Venice Biennale Hong Kong exhibition draws 2 cities closer through art
Led by HKMoA, artists Kingsley Ng and Angel Hui weave poetic tributes to the unspoken connections between the two major seaside ports
The Venice Biennale, the world’s oldest art biennial, has been setting global trends and spotlighting new creative talent since it was established in 1895.
The event’s 61st edition, which runs until November 22, carries an overarching theme of “In Minor Keys” – a term referring to the subtle and melancholic tones in music.
Artworks inspired by the idea of slowing down and reflecting on our surroundings are showcased in a central exhibition, as well as multiple national pavilions and collateral events spread across the Italian city.
Since 2001, Hong Kong has curated its own collateral event at the prestigious art biennial. This year’s exhibition, titled “Fermata: Hong Kong in Venice”, is jointly presented by Hong Kong’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC), and organised by the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) and HKADC. It marks HKMoA’s debut as the exhibition’s curator and features the works of Hong Kong artists Kingsley Ng and Angel Hui.
Echoing the “In Minor Keys” concept, the title of “Fermata” is based on a musical term, denoting a place on a score where the performer can hold a note or rest. It also refers to the stops of Venice’s vaporetto (water bus) system.
“Our vision is to showcase Hong Kong’s culture and artistic talent at the Venice Biennale while highlighting the nuanced connection between our home city and Venice,” Prudence Ma, HKMoA’s curator (modern and Hong Kong art), said at the event’s pre-opening.
She added: “Kingsley Ng and Angel Hui are both skilled at drawing inspiration from everyday experiences and objects, and translating them into works of art. There’s a subtlety in their styles which is in harmony with the ‘In Minor Keys’ theme.”
Located in a low-rise residential building at Campo della Tana, the “Fermata” exhibition features five installations by Ng and Hui spread across a courtyard and four indoor galleries.
The viewing journey begins in the courtyard with Sometimes, There Are Clouds in Puddles by Ng, an interdisciplinary artist and associate professor at the Academy of Visual Arts of Hong Kong Baptist University’s School of Creative Arts.
It features five pools of water, each connected with rotating ribbons made of dichroic, a material that appears to change colour depending on the viewing angle and light exposure. Under the midday sun, neon-hued light beads dance between the pools and the courtyard walls, evoking a scene of drizzling rain amid the reflections of clouds in the water.
The installation was inspired by a poem titled Midday, Quarry Bay, by the late Hong Kong poet Leung Ping-kwan, better known as Yasi. “His writing aptly captures nuanced moments of Hong Kong’s everyday scenery,” Ng said. “That’s my intention for this installation as well – to allow viewers to pause and reflect on quotidian experiences and sights.”
The ambience shifts inside the dimly lit building, where the first room houses Ng’s second piece, Sky Well – his artistic comparison of the gaps appearing between Hong Kong’s high-rise buildings as you look to the sky and the Venetian wells that link with lagoons underground.
Venturing further into the gallery space reveals Hui’s kinetic installation, Drifting Sanctuary, which showcases her talent in highlighting traditional Chinese culture and contemporary art through everyday objects. It comprises a series of suspended plastic bags featuring goldfish patterns stitched in Suzhou embroidery. Each bag envelops a light bulb, conveying the beauty and value of fragile, disposable materials.
As the bags move up and down, the flickering light bulbs cast shadows on the walls, creating an illusion of the fish swimming around the room towards Hui’s other piece, I Would Like to Open a Window for You. That installation features a rotating wrought-iron window frame created by Hui and several Hong Kong metalsmiths. One side features an ornamental motif commonly found in Venice, while the other has the design of a flower in a vase – replicating a window frame in an old building in Kowloon’s Prince Edward neighbourhood.
“These installations are designed to be in dialogue with each other, connected through the space they share and the interplay of light and shadow,” Hui said. “They also represent a conversation between Hong Kong and Venice, as well as between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary art.
“More importantly, I want them to encourage viewers to appreciate the beautiful objects around them.”
The journey culminates with Ng’s Laundry Nocturne installation. Visitors are encouraged to relax while a video projection showing silhouettes of laundry airing outside a window – a familiar sight in both Hong Kong and Venice – is cast on the walls.
The calming scenery is accompanied by a radio playing a medley of nighttime sounds recorded by the artist around Hong Kong: the ticking sounds of pedestrian crossings, the rush of pages rolling off the press in a newspaper printing facility, and the early morning bustle of a dim sum restaurant.
“The piece is a 10-minute journey from moonrise to moonset,” Ng said. “The soundtrack of this final piece serves to highlight the intricate details that keep our city moving while we are asleep.”
For the HKMoA team, designing a cohesive viewing experience while balancing creative inputs from different parties was the main challenge.
“The objective was to ensure that Kingsley’s and Angel’s installations can complement each other,” Ma said. “It was important to create a seamless flow and a synergy between the artists’ strengths.”
At the exhibition’s opening ceremony on May 8, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui commended the artists on their creative approaches in responding to the “In Minor Keys” theme.
Law also attended the opening ceremony of the China Pavilion and met with a group of Hong Kong journalists covering the Venice Biennale, to whom she reiterated the importance of the city’s role as an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange as part of the nation’s 15th five-year plan for development.
Law emphasised the need to offer young Hong Kong artists more opportunities to showcase their talent globally. “Besides established events such as the Venice Biennale, I hope they will also have the chance to present their work and Hong Kong’s multifaceted culture on newer platforms, such as those created by belt and road countries,” she said.
“We will continue to leverage our strength as an international city to contribute to the country and open more doors for cultural exchange with the world.”