Tour Workshop in Hong Kong

Following last year's workshop and festival in Hong Kong, I'll be returning with another extended workshop on making cultural tours. 

I'll be teaching between August 5-12 and then Indy Lee and Uncle Hung will continue the next weekend. We'll be working on how to generate original content, how to draw themes from locations and how to perform tours in a dynamic way.

The working area will be around the bustling streets of Sham Shui Po and if you are prepared to put in extra hours researching your tour there's no reason why you shouldn't have your very own tour of Sham Shui Po ready by the end of the workshop. If you are already busy you can certainly expect to learn some new skills and innovative ways to make and give tours.

What's more, it is not all work and no play. On the 10th I'll be giving my Hyper Heritage Tour, which I made last year. This is a chance for the participants to see how all the theory works in practice, and to learn a bit about Hong Kong cinema at the same time.

I'll be leading the sessions in English and there will be Cantonese translation available, if required. Meet you in Hong Kong!

The Veiled City and Hyper Heritage: new work in Hong Kong

I'm delighted to announce that I'll be giving some workshops and co-creating a performance next month in Hong Kong. 

The workshop, called The Veiled City, will take place on the 19th and 20th April and it is organised by CCCD. It will be a practical workshop on how to interact with the city to discover its hidden performative potential. It is called The Veiled City because I believe most of the city's potential escapes up most of the time. While it is not literally put under wraps like a Christo artwork, it is dormant most of the time and requires specific actions performed by the right people for it to be activated. We cannot completely change our identity but we can transform it and we can change our purpose very greatly. We'll find some ways to look more closely and interact with people and places in order to see a little more.

Hyper Heritage (Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre, Sunday 23rd April) is a performance I'm making with postgraduate students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong for the festival Saving The Past For The Future. We are looking at the surrounding neighbourhood and its representation within Hong Kong cinema. This is heritage in the sense that it is a collection of stories drawn from and projected onto the neighbourhood, the city and its people. These stories, told over the last century about intrigues stretching back into ancient times and events in a not yet seen future, are fictions that have not just reflected different realities but have also helped shape our sense of it. What are the sources of today's myths? How much is today's Shek Kip Mei a fiction with reality intruding into it? What would the film of films of the area look like? Join us for a Hyper Heritage tour and see.

Details of Beijing Workshop

IFP WORKSHOPS: BILL AITCHISON

SITE-SENSITIVE PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SPACE 

A two-day workshop led by Bill Aitchison, May 17-18 

The workshop will focus on two things: performing in the city space and making paths that lead people through the city. The participants will spend two days understanding and experiencing central Beijing from unfamiliar perspectives and then sharing these discoveries with one another. The participants will be encouraged to explore subtle styles of performing and they will create their own material. This will involve a mixture of practical exercises in the city space led by Bill Aitchison, theoretical discussions and the opportunity for the participants to create a short walk of their own. 

The workshop is suitable for people who have an interest in the city and how it functions and in how art and performance can be integrated into living city spaces. 

Bill Aitchison is an inter-disciplinary performance artist who has presented his work in galleries, theatres and festivals in Europe, Asia, America and The Middle East. He holds a practice-based PhD from Goldsmiths College is published in several languages, has worked in radio and is associate research fellow at Birkbeck College, University of London. 

IFP is now accepting registrations for participants, if you want to join please write to workshop@iprovoke.org 

Participation fee: 150 RMB for two days. 

The workshop be given in English with Chinese translation.

Workshop on Tours and Site-sensitive Performance: IFP Beijing May 17-18th

The first of what will be a number of workshops this Summer has now been confirmed. It will be hosted by the Institute For Provocation in Beijing and will take place on May 17th and 18th at their workspace in Heizhima Hutong. The workshop will be given in English with Chinese translation and will combine practical and theoretical approaches with some work in the city space. Bookings will be able to be taken shortly.