Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Art

This public art commission by Alicja Kwade is the Polish artist’s first site-specific installation in Hong Kong, and is available for viewing at Tai Kwun until 2026. Historically and socially contextualised objects make references to Tai Kwun history while exploring the passage of time and the present. Six glass structures stand in conjunction with eight bronze cast Monobloc chairs that are each positioned dynamically with a boulder. Drawing on the history of Tai Kwun’s Prison Yard as a place of waiting and confinement, Kwade’s art reflects on the burdens that we carry, and the idea of waiting as a form of punishment in contemporary times, with glass structures representing invisible barriers in our lives.  ‘Waiting Pavilions’ is a precursor to the artist's upcoming inaugural solo exhibition ‘Alicja Kwade: Pretopia’, which will open in Tai Kwun’s JC Contemporary on January 10, 2025.

In celebration of the 140th anniversary of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the major heritage thematic exhibition in Tai Kwun this year is based on Happy Valley. Tracing how this neighbourhood has evolved over the years, it looks at the interactions between the people and the environment that have ultimately shaped the Happy Valley of today.  From a swampy area called Wong Nai Chung Village that was almost chosen to become Victoria City, the de facto capital of colonial-era Hong Kong, to its unique standing now as the heart of horse racing in the city, Happy Valley is shown through the lens of land use, urbanisation, recreation, community building, and more. The neighbourhood is also special in that it has the solid presence of diverse communities and peoples, as evidenced by the places of worship and cemeteries dedicated to different cultures and religions that can be found here. See film footage, historic photos, archival maps, and more bringing Happy Valley’s history to life, and have a poke at the interactive screen which highlights the area’s built and natural environment, intangible components, cultural diversity markers, and more by casting projections onto a large topographic model at the centre of the exhibition.