Sai Kung Hoi Arts Festival

EVENT DESCRIPTION

The “Sai Kung Hoi Arts Festival” is a three-year arts project organised by Tourism Commission, supported by Hong Kong Geopark and curated by One Bite Design Studio. The first year of the Arts Festival will be held from 16 November 2022 to 15 January 2023. To leverage the successful integration of arts with the island under the first edition the Yim Tin Tsai Arts Festival, the new edition of the Arts Festival will extend to the vast Sai Kung Hoi, with Yim Tin Tsai as the centre and reaching out to Sharp Island, Kau Sai Chau and High Island. Through art, the Festival will allow visitors an opportunity to appreciate the rich natural resources and the long and deep history as well as culture of the four isles in Sai Kung Hoi. Through the Arts Festival, themed as “Joy Again, Isle”, visitors would meet, connect, experience the healing power of arts and nature through visits to the isles; and enjoy the fun of art tour through island hopping.

The three-year Arts Festival also has an annual sub-theme to lead visitors progressively explore the isles. In the first year (2022), the Arts Festival will mark its start from Yim Tin Tsai and Sharp Island, exploring the sequences of sky, earth and humanity. In the second year (2023), the Arts Festival will be extended to Kau Sai Chau and High Island, and focus on storytelling of the four isles. In the final year (2024), the Arts Festival will focus on interactions and encounters, aiming to bring the joy of reunion to the visitors.

The focus of each year’s Arts Festival is on artworks creation, responding to topics such as villagers’ stories, rural-urban balance, nature conservation, cultural inheritance, religion and culture, supplemented by guided tours and programmes. The Arts Festival offers a new perspective for visitors to explore the isles, a chance to explore and reflect on one’s relationship with the nature, and an experience of the unique Hong Kong culture of the isles. The Arts Festival has also gained support from stakeholders, including The Salt and Light Preservation Centre and village representatives such that the artworks creation and programmes could better reflect the culture and stories of the isles.

“Sai Kung Hoi Arts Festival 2022” explores the Hakka culture of Yim Tin Tsai and the special landforms of Sharp Island

“Sai Kung Hoi Arts Festival 2022” will be held from 16 November 2022 to 15 January 2023 in Yim Tin Tsai, a place with Catholic and Hakka culture, and Sharp Island, a place with special landforms. Nine groups of local artists have been invited to create multidisciplinary artworks and involve villagers during the process to reflect local life stories and the natural environment. A total of nine artworks – six in Yim Tin Tsai and three in Sharp Island – will be installed at different scenic spots for visitors to look for the artworks around the isles and take selfies with them, while enjoying the island’s natural beauty.

Presenting the beauty of the century-old Hakka village of Yim Tin Tsai through contemporary art

Yim Tin Tsai is not only well-known for having the only remaining saltpans in Hong Kong, but also combines Catholic and Hakka culture as well as ecology all in one place. As a major Catholic missionary area in the early days of Hong Kong, the iconic St. Joseph’s Chapel was listed as a Grade II historic building in 2011.

The six artworks to be exhibited in Yim Tin Tsai this year also responded to the theme in various ways. Cross-disciplinary artist Margaret Chu designs an art installation in the form of a small boat combined with doves with the theme of “Homeward Voyage”. Located close to the pier, the artwork expresses God’s blessing on the villagers for their safe return to home. Public space design artist Dylan Kwok also designs his artwork with a religious meaning. His artwork not only restores the football pitch of the village, but also presents an interactive labyrinth through his art installation . Overlooking from above, the artwork represents the villagers being protected in God’s hands. From part of an oral history mentioned by a Hakka woman, environmental artist Monti Lai curates her artwork “Taste of Memory” to invite visitors to experience the memories of Hakka women’s lives. Architect Anthony Ko makes use of the natural scenery of the Jade-Girdle Bridge to create a globe from discontinuous strips of mirror in the middle of the bridge and names it “Fragile World”. He uses the refraction effect of sunlight and water to interpret the journey of three generations of villagers in building the bridge. Designers Sherman Sun and Sarah Mui join hands and create the artwork “The Salty Breeze” at the wetland next to the saltpans. Not only is it a leisurely gathering place for visitors to stay and enjoy the salty breeze together, “The Salty Breeze” celebrates the collective effort in saltpans’ history and brings out the metaphor of salt-making with the life journey. Kinetic artist Joseph Chan creates the “Water Dragon”, utilising modern aesthetics and mechanical designs, to enable the old important tool “dragon-bone water lift” to reappear in the saltpans.

A tour to the natural wonders of Sharp Island, discovering the relationship between human and nature through arts

Sharp Island is one of the geosites of Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark. One of the special features of the island is the natural tombolo that only emerges at low tide and the unique Pineapple Bun Rocks. Illustrator Maoshan Connie collaborates with ceramics studio St. James’ Creation[1] to create “A Grand Pineapple Bun Tour”. This is a series of 10 colourful ceramic art pieces placed along the Sharp Island Country Trail, linking the Pineapple Bun Rocks on Sharp Island with Hong Kong’s favourite traditional food, the pineapple bun, and incorporating the geological features, flora and fauna of the isle. Maoshan also creates a unique Sharp Island pineapple bun story map according to the landscape. Also responding to the nature and landforms, weaving artists Breakthrough Art Studio choose the tombolo to house their work “Moonrise in Daylight”, which aims to interpret the delicate relationship between humans and time through the natural landscape and flow of the tide. Artists, Stickyline, create a large-scale geometric conch metal sculpture – “Ocean Says”, which collects and amplifies the sound of the waves on site, allowing visitors to reflect on the role of humans in nature through the call of the sea.

Free guided tours on 4 major themes for an immersive isle experience

Apart from self-exploring the isles, the curatorial team also partners with Kaifong Tour, a social enterprise which focuses on community building through guided tours, to provide a total of 284 guided tours from Tuesdays to Sundays during the Festival period. The tours will cover four different themes, with three routes in Yim Tin Tsai, including the Religious and Ethnic Route, the Cultural and Sensory Route, the Nature and History Route and the Geology and Ecology Route in Sharp Island.

13 different types of free programmes for all ages

In addition to the guided tours, the Arts Festival will also feature a number of innovative and fun interactive experiences in collaboration with various parties. These programmes include music and dance performances, kayaking, salt-making and around-the-isle photography workshops, mindfulness experience, island puzzle-solving adventure experience, family treasure hunting and a series of workshops and talks hosted by the participating artists, etc. Christmas music performance and Taizé prayer will be organised during Christmas holidays so that visitors could get to know more about the unique religious and historical culture of Yim Tin Tsai through these programmes.

The free guided tours and a series of free programmes will be open for online registration from 2 November 2022. For more information about the Arts Festival and the registration arrangements, please visit the official website www.skhartsfestival.hk, and follow the Arts Festival’s social media platforms at www.facebook.com/skhartsfestival and www.instagram.com/skhartsfestival for latest updates. Joy Again, Isle!