Mak2 seeks help from a stylist and a photographer for a makeover and portrait shooting.

Series Synopsis

Foor is a stand-up comedian and amateur artist. After encountering Mak2 at a stand-up comedy competition, he begs Mak2 to introduce him to the mysterious art scene when he knew Mak2 is looking for an amateur to develop to an artist. Hong Kong’s Next Top Artist is a web series in which Mak2 invites different parties from the art sector, including artists, curators, professionals and gallerists, to turn Foor into a professional artist.

The development and creation of Hong Kong’s Next Top Artist was supported through a three-month artist residency programme initiated as part of SerendiCity – a media arts festival showcasing new perspectives on art, urban environments, people and technology.

The Programme is part of “Creative Tomorrow” exclusively sponsored by The Hong Kong Jockey Club.

For more SerendiCity programmes, please visit: www.westkowloon.hk/serendicity

Mak2 invites amateur artist Foor to participate in the reality show "Hong Kong’s Next Top Artist", and visits Foor’s apartment to learn more about him.

Series Synopsis

Foor is a stand-up comedian and amateur artist. After encountering Mak2 at a stand-up comedy competition, he begs Mak2 to introduce him to the mysterious art scene when he knew Mak2 is looking for an amateur to develop to an artist. Hong Kong’s Next Top Artist is a web series in which Mak2 invites different parties from the art sector, including artists, curators, professionals and gallerists, to turn Foor into a professional artist.

The development and creation of Hong Kong’s Next Top Artist was supported through a three-month artist residency programme initiated as part of SerendiCity – a media arts festival showcasing new perspectives on art, urban environments, people and technology.

The Programme is part of “Creative Tomorrow” exclusively sponsored by The Hong Kong Jockey Club.

For more SerendiCity programmes, please visit: www.westkowloon.hk/serendicity

What is jazz to you? In the winter of 2021, four secondary schools participated in West Kowloon’s four-month educational programme “Jazz Inside Out” with the aim of appreciating the diversity of jazz beyond conventional music learning. Led by rising musicians Bowen Li and Daniel Chu, students explored basic jazz concepts and techniques through music appreciation classes and performance critique. With hands-on improvisation, students experienced the unique flexibility of the genre.

In this video, participating students and mentors share their experience of learning and co-creating unforgettable performances.

 

Participating Schools:
Pope Paul VI College
Salesian English School
NLSI Lui Kwok Pat Fong College
SKH Li Fook Hing Secondary School

What would happen when traditional Chinese instruments are put into an improvisation context? In October 2021, five traditional Chinese instrumentalists gathered for a 45-minute “Experimental Lab” session of improvisation at The Room of Freespace. Playing instruments such as xiao, huqin and pipa, musicians connected in ways we never envisioned before.

This video includes concert highlights and sharing by participating musicians on how this impromptu encounter differs from their training and past performances, and their views on Chinese and Western arts.

Participating Musicians:
Kaisan (Xiao)
Chau Chin-tung (Percussion)
Tung Tsz-ching (Huqin and Sataer)
Mavis Lam (Pipa)
Bao Kwan-ying (Zheng)

Choreographer and Composer Lab 2022: Works-in-development Showcase curated by Freespace was successfully held in August. This year, the more diverse elements in cross-disciplinary experimental work further expand the creative boundaries. Combining street dance, rap, experimental music, light and shadow, soundscapes, and space design, the two showcases lead audiences to visualise the delicate relationship between music and dance. Participating artists also shared their valuable experiences from the creative process in the post-performance sharing.

Participating choreographers:
SuenNam
Tsang Wing-fai

Participating composers:
Step Ip
Bowen Li

Guest artists:
Gold Mountain
Travis Leung
Jason Wong

Learn more: https://wk.org.hk/3ICwag1

The Programme is part of “Creative Tomorrow” exclusively sponsored by The Hong Kong Jockey Club.

In the Cloud – The Creative Process offers insight into the collaborative development of dance artist Chan Wai-lok’s experimental dance experience In the Cloud, presented as part of West Kowloon’s Phygital D dance programme in 2022.

Through clips from online sharings, 16 artists and scholars from a range of fields share memories and thoughts on dance, art and imagination as part of the creative process for the final work. In response to social distancing rules in place at the time, the 1-on-1 encounters took place online, with each collaborator invited to speak with Chan Wai-lok from his private studio.

Chan’s In the Cloud project was devised to encourage engagement and communication during pandemic-enforced restrictions and isolation.

In the Cloud Concept and choreography: Chan Wai-lok
Participating artists and scholars:
Chan Wai-lap, Kerry Cheung, Dong Yan, Jonathan Hung, Lawrence Lau, Joanna Lee, Carman Li Ka-man, Sudhee Liao, Frieda Luk, Alice Ma, Ngai Wing-lam, Larry Shuen, SuenNam, Dick Wong, Paula Wong, Yau Kwok-keung

A high-energy audiovisual experience with real-time motion capture, live performance and virtual avatars in Hong Kong and Sydney

7-9.10.2022

Shanghai-based new media artist Lu Yang premieres the live motion capture performance DOKU, The Binary World as a real-time collaboration between dancers in Hong Kong and Sydney. Interacting in a shared virtual environment, the dancers and avatars at Freespace and the Sydney Opera House shuttle simultaneously through multiple binary realms.

The high-energy audiovisual experience draws on Buddhist philosophy, club culture, video games and the aesthetics of anime. Embodying the avatar forms of Lu Yang’s genderless digital reincarnation Doku – Dokusho Dokushi, “We are born alone, we die alone” – the dancers present binary combinations of deities from the six realms of Buddhist reincarnation: Heaven and Hell, Human and Animal, Hungry Ghosts and Asura (Jealous gods). The performance includes music by liiii and virtual visual effects manipulated live by an Xbox controller.

Lu Yang’s work has been presented around the world, and is featured in The Milk of Dreams show at this year’s Venice Biennale.

The performance is accompanied by two events offering insight into the creative process:
Phygital D: Demonstration workshop – The creative possibilities of motion capture on 8 October 2002, a sharing with digital production studio MetaObjects about the technology used in the performance 
Panel Discussion: Beyond Binaries: Digital Performance In a Post-COVID Era on 28 September 2022 

An immersive virtual reality installation experience that transcends life and death

17.9 – 1.10.2022

Combining installation, film and virtual reality, Hong Kong film director Tsang Tsui-shan’s Chroma 11 documents a magical tale of artistic collaboration and an otherworldly lovers’ reunion after heart-wrenching loss.

The immersive, interactive experience guides the audience through the intimate creative world of the partnership between dance duo Ix Wong Thien-pau (Malaysia) and Aaron Khek Ah-hock (Singapore). Blurring the boundaries between reality and memory, and using archival material and virtual technology to bridge the divide that separates souls when a loved one departs too soon, Chroma 11 is a poignant reflection on the enduring nature of human connections.

The event is an extension of the true story of Ix and Hock told in Tsang Tsui-shan’s award-winning dance short film Ward 11 (2019) that documents the duo’s life and work before and during the final stages of Hock’s life. The dance in the film is choreographed by Ix Wong Thien-pau.

The VR film of this programme premieres at the Venice Immersive extended reality section at the 79th Venice International Film Festival. It is the first Hong Kong project selected for this section.

Artistic Team:
Director: Tsang Tsui-shan
VR Film Choreographer: Ix Wong Thien-pau
Performers: Ix Wong Thien-pau, Aaron Khek Ah-hock

The complete version of the long-awaited new production, presented in an exciting format that combines live performance and a virtual stage

16-18.9.2022

Japanese avant-garde artist Hiroaki Umeda presents the full-length production of indivisible substance. Following two online showings as a work-in-progress, the final iteration of the performance – three years in the making – is finally coming to Freespace as a live in-person experience.

A career-defining experimental work by Umeda, indivisible substance is designed to transcend formats. It can be viewed as a stage performance, an online programme or even a VR experience, and through this versatility it challenges the modality and nature of dance. For the viewers, watching a performance in a theatre and on a computer screen are two completely distinct experiences. By continuously identifying and distilling these differences, Umeda seeks to explore the various channels and platforms of communication between him and his audience.

Based on this thought, Umeda combines digital technology, capturing real-time 3D data of the dancer by Kinect camera, as well as various micro and macro data from point cloud data in the making of indivisible substance, with the goal of weaving the entire space into the choreography. In the digital space, the boundaries between abstract, digitised components disappear – the conventional notions of shape, distance and authenticity no longer apply here, and only ‘movement’ is left to create a sense of space. This space of movement exists neither in a theatre nor on a screen, but in the minds of the audience.

Artistic Team:
Direction, Choreography: Hiroaki Umeda
Performers: Candy Hung Lai-kwan, Lo King-san, Carmen Yu Hau-yi

An individual, imaginary dance experience shaped by soundscapes, modulated text and visuals, and the sound of the human voice

10.9-9.10.2022

Created collaboratively by Hong Kong dance artist Chan Wai-lok and a team of artists from different fields, In the Cloud is a digital choreographic work shaped by soundscapes, modulated text and visuals, and the sound of the human voice.

Entering the multi-segmented “performance space” alone, participants embark on an individual journey through immersive soundscapes and digital dance scores. Reading aloud a series of animated onscreen texts, they create their own imaginary art experience enhanced by audio effects and the sound of their own voice. The thought-provoking work encourages participants to reflect on the nature of dance and performance, and the relationship between online and real-life experiences.

Artistic Team:
Concept and Choreography: Chan Wai-lok
Collaborating Artists: Dick Wong, Kerry Cheung, Larry Shuen, Carman Li