Image courtesy of Hong Kong Ballet.

HK Ballet ✕ M+ Live Art: Beyond Carbon Online Festival Artists Inspiring Change

Hong Kong Ballet (HKB) teams up with M+, Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District, in partnership with The ADM Capital Foundation, HK2050isNOW and CWR, to present the online festival Beyond Carbon from 20 August to 4 September. With an array of exciting and inspiring programmes including free online streaming of nine experimental dance pieces, online talk and parent-child workshop, the festival aims to inspire members of our community to take steps now to confront the threats we face and ensure a better future for us all.

Set against the monumental architecture of the Herzog & de Meuron–designed M+ building, the eight short, choreographed chapters by Jessica Burrows, Luis Cabrera, Sarita Chan, Feng Jingyi, Li Lin, Lin Chang-yuan Kyle, Leung Chunlong and Jonathan Spigner, address environmental emergencies from two perspectives: Mortal Ignorance, tension between nature and humankind, and Human Traces, the material traces on earth left by human activity. Viewers will be taken on a journey of exploration, reflection, and empowerment.

The online festival also comprises a special screening of The Measures, a new piece choreographed by Stephen Shropshire. This finale resonates with the overall theme by engaging the abstract form of dance to animate the materiality of the climate crisis.

At the online talk ‘Museum, Dance and Climate Change’, Doryun Chong, Chief Curator and Deputy Director, Curatorial of M+; Septime Webre, Artistic Director of HKB; and Debra Tan, global thought leader on climate and water risks and Director and Head at CWR will unpack the background of the collaboration and discuss the responsibility cultural institutions have to bring public attention to critical issues. Parents and their children can also learn more about how climate change is impacting Hong Kong through the interactive and engaging workshop held by HKB and CWR at the Xiqu Centre in the West Kowloon Cultural District.