Tai Kwun’s New Art Festival Opens ‘A Portal Into an Alternate Reality’ in Hong Kong
Digital dance parties, live performances, and all‑day openings will unfold during the last week of March in Central Hong Kong. Save to My Ocula
Hong Kong art space Tai Kwun will host its first-ever art week from 24 to 30 March as part of an initiative to invite ‘emerging and multidisciplinary arts programming’ to the city.
Spread across Central Hong Kong, the seven-day art festival, which overlaps with Art Basel Hong Kong (28–30 March 2025), promises to open ‘a portal to an alternate reality that blurs boundaries between technology, culture, and the psyche’, the organisation said.
A much-anticipated highlight is Artists’ Night on 28 March, which will be presented by Tai Kwun and supported by Art Basel Hong Kong. Jill Angel Chun and Shuman Wang will curate the evening under the theme ‘Traveling Temporal Odyssey’, which zones in on ‘the revolutionary power of artificial intelligence, the body, and ritual’.
The lineup includes Sissi Kaplan’s hour-long music and spoken word performance (77 Days: I am still here) at JC Contemporary and Lawrence Lek‘s live performance and film screening of NOX in the open-air Laundry Steps. In F Hall Studio, the Amsterdam-based, women-led creative studio affect lab will blast music for attendees to dance alongside their digital avatars.
Tai Kwun arts director Timothy Calnin said the organisation was proud to collaborate with Art Basel Hong Kong for Artists’ Night.
‘Creative partnerships like these spark innovative, boundary-pushing programmes fed by our shared inspirations and resources,’ he said.
From 25 March, Tai Kwun will extend its opening hours for its ongoing exhibitions at JC Contemporary. Three solo exhibitions are on view as part of the ‘Breakthrough’ series, highlighting works by Alicja Kwade, Hu Xiaoyuan, and Maeve Brennan.
Also not to be missed are Tai Kwun’s commercial galleries, whose programmes include Oswaldo Vigas’ solo show at Kwai Fung Hin Gallery; Dominique Fung‘s first solo presentation in Hong Kong at Massimodecarlo; and Stephen Thorpe’s paintings at Ora-Ora. —[O]
Main image: Hu Xiaoyan, Strange Chronicles of Exile (2024). Single-channel video. 22 min, 50 sec. Commissioned by Tai Kwun Contemporary. Exhibition view: Veering, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (24 January–13 April 2025). Courtesy Tai Kwun Contemporary. Photo: Kwan Sheung Chi.
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