Introduction of the New Vision Arts Festival 2018 (Hong Kong)

Presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the New Vision Arts Festival serves as a platform for artistic creation and cultural exchange showcasing a wide array of innovative and outstanding cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary performances with Asian and global vision. It is also a window to pioneering and cutting-edge performing arts programmes that promise to widen audiences’ cultural and artistic vision, as well as consolidating Hong Kong’s position as “Asia’s World City of the Arts”.  The 9th New Vision Arts Festival will run from 19 Oct to 18 Nov.

It has always been one of the goals of this biennial festival to challenge the conventional and broaden concepts of “art”.  This year is no exception, with the opening programme Tree of Codes from three exceptional artistic talents, choreographer Wayne McGregor, visual artist Olafur Eliasson and electronic music wizard Jamie xx, advancing cross-boundary creativity by combining literature, sculpture, architecture, and space design with performing arts.

Tree of Codes (Photo credit: Joel Chester Fildes)

Other shows are equally transformational in their merging of different disciplines and forms. The world’s first underwater ensemble presents AquaSonic, a novel integration of the arts and science that generates an unheard-of aesthetic encounter. In a departure from its usual classical ballet format, Swan Lake/Loch na hEala delivers a searing dance theatre performance, giving a voice to people on the margins of contemporary society. Likewise, Pulitzer Prize winner Angel’s Bone, a powerful combination of opera, electronic rock and cabaret, spotlights the dark problem of human trafficking. Meanwhile, two sought-after Asian dancers launch a dialogue on tradition and modernity in the cross-genre Negotiation.

In a further re-examination of human nature that is steeped in the legacy of Jerzy Grotowski, one of the 20th century’s most important theatre practitioners, Thomas Richards breaks the usual venue boundaries between performer and audience in The Living Room and The Underground: A Response to Dostoevsky.

The Living Room (Photo credit: Ilaria Costanzo)

The Underground: A Response to Dostoevsky (Photo credit: Filippo Manzini)

Incidentally, Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion boldly retells Buddha’s stories in a Dunhuang epic to celebrate universal human values such as equality and sacrifice.

Buddha Passion (Photo credit: Wu Jian, Dunhuang Academy)

In 2014, drawing inspiration from micro-festivals around the world, ArtSnap was introduced to run beside New Vision. The impact of ArtSnap as a platform for nurturing local talent and their sustainable development is already apparent. The 2018 New Vision programme Guan Yu’s Ride of 1,000 Miles, an experimental multimedia “lion dance theatre” production by choreographer Daniel Yeung, is an enhanced version of the 2016 ArtSnap programme The Lion Rocks!

Guan Yu’s Ride of 1,000 Miles

By stimulating artists and audiences to explore trailblazing frontiers, New Vision Arts Festival and ArtSnap are widening and deepening the reach of the arts in Hong Kong and the reach of our creative talents within the city and beyond. Moreover, this year ArtSnap is moving forward to become a unique “festival within a festival”. While most shows in the past came from overseas, nine out of 12 productions in the current line-up are newly commissioned works by Hong Kong artists, and two of them feature local and overseas artists paired up by New Vision.

Another new initiative is the launch of the Views from Two Cities: Shanghai-Hong Kong Arts Criticism Exchange Programme, jointly held with the China Shanghai International Arts Festival. Students and young arts critics from Hong Kong and Shanghai will have the opportunity to attend both festivals and share their insights.

We look forward to seeing you at our programmes and together exploring, with open hearts and minds, the innovative perspectives on life that New Vision presents.

Click here for the trailer to the full list of programmes.
To find out more about the New Vision Arts Festival, click here.
Visit Hong Kong Cultural Centre’s website here.