This
year’s
eclectic
offerings,
a
mix
of
returning
guests
and
artists
new
to
Tai
Kwun,
opens
with
Fragile!
Human
Inside,
a
synthesis
of
sound,
moving
images,
installation
and
performance
art
by
multimedia
artist
GayBird
contrasting
the
historic
durability
of
an
architectural
exterior
with
the
resilient
potential
of
its
human
inhabitants.
An
unlikely
pairing
of
rap
and
contemporary
dance
sparks
a
pioneering
performance
style
in
ARIKA,
where
the
physical
vocabulary
of
dancer
SHIMAJI
Yasutake
confronts
and
converses
with
the
improvisatory
verbal
contortions
of
rapper
TAMAKI
ROY
in
their
first
Asian
appearance
outside
Japan.
Three
young
choreographers
from
Hong
Kong
and
Guangzhou
(Keung
Hoi-ling,
Paula
Wong
and
Fu
Binjing)
showcase
their
innermost
thoughts
through
their
distinctive
grasp
of
personal
and
public
space
in
the
triple-bill
Infinite
Extension,
while
the
artists
of
Vividly
explore
the
centuries-old
connection
and
intertwined
destinies
of
Hong
Kong
and
Macau
in
Fugue
of
Two
Shores,
the
final
instalment
of
an
immersive
theatrical
trilogy
that
first
took
root
at
Tai
Kwun
in
2021.
“Since our opening in 2018, Tai Kwun has not merely championed artists in interesting projects, but continues to nurture those artistic talents over time,” says Timothy Calnin, Director of Tai Kwun Arts. “Vividly’s immersive Fugue of Two Shores brings to a close a collaboration we started back in 2021, when the company first explored Tai Kwun’s unique history and environment through the geological layers of granite underlying Victoria Prison. Their final chapter’s shift from rock to water, befitting the journey of Hong Kong and Macau from two fishing ports to thriving modern cites, is a testament to how working with the same artists over time can yield entirely different perspectives.”
Linda Yip, Head of Performing Arts, adds, “Apart from our wide range of venues and performance spaces—from the outdoor Laundry Steps to the supremely flexible JC Cube, which gives a veteran artist like GayBird a unique canvas to incorporate elements of virtual games in a live spatial design—Tai Kwun offers an artistic platform arguably more valuable than the physical spaces themselves. This is a zone where conventional barriers of generation, geography and genre no longer apply, where local artists like the young choreographers of Infinite Extension or overseas artists like SHIMAJI Yasutake and TAMAKI ROY of ARIKA can join together to break borders and create cross-disciplinary synergy.”
Spanning six weeks, SPOTLIGHT: A Season of Performing Arts invites lovers of music, dance, theatre and visual art from across Hong Kong and beyond to sample the diverse range of local talents and international artists gathered here to find creative inspiration and sustenance in Tai Kwun’s incomparable heritage spaces.
[Installation x Moving Images x Sound] Fragile! Human Inside | 04-06,08–10.04.2025
Packed within dozens of cardboard boxes forming an installation on the Laundry Steps (visually echoing the bricks of Tai Kwun’s historic structures) are the materials of a full multisensory experience, with soundscape and video projections curated by award-winning media artist GayBird. The cartons of Fragile! Human Inside represent not just the stability of bricks but also the fluidity of building blocks reassembling the human form. Within the JC Cube, physical boundaries between performer and audience as well as the tangible and virtual world blur into a dreamlike experience where sight and sound combine in an expansive exploration of fragility and stability.
Multisensory Experience
Artistic
and
Music
Director,
Installation
and
Programme
Design,
Live
Performance:
GayBird
Date
&
Time:
4–6,
8–10
Apr
2025,
7:30PM–8:40PM
Venue:
JC
Cube
&
Laundry
Steps,
Tai
Kwun
Ticket:
HK$280
In
Cantonese
with
Chinese
and
English
surtitles
There
will
be
post-performance
talks
and
Unboxing
Backstage
sessions,
details
to
be
announced,
please
stay
tuned
to
the
Tai
Kwun
website.
[Contemporary Dance x Rap] ARIKA | 04–05.04.2025
The vocabulary of dance meets the motion of rhyme in this breathtaking display of multidisciplinary improvisation. Subtitled “A Pursuit of Dance, Music and Words,” ARIKA (“Whereabouts”) features SHIMAJI Yasutake, a veteran dancer of the renowned Forsythe Company trained in ballet, hip-hop dance and martial arts, joining forces with rapper TAMAKI ROY, an award-winning master of spinning atmosphere through rapped and sung texts, in a collaboration shaking those respective genres to their core, where fluid dancing unfolds with musical grace and hip-hop rhymes propel with palpable physical force. Making their Hong Kong debut after appearances in Japan and France, SHIMAJI and TAMAKI ponder the nature of their respective fields to their very roots. If all music is simply a song and dance, which comes first?
Contemporary Dance x Rap
Direction,
Choreography
and
Performance:
SHIMAJI
Yasutake
Direction,
Composition
and
Performance:
TAMAKI
ROY
Date
&
Time:
4–5
Apr
2025,
6PM–7PM
Venue:
F
Hall
Studio,
Tai
Kwun
Ticket:
HK$280
In
Japanese
without
surtitles
[Contemporary Dance x Exploration] Infinite Extension | 11–13.04.2025
Tai Kwun’s F Hall Studio will be draped in a triptych of distinct kinetic visions of body-space interaction Infinite Extension. Keung Hoi-ling’s I Saw a Ping-Pong. I Crushed It. It Was an Egg. redefines the relationship between individuals and their surroundings, traversing between analysis and the stream of consciousness connecting thoughts throughout the body. Paula Wong’s Come closer, go deeper! explores the female experience through physical posture, inviting the audience to feel the resulting pain, pleasure, tension and ease as bodily shifts draw public attention. The imaginative realm of Fu Binjing’s Neverland questions traditional notions of “beauty,” “standardisation” and “meaning” by using artificial materials and waste to connect the body with the external world.
Experiential Contemporary Dance Theatre
Choreography and Performance: Keung Hoi-ling, Paula Wong, Fu Binjing
Date
&
Time:
11
Apr
2025,
7:30PM–9PM
12–13
Apr
2025,
2:30PM–4PM
Venue:
F
Hall
Studio,
Tai
Kwun
Ticket:
HK$280
In
Cantonese
with
no
surtitles
Post-performance Talk
Date
&
Time:
11
Apr
2025,
9PM-9:30PM
12-13
Apr
2025,
4PM–4:30PM
Venue:
F
Hall
Studio,
Tai
Kwun
[History x Environmental Theatre] Fugue of Two Shores | 25.04–17.05.2025
The collaborative arts group Vividly conclude their trilogy of immersive theatrical surveys of Hong Kong, which began with The Inner Études (2021) exploring the rocks near Victoria Prison and continued with The Sublime Progressions (2023) investigating themes of migration and diaspora, focusing their final chapter on the longtime relationship between Hong Kong and Macau. Fugue of Two Shores begins by contrasting their histories and comparing their intertwined destinies from sleepy port cities to vibrant urban centres. Interpreting historical texts through multidimensional realms of lighting, soundscape, projection and live performance, Fugue of Two Shores highlights Macau’s influence on Hong Kong and the contrasts in local people carving their own contemporary identity after having been long defined by others.
History x Environmental Theatre
Curated
and
Produced
by:
Vividly
Concept,
Co-Director
and
Multimedia
Director:
Jay
Lei
Concept,
Research,
Co-Director
and
Playwright:
Jay
Lee
Dramaturg:
Kok
Heng
Leun
Performers:
Chan
Wing-shuen,
Chan
Tze
Sum
Cecilia,
HuiJim,
Hanks
Li
Voice
Narrator
and
Acting
Coach:
Sam
Choy
Date
&
Time:
25–26
&
28
Apr;
1–3,
5,
8–10
&
15–17
May
2025,
8PM–9:30PM
27
Apr;
4
&
11
May
2025,
7PM–8:30PM
Venue:
F
Hall
Studio
&
Prison
Yard,
Tai
Kwun
Ticket:
HK$280
In
Cantonese
with
no
surtitles
Artist
Talk
Date
&
Time:
1
May
2025,
6PM–7PM
Venue:
Laundry
Steps,
Tai
Kwun
Ticket:
Free
admission
Ticketing
Tickets
available
at
art-mate.net
now.
SPOTLIGHT:
A
Season
of
Performing
Arts
2025
4
Apr–17
May
2025
Site-wide,
Tai
Kwun
www.taikwun.hk
For more programme details: https://www.taikwun.hk/zh/programme/detail/spotlight-a-season-of-performing-arts-2025/1569
Hashtag: #TaiKwunSPOTLIGHT2025
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