A quick digest of the coolest weekend happenings in Hong Kong.
Friday, May 31
This weekend’s the last chance to catch the National Theatre of Great Britain’s Tony Award-winning production War Horse in Hong Kong. Based on the 1982 novel by British author Michael Morpurgo, the play follows the experiences of Joey, a horse that’s sold to the British army to fight in World War I and is shipped from England to France. Meanwhile, Joey’s owner, Albert, who is too young to enlist, embarks on a treacherous mission to bring him home. Key to the success of the play is the use of life-sized puppets by the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa — who made the 23 puppets that appear in the show — Tony Sedgewick’s “horse choreography,” and the three puppeteers who convincingly bring Joey to life.
The play is two hours and 45 minutes long, with an intermission.
1pm, 2pm, 6pm and 7:45pm until Sunday, June 2 at Lyric Theatre, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Wan Chai. HK$1,245 (War Horse West End Package) HK$395 to HK$1,045 (standard) HK$1,320 to HK$3,488 (family package for two adults and two children under 18), HK$795 (wheelchair) HK$395 (restricted view).
Picturing Bauhaus: Erich Consemüller’s Photography of the World’s most famous Design School
It’s also the last chance to see this exhibition by Germany’s Klassik Stiftung Weimar, which will display photos by Bauhaus artist Erich Consemüller to celebrate 100 years of Bauhaus. The exhibition will provide insight into the world of the influential design school’s teachers, students, and output. Consemüller documented the early years of the institution in about 300 photos taken in 1926 and 1927, here on loan from a private Berlin collection.
10am to 8:30pm (Monday to Friday) 10am to 6pm (Saturday) until Friday, May 31 at Goethe-Institut Hongkong, 14/F Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2 Harbour Road, Wan Chai. Free.
This themed exhibition is the third installment of Pace Gallery’s Chewing Gum series, following Chewing Gum (2015) and Chewing Gum II (2017). The exhibit looks at the individual creative states of contemporary artists from different regional and cultural backgrounds, with a special focus on the relationships between people and objects. The exhibition will include work by Lee Ufan, Louise Nevelson, Joel Shapiro, Kiki Smith, and Song Dong, among others.
11am to 7pm until Thursday July 4 at Pace Gallery, 12/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Central. Free.
As Tai Kwun approaches its one yer anniversary, it will be displaying 101 objects related to its previous life as the Central Police Station.
11am to 7pm at Duplex Studio LG1/F & LG2/F, Block 01 & Site-wide, Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Rd, Central. Free.
Australian-Chinese comedian Ben Quinlan, a financial consultant by day and a stand-up comedian by night, will be taking center-stage at the TakeOut Comedy. Quinlan is the 2017 winner of the Hong Kong International Comedy Competition, and a lot of his sets focus on living in Hong Kong, swearing in Cantonese, and the joys of having a Chinese mom.
9pm to 10:30pm until Saturday, June 1 at, TakeOut Comedy, B/F, 34 Elgin Street, Soho, Central. HK$300.
Western District and SC Productions will be presenting a program of chamber music from Nordic artists and composers. The program includes a full performance of Olafur Arnalds’ 2011 album Living Room Songs, selected extracts from the Danish String Quartet’s 2014 release Wood Works, a unique twist on an A-ha classic, and others.
9pm to 11pm at The Hong Kong Fringe Club, 2 Lower Albert Road, Central. HK$180 (advance and Fringe members) HK$220 (on the day).
Sweden’s National Day and Midsummer Celebration
Celebrate Sweden’s National Day and Midsummer with this free, family-friendly event at PMQ. Activities include a Swedish Maypole dance, traditional Swedish food and drinks, flower crown-making, a lawn game called Kubb and more.
3pm to 9pm at Courtyard & Marketplace, G/F, 35 Aberdeen Street, Central. Free.
Hong Kong jazz trio Jazz Roaster — made up of guitarist Mark Leung, bass cellist Barry Lam, and drjummer Leung Ka Chun — will be performing a program of bebop, swing, bossa nova and ballads to kick off your weekend.
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).
Craft beer, great food, and outdoor screenings will be on offer at this beer festival. Gweilo Beer, Heroes Beer Co, Moonzen, and Young Master will be among 11 local craft breweries serving up beers on tap. Food will be provided by eight eateries including COOKIE DPT, Little Bao, Second Draft and Sausage Commitment among others. Don’t forget to bring your own utensils.
6pm to 11pm at Tong Chong Street Market, Tong Chong Street, Taikoo Place. Free.
The Hong Kong Women’s Choir and the Brass Band Company of Hong Kong will be performing a program of a capella and brass music. Proceeds of this performance will go to the Love 21 Foundation, which is dedicated to improving the health and wellbeing of those with down syndrome.
8pm at, Wesleyan House 271 Queens Road East, Wan Chai. HK$200.
Saturday, June 1
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).
Not-for-profit organization We The People will be hosting this free open-day event for people to learn about the state of citizenship in the world. There will be an exhibition featuring stories about 15 activists who died for their cause, a What The Fact?! where visitors will be quizzed on what the “fact” is happening to freedom across the world. There will be a 3pm screening of the 2017 documentary Black Code about how governments control and manipulate the Internet in order to censor and monitor their citizens, from how exiled Tibetan monks navigate China’s surveillance-apparatus, to Syrian citizens being tortured for social media posts. Food and drink will be provided at the event.
2pm to 6pm at Campfire, 8/F, Remex Centre, 41 Wong Chuk Hang Road, Wong Chuk Hang. Free.
Lecture – Old Photographs of Hong Kong and the Tales They Tell – Mr. David Bellis
David Bellis runs the popular local history website Gwulo.com, which hosts more than 34,000 pages of history about old Hong Kong, including 20,000 photos. He will be returning with a new selection of photos and stories, this time focusing on the people of Hong Kong taken in the early 20th century.
10am to 11:30am at Centre for Visual Arts, 7A Kennedy Road. HK$100 (RAS members) HK$150 (non-RAS members).
This solo exhibition by Martin Riese uses a photo collage to explore the relationship between humanity, machine technology, cities and religion. It will feature more than 20 pieces of photo collages, electronic sculptures, and videos.
9am to 7pm until Wednesday, 31 July at KC100 Art Space, No. 100, Kwai Cheong Road, Kwai Chung. Free.
The Harmony Show is a refugee-curated fashion and music show, and it’s back for a second edition having held its first edition last year. Music group Mama Told Me will be performing, they will also have performances by ethnic minority dance group Southeastwood Crew, and there will be a live painting by a refugee artist.
7pm to 10:30pm at Eaton HK, 380 Nathan Road, Jordan, Kowloon. HK$200 (standard) HK$300 (at the door).
Golden Scene Selection is a monthly event organized by the Hong Kong Arts Centre and Golden Scene Company that showcases a selection of local and international films. This weekend they’ll be celebrating the works of director Stanley Kwan, whose films typically look at the plight of women and their romantic struggles.
Six of Kwan’s films will be screened, including Full Moon In New York, about three Chinese women from different backgrounds who bond amid the social isolation they find themselves in New York; Women, about a woman who decides to divorce her unfaithful husband (played by Chow Yun-fat) and joins the “Happy Spinsters Club,” but discovers that despite the happy front these women put on, all of them still want a man (this film’s message probably hasn’t aged well); and Rouge, a film starring late icons Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung, about a courtesan and a high society gentleman who meet and fall in love in 1930s Hong Kong, but in a bid to stay together, agree to a suicide pact and try to find each other in the afterlife.
For two of the films, the director himself will be taking part in a post-screening Q&A that will be conducted in Cantonese.
2pm, 2:30pm, 4:30pm, and 7:30pm until Sunday, June 2 at Louis Koo Cinema, Hong Kong Arts Centre, 2 Harbour Road, Wan Chai. HK$75.
Gym and Swim East Asia Tour 2019: Hong Kong
Some of you may remember seeing this Thai indie and alternative pop band on the Your Mum stage at Clockenflap 2017, getting the crowd warmed up and on their feet with feel good summer hits like American High-School Sweetheart and Seagal Punch. They will be swinging by Hong Kong for their Asia tour before heading to Taipei. They’ll also be joined by three-piece group Foster Studio who will be performing their distinctive blend of indie dance, guitar and synth pop.
8pm-11pm at This Town Needs, 1/F, Commercial Accommodation, Ocean One, 6 Shung Shun Street, Yau Tong. HK$450 (walk in), HK$350 (advance).
This exhibition 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. Asia Art Archive, 11/F Hollywood Centre, 233 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan. Free.
Sunday, June 2
Neon Lit Present: Suchmos Live In Hong Kong
Japanese rock group Suchmos were a crowd favorite at last year’s Clockenflap with their blend of jazz, hip hop and funk-inspired rock music. Hits by this group include Stay Tune, Pinkvibes, and Eight O Eight. This concert has been organized by underground music venue This Town Needs.
7pm to 10pm. KITEC Music Zone @ E-Max, G/F, 1 Trademart Drive. HK$650 (advance), HK$720 (walk-in).
Tiki bar Honi Honi will be hosting this open mic variety night that will have everything from comedy to cabaret, and from dancing to drag. This event happens on the first Sunday of every month, and those who want to secure a spot at the mic need to pre-register.
7:30pm to 11pm. Honi Honi Tiki Cocktail Lounge, 3/F Somptueux Central, 52 Wellington Street, Central. Free.
Africa Center Hong Kong will be hosting this tour of Chungking Mansions, a place known for cheap hostels, curry houses, African bistros, and a large gathering point for the city’s south Asian and African communities. The tour will include an African buffet lunch to try all kinds of African dishes, and the entry fee covers food and the tour. The meeting point is East Tsim Sha Tsui station inside exit K.
11am to 2pm. Chungking Mansions, 36-44 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. HK$200.
Chen Danqing: Disguise and Paintings from Life Opening Reception
Tang Contemporary Art will present the opening reception for a 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.
6pm to 8pm until Saturday, June 29. H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Central. Free.
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.
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 and widely beloved Hollywood icons of all time, and celebrity 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. F11 Foto Museum, 11 Yuk Sau Street, Happy Valley. HK$100 (adults) HK$50 (students and seniors aged 65 and above) Free (children aged 11 and under, and disabled).
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