 December 2022-2 January 2023)

Snap the Joy

Tai Kwun Circus Plays

"Tai Kwun Circus Plays" proudly enters its fifth edition! From December to January, circus veterans in town and around the world will get together at Tai Kwun to present an array of breathtaking contemporary circus performances. Let's have a merry juggling festive season together with our friends and family!

The circus season will kick off with an opening concert The Gift of Music by Noēma, the city's vocal ensemble, followed by LIFE Event No. 2 by the pioneering British circus group Gandini Juggling. UniCircle Flow from Japan will enthral audiences with their vigorous unicycling dance show, Rock It! Unicycle.

Only Bones v1.0, the award-winning solo show created by New Zealand physical theatre and mime artist Thomas Monckton, will come to Tai Kwun to deliver to audiences a joyful Christmas. Local creative team TS Crew, veteran choreographer Mui Cheuk Yin, and emerging local circus talents, will add a local touch and bring street vbes to life in Ho! Ho! Ho! Monkey King is Coming To Town and New Boom In Circus. The annual circus carnival will culminate with the Ting-koo-ki Mad Skills Gala and Battle (TKK), a passionate circus battle between top non-local jugglers from Taiwan, Costa Rica, Belgium and Brazil, as we welcome the arrival of 2023 at Tai Kwun.

Prison Yard Festival: Music from within

Prison Yard Festival: Music from within celebrates the healing power of music. By bringing together individual musicians, ensembles and audiences, the Festival creates and shares the unique and intimate setting of the Prison Yard in which music leads us from poised introspection to extrovert joy.

True to its title, Music from within begins indoors, in JC Cube. The festival opens with LENK Quartet performing French composer Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. The monumental Goldberg Variations are heard in a new light when pianist Rachel Cheung and lighting designer Amy Chan collaborate to realise Bach’s great keyboard composition from 1737 through a distinctly 21st century lens.

Music emerges from within as the outdoor stage of the Prison Yard hosts a series of highly atmospheric evening concerts, including two chamber concerts by some of the finest musicians from the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra. Revered Hong Kong pianist Nancy Loo will perform Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata under the December full moon. The Prison Yard Festival will close with the unstoppable energy of baroque ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro with their stellar soloist Jakub Józef Orliński, making his Asian debut with two nights of dazzling virtuosity from the 17^th and 18^th centuries. (30 November–10 December 2022; Prison Yard & JC Cube; Tickets are available at URBTIX & art-mate.net)

Myth Makers—Spectrosynthesis III

Myth Makers—Spectrosynthesis III circles around the core notion of “queer mythologies” and delves into modern and contemporary mythologies along with practices of the body, by gathering a diverse range of artistic idioms related to LGBTQ+ perspectives from over 50 artists from Asia and its diasporas.

The exhibition draws inspiration from artists addressing “queer mythologies”, who highlight either same-sex love/desire or gender fluidity as found in ancient belief systems and traditions in Asia. At the same time, the exhibition also highlights the “new traditions” of our times, of spectacle and celebrity, playful and/or transgressive, along with non-normative bodily practices and histories in artworks by contemporary artists.

Curated by Inti Guerrero and Chantal Wong, and co-presented with Sunpride Foundation, Myth Makers includes over 100 artworks in all Tai Kwun Contemporary galleries, with one third of the works loaned from Sunpride’s collection. As such, Myth Makers is the first major institutional survey exhibition on LGBTQ+ perspectives in Hong Kong, and expands on the Spectrosynthesis series, which previously showed in Taipei, Bangkok, and now Hong Kong. The exhibition also includes a special publication collaboration with Queer Reads Library. (24 December 2022–10 April 2023; free admission; JC Contemporary and 1/F F Hall)

DigiRadiance

DigiRadiance is a brand-new digital programme that transforms the F Hall Studio into an immersive project space.

The first programme takes the original radial plan of Victoria Gaol as a point of departure revisiting Tai Kwun’s prison history and its significance in the early formation of Law and Order in Hong Kong. Victoria Gaol is the first prison in Hong Kong and forms a significant part of the heritage compound. By exploring the architectural materiality and spatial configuration, it exposes the experience of imprisonment and its extended implication in societal discourse such as discipline, punishment, and reform. (16 February–16 March 2023; free admission; F Hall Studio)

InnerGlow 2023

Following the enormous public success of the first InnerGlow in September, this engrossing project takes on a deeper dimension in January 2023 as some of Hong Kong’s brightest and most original talent joins hands with our Creative and Technical Partner, The Electric Canvas, to devise and create an entirely new program for January 2023.

While the first InnerGlow told an imagined history of the Barrack Block, InnerGlow 2023 will take audiences into an entirely different world in which the pure architecture of Tai Kwun becomes the main player in a series of abstract themes which play with and animate the building itself to such an extent that all of those imposing classical architectural elements are transformed, morphed and choreographed right before our (disbelieving) eyes. The show will make references to familiar Hong Kong images and moods, ranging from fireworks and traditional festivities to the unique handwriting of Hong Kong neon, and at times will defy the very the foundational logic of our building’s geometry. (26 January–12 February 2023; nightly from 6:30pm; Parade Ground)

Principal Sponsor: CLP Holdings Limited

On-going Programme

Gender & Space

Gender equality is a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world. How far have we come in the quest for gender equality in our city? Can the past illuminate the present and provide insight into a better future? The new heritage exhibition Gender & Space adopts a gender lens to revisit the history of our heritage site over its first hundred years from 1841 to 1941. It seeks to redress the underrepresentation of women in the gendered spaces of the Central Police Station compound by sharing the stories and experiences of those often overlooked to fill a gap in its history. The exhibition further explores women’s experience in both the private and public spheres. Visitors are confronted with questions and structural issues surrounding gender inequality in the wider society of old Hong Kong.

In the exhibition space, there is a symbolic, mirror-clad platform, which visitors are invited to ascend and complete the exhibition experience by reflecting on their gender roles and identities. Named “Gender Salon,” this space for community engagement comprises a roster of over 10 dialogues that touch on diverse subjects and visualises the relationship between gender and space in the contemporary cultural context. Together with the exhibition, this inclusive space invites reflection on how every individual has the power to bring positive change and help build an equal and inclusive society. (5 November 2022–15 January 2023; free admission; Block 01 Duplex Studio)

Visitor information

The entire site of Tai Kwun is open to the public daily from 8am to 11pm.

Tai Kwun’s social distancing measures comply with the latest safety regulations. All visitors will be required to use the "LeaveHomeSafe" App upon entering Tai Kwun and must either provide a COVID-19 vaccination record or the relevant exemption certificate for inspection upon request in accordance with the Vaccine Pass direction. Some exhibition and event spaces in Tai Kwun may be subject to active checking of Vaccine Pass. Visit the Tai Kwun website for more details: https://www.taikwun.hk/en/visit/visiting_tai_kwun.

Programme details are subject to change, so please refer to the Tai Kwun website for news and updates.

— End —

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