A quick digest of the coolest weekend happenings in Hong Kong.
Friday, June 28
It’s the final few days of the H2 Music Festival, which is featuring more than 80 local bands and music acts this year. It will be a weekend of covers and tribute bands performing classic, much loved songs, plus bands performing original songs in genres covering rock, funk, soul, punk and much more.
4pm to 12am until Monday, July 1 at The Wanch, 54 Jaffe Road, Wan Chai. Free.
Music Night Kowloon：Jazz Guitar Duo with Ron Ng and Karissa Muse
Guitarists Roy Ng and Karissa Muse will be performing jazz, primarily featuring guitar.
8pm to 9:30pm at Jao Tsung-I Academy, 800 Castle Peak Road, Lai Chi Kok. HK$140 (early bird discount) HK$180 (at the door).
Bicycle Thieves, Opening Reception
Artist Luke Ching pays tribute to Italo Calvino’s fable about a city in which every citizen is a thief, and where everybody breaks into neighbors’ homes and steals from one another — until one day, when an “honest man” arrives and throws the town’s ecology out of balance. Bicycle Thieves, curated by Hanlu Zhang, is interested in the fine line between sharing and stealing, and pays tribute to the eponymous 1948 Italian film with the same premise. The opening performance will begin at 8pm, followed by a performative lecture at 8:20pm.
7pm to 9pm at Para Site, 22/F Wing Wah industrial Building, 677 King’s Road, Quarry Bay. Free.
DJ vocalist Ela Alegre and saxophonist Lena Cuglietta perform as musical duo VoSSa. The pair have been performing live together for eight years, and will be celebrating the launch of its first album, which comprises six originals and four covers.
10:30pm to 12:30am at Foxglove, 2/F Printing House, 6 Duddell Street and 18 Ice House Street. Free.
Last chance to catch this exhibition, which will for the first time display drawings, paintings, and notes by artist Lee Wen dating from 1978 to 2014. Lee is a Singaporean performance artist often credited with being the man who shaped the development of performance art in Asia and introducing contemporary art to Singapore. One of Lee’s most notable works is The Journey of a Yellow Man, a series of installations and performances that evolved from a critique of Orientalism into a mediation on freedom, climate change, humility, and religious practices. This exhibition is in memory of Lee, who died last month.
10am to 6pm until Saturday, June 29 at Asia Art Archive, 11/F Hollywood Centre, 233 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan. Free.
Chen Danqing: Disguise and Paintings from Life Opening Reception
It’s also your last chance to catch this solo exhibition by Chinese-American artist Chen Danqing. The Shanghai-born artist who started his trajectory as an artist creating propaganda posters depicting Mao Zedong’s feats was later inspired by the realist paintings of western artists like Jean Francois Millet — and it’s this combination of Western aesthetics and Chinese culture that makes his portraits so visually striking. This exhibition will mark Chen’s first major solo presentation in Hong Kong, and features a series of oil paintings of live models.
4pm to 8pm until Saturday, June 29 at H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Central. Free.
Saturday, June 29
Footsteps in Silence: Book Talk and Q&A
Bleak House Books will be hosting this talk with Naoko Inagaki Krell and Gene Krell about their photo book Footsteps in Silence, which contains 71 full color photos of old Hong Kong. Gene and Nao will talk about the stories behind some of the photographs featured in the book and the journey they shared together. This book was published in a limited edition of 500 individually numbered copies, and is dedicated to Anthony Bourdain.
5:30pm to 7pm at Bleak House Books, Unit 2705, 9 Pat Tat Street, Well Tech Centre, San Po Kong. Free.
LKF Chillax Beer & Music Fest 2019
Live music and beer will be plentiful at this outdoor event in Lan Kwai Fong. One of the highlights of this event is the “Lan Kwai Fong Street Party,” which will offer more than 100 craft beers, 30 street food and game booths, and live performances from 20 bands.
1pm to 12am until Sunday, June 30 at Lan Kwai Fong. Free.
Eaton HK and local LGBTQIA community groups will be hosting this screening and party to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising, and five decades of pride. The event will kick off with a short screening of clips from Stonewall and why it was a watershed moment in the modern gay liberation movement. The event will conclude with a townhall discussion on hard-hitting topics such as white-washing, rainbow capitalism, and the dangers of privilege. The event will end with a party in “full pride mode,” with music by a queer musician from London, plus a performance from the DragJam group.
Profits from this event will be used to sponsor an LGBT Egyptian asylum seeker fleeing persecution and sexual violence by relocating to safety in Canada.
4pm to 2am at Eaton HK, 380 Nathan Road, Jordan, Kowloon. HK$100 (afternoon townhall and screening only) HK$150 (9pm evening party only, includes free drink) HK$200 (combo, includes free drink).
Sunday, June 30
If you’re looking for a fun brunch place this weekend, Honi Honi Tiki Cocktail Lounge will be having a “High Tea” brunch, and because it’s also Pride month, there will be “uncensored and completely outrageous performances” hosted by Ian Christophre and Drag Race Thailand Season 2’s Mocha Diva, and surprise performances all afternoon. There will also be a “pit crew” of three topless boys.
3pm to 7pm at Honi Honi Tiki Cocktail Lounge, 3/F Somptueux Central, 52 Wellington Street, Central. Free.
Beachfront Thai bar and grill CoCoNuts will be finishing up the weekend with live performances from DJ Christian, DJ GuaSor, and DJ Roy who will be playing a selection of dance, disco, house, funk, reggae, hip hop, and pop.
4pm to 10:30pm at CoCoNuts, G/F West Block, Island Road, Deep Water Bay. Free.
Chopsticks present: Rebirth by Aruta Soup
PopArt muralist Aruta Soup is known for blending animation culture, black humor and street culture in his paintings and graffiti. He’ll be holding his debut Hong Kong exhibition this weekend, and showcasing some new paintings, which features famous cartoon characters as viewed from the artist’s “ironic point-of-view.” Aruta Soup will also hold a live painting exhibition from 3pm to 5pm on Saturday.
10am to 7pm until Wednesday, July 17 at Lucie Chang Fine Arts, 26 Tai Ping Shan Street, Sheung Wan. Free.
City Poetry By Romain Jacquet Lagrèze
As the government ramps up efforts to take down many of the city’s iconic street signs, some groups have been working to save some of these signs from the landfill — while photographers rush to document what’s left of them.
Hong Kong-based photographer Romain Jacquet-Lagrèze will be holding a solo exhibition called City Poetry, which has been described as his most personal project to date. Jacquet-Lagrèze has been taking photos of some of the city’s visually striking street signs, taking them home and having them translated by his wife. City Poetry shows a number of signs taken around Hong Kong made up of different materials that have been put together to form phrases or sentences.
11am to 6pm until Sunday, July 14 at Blue Lotus Gallery: G/F 28 Pound Lane, Sheung Wan. Free.
Takashi Murakami is a Japanese artist known for blurring the line between high and low art, and blending Japanese artistic traditions with post-war Japanese culture and society. Tai Kwun Contemporary presents this exhibition which will feature over 60 paintings and sculptures from his large-scale post-apocalyptic works to his optimistic flower pieces, and then to his contemplative Enso paintings, offering Buddhist visions of enlightenment. This exhibition will also showcase some of Murakami’s iconic and outlandish costume designs, which visitors will experience alongside other important video works, samples from his private art collection, and Murakami’s spectacular wall and floor art, which serves up a forceful yet complex visual impact.
10:30am to 7pm until Sunday, September 1 at Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Rd, Central. HK$75 (general, walk in) HK$60 (general, advance) HK$55 (concession, walk in) HK$45 (concession, advance).
The exhibition “Van Gogh Alive” has traveled to many corners of the globe, from Anchorage t0 Alaska to Singapore, and it’s now in Hong Kong. Running until July, this immersive exhibition will display more than 3,000 artworks on LED screens, floors, ceilings, and walls, set to a classical music score that will take visitors on a journey through Arles, where he painted his famous bedroom; Saint-Rémy, where he entered the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum and painted his famous Starry Night, depicting the view from his window at night; and to Auvers-sur-Oise where he painted Wheatfield With Crows and many other works until his death in 1890.
10am to 9pm (Mon-Thurs) and 10am to 10pm (Fri-Sun and public holidays) until Sunday, July 7 at 1/F, FTLife Tower, 18 Sheung Yuet Road, Kowloon Bay. Free (children under the age of 4), HK$190 (children aged 4-15, full-time students and concessions) HK$230 (aged 15 years and over) HK$550 (family tickets for two adults and one child).
Audrey Hepburn is one of the most famous Hollywood icons of all time, and Hollywood photographer Bob Willoughby made a name for himself capturing candid photos of stars. To mark the 90th anniversary of Hepburn’s birth, and the 10th anniversary of Willoughby’s death, F11 Foto Museum will be holding an exhibition presenting 90 of Willoughby’s photos of Hepburn. Each photo — one from each year since Audrey’s birth — features a number of behind the scenes shots of some of her most well-known movies, to rare candid photos of Hepburn as a mother. This exhibition has been curated by F11’s founder and director Douglas So with the help of Willoughby’s son Christopher. Guided tours will also take place on Saturday (2:30pm for English, 4:30pm for Cantonese).
2pm to 7pm until Saturday, July 27 at F11 Foto Museum, 11 Yuk Sau Street, Happy Valley. HK$100 (adults), HK$50 (students and seniors aged 65 and above), free for children aged 11 and under, and disabled persons.
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