Art Central and its Lead Partner, UOB, announce today details of its extensive creative programme curated by Enoch Cheng for the Fair’s ninth edition. Taking place from 28 to 31 March, with a preview day on 27 March, Art Central 2024, a project financially supported by the Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund under the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. The Fair, will present an immersive on-site programme which encompasses a specially commissioned sculptural installation by Hong Kong artist Ho Sin Tung, its popular Yi Tai Sculpture & Installation Projects sector showcasing five international artists, screenings of recent video art by artists of diverse backgrounds, an engaging talks programme in partnership with esteemed cultural organisations, educational activations for all ages and a performance art showcase including a five-day duration performance by Japanese artist Norico Sunayama.

Art Central 2024 returns to its signature location on Hong Kong’s iconic Central Harbourfront, presenting a remastered creative programme alongside 95 galleries and reinforcing the Fair’s position as the destination for discovery during Hong Kong Art Week.

PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS

 
In addition to its innovative gallery presentations, Art Central 2024 takes a proactive role in championing a diversity of artistic forms through its parallel artistic programme, highlighting the next generation of artists in Asia as well as art and ideas from around the world presented for the first time in Hong Kong. The Fair’s curated programme is creator-focused, ambitious, immersive and, above all, accessible.

PERFORMANCE ART

 Art Central’s 2024 Performance Art programme is presented throughout the Fair, cultivating direct interactions with the audience by staging artistic experiences that come alive through active participation. Norico Sunayama’s world-renowned performance artwork, A Sultry World (1995–), makes its Hong Kong debut at Art Central 2024, presented in partnership with CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile). The unique, five-day durational event opens the Fair and features a sublime red dress that beckons visitors to delve into a liminal space that straddles the boundary between the public and the private. Further highlights include Art-is-Here-Picnic (2024), a new work by Enoch Cheng, which welcomes visitors to join local arts and cultural practitioners to a picnic where the fare of the day is a discussion on the function of art and how it impacts collective and individual lives. In Planting Tastes by Scarlet Yu (2024), performers narrate and demonstrate stories about taste and the flow of culinary influences through cultures and communities, adding ingredients as new stories are cooked up through the influence of audience participation.

MAJOR INSTALLATION BY HONG KONG ARTIST HO SIN TUNG

 Ho Sin Tung (b. 1986, Hong Kong) has been commissioned to make a large-scale artwork to be unveiled at the Fair. The installation, titled Shadow Boxing (2024), originates conceptionally in the artist’s passion for martial arts and, critically, the discipline and self-awareness required mentally and physically to master the sport. The new work champions the Fair’s commitment to Hong Kong art and artists and celebrates the ingenuity of an acclaimed mid-career artist.

YI TAI SCULPTURE & INSTALLATION PROJECTS

 Five large-scale artworks which have been selected for Art Central’s 2024 Yi Tai Sculpture & Installation Projects sector invite viewers to get up close and personal with diverse artistic media and themes. These include a mesmerising rope and ceramic knots installation examining human relationships by Kyoto-based Korean artist Sangsun Bae; Prague-based Rony Plesl's masterful cast glass sculptures, which prompt reflection on the location of sacred space in society; Italian-born, Tokyo-based Andrea Samory’s otherworldly 3D-printed sculpture that explores our collective psyche about the wild tomorrow; Egyptian-born British artist Sam Shendi’s elegant steel sculptures recently revealed at London’s Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition; and Japanese artist Wataru Yamakami’s monumental painting of apocalyptic-themed objects.

VIDEO ART

Art Central’s Video Art programme in 2024 explores new art from the field of moving images, a forward-thinking showcase of leading artists who have been invited to present recent works on the Fair’s state-of-the-art LED wall. Hailing from diverse parts of the planet, from Africa to Australia and Europe to East Asia, the artists selected are innovative thinkers who employ the dynamic and creative nature of the audio-visual medium to address individual imaginings of the future. A notable inclusion comes from South African artists Francois Knoetze, Russel Hlongwane, and Amy Louise Wilson, whose 2023 project Dzata: The Institute of Technological Consciousness aims to foreground indigenous technological knowledge and to explore how science, technology, and innovation are part of a long interlinked process of accumulative knowledge production that extends long into the past. The full video programme and runtimes will be posted.