Sean Rocha

An art opening at Experimenta in Hong Kong

If you find yourself in Hong Kong this Friday (20 May 2011) the Portuguese sound and video artist João Vasco Paiva has an exhibit opening at Experimenta that is worth a look.  The screen grab above is taken from an earlier video called Action Through Non Action that João describes on his website this way:

The performer uses two contact microphones as touch sensors in his left and right arm.  The measurement made by the performer while standing in the middle of the crowd in Mong Kok is presented as a sound recording and the interference of that recording is the video visualization…It is a work of interrupted silence in the middle of a location with extreme noise levels.

Honestly, I am not entirely sure what that last bit means.  But that in itself is a compelling reason to see the exhibit: in Hong Kong, where culture is so often just another vehicle for brand-name consumption, Experimenta is one of the very few art spaces where something unexpected and maybe even a little confusing could happen.  Maybe it will happen this Friday.

João Vasco Paiva at Experimenta (89-95 Hollywood Rd, Hong Kong) 20 May – 8 June 2011

In my opinion, Experimenta deserves a visit just for its winning directions for how to find it.  From their website:

HOW TO GET THERE:
1. From Gough St.: go to “tomato soup” da pai dong, walk up the steps with trees. It’s the 4th tree.
2. From Hollywood Road : go down steps of Mei Lun Street. Ask someone friendly.

Actually, it is not that hard to find, though it is not visible from Hollywood Road: the gallery is a narrow wedge of a space on the alley just before the (quite good) Provencal restaurant Didier.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 19th, 2011 at 7:17 pm. It is filed under Travels and tagged with art, China, East Asia, Experimenta, Hong Kong, sound, video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.