The cultural affairs section promotes cultural exchange between Switzerland and Hong Kong/Macau. It helps connect Swiss artists in a variety of fields such as music, dance, drama or photography with useful contacts in this part of the world.
Regularly the cultural affairs section organizes or co-hosts various events and exhibitions with a Swiss interest and works closely with organisations such as the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia.
Studio Residencies
A studio residency (3 months) in China or, conversely, in Switzerland gives artists the chance to gain a broad insight into a different cultural environment. The aim of the residency is to find inspiration, establish networks and contemplate new projects and cooperations. In addition to a place to work and accommodation, Pro Helvetia will provide specific coaching. The Swiss Arts Council covers the cost of travel, insurances and per diem expenses. Applicants may benefit three times in total from a Pro Helvetia studio residency.
Selection criteria
convincing track record: personal artistic activity above and beyond regional level
Hong Kong Arts Centre in collaboration with the Consulate General of Switzerland and Swiss Films organizes a film festival about Swiss documentaries on adolescence.
Location: Louis Koo Cinema, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Wanchai, Hong Kong
A panel of experts explores the mechanisms financing the Sustainable Development Goals, how investors are monitoring and evaluating them, and how Hong Kong positions itself in this growing landscape to capture the opportunities.
Location: Asia Society Hong Kong center, 9 Justice Drive, Admiralty
Tuesday, 05.03.2019
Tuesday, 26.03.2019,
European Film Festival Hong Kong
Movie
Throughout history, they have always been refugees. They used to come from places closer to home. During second World War, the family of Swiss director Markus Imhoof, took in Giovanna, an undernourished eight-year–old Italian girl as part of a short-term program to host children. After the end of her stay, she had to go back to Italy. The Imhoof family privately arranged for Giovanna to come back to visit for a second time. In the end, the Swiss government insisted sending Giovanna back to Italy. She died of illness at the age of thirteen, soon after being forced to return. Imhoof takes this early experience of personal loss as a point of entry to the ongoing refugee crisis, the biggest mass displacement of people since World War II.
Thursday, 21.02.2019
Sunday, 24.02.2019,
Hong Kong Arts Festival
Theater
Five decades since their appearance on American TV’s The Muppet Show brought them fame, Mummenschanz are still unrivalled masters of their art. Using surreal, life-size puppets, masks, light, shadow and awe inspiring optical illusions their colourful world of transformation enthralls audiences of all ages around the world. Timeless, ingenious and stunning visual theatre that makes dreamers of us all. Theatre magic from Switzerland for the whole family.
Location: Lyric Theatre, HKAPA and Auditorium, Yuen Long Theatre
Sunday, 17.02.2019
Sunday, 17.02.2019,
Christian Frei: Tectonics of Humanity
Movie; Conference; Lecture
Hong Kong Documentary Initiative joins hands with Consulate General of Switzerland in Hong Kong to bring a full-day workshop with OSCAR nominated director Christian Frei.
Wednesday, 13.02.2019
Sunday, 17.02.2019,
Christian Frei: Tectonics of Humanity
Movie; Conference
Oscar-nominated and Sundance winning Swiss director-producer Christian Frei plays both truth and dare, and is known for his attempts at weaving documentaries about different walks of life. His topics cover lovesickness in New York, extinct mammoth hunting in Siberia, the Taliban’s destruction of the largest Buddha statue, war photographer James Nachtwey, space tourism and more. Through investigating humanity’s ways of life in the extremes, Frei uncovers profound faces and forces of human nature. Frei was president of the Documentary Film Commission for the film section of the Swiss Federal Office of Culture, and is now president of the Swiss Film Academy.
Thursday, 24.01.2019
Thursday, 24.01.2019
Lecture; Exhibition ; Movie
Panel Discussion and Film screening
The distinguished panelists will explain the Swiss political system, its mechanism of direct democracy, and talk about the progress (or lack of) on gender equality. Furthermore, they will explore the link between direct democracy and gender equality and discuss if the model of direct democracy can accelerate social justice.
Location: Goethe-Gallery & Black Box Studio, 14/F Hong Kong Arts Centre, No.2 Harbour Road
Roman Aebersold presents the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich and gives an introduction into the Votes & Voices exhibiton on display at Goethe Institute Hong Kong. Votes & Voices presents visual argumentation strategies and a pictorial rhetoric that have shaped Swiss campaign posters from 1918 to the present. As sensitive indicators of socio-political moods, and as valuable contemporary documents, the exhibits reflect not only the history of Swiss mentality but also global trends.
Location: Goethe-Gallery & Black Box Studio, 14/F Hong Kong Arts Centre, No. 2 Harbour Road
The Votes & Voices exhibition presents visual argumentation strategies and a pictorial rhetoric that have shaped Swiss campaign posters from 1918 to the present. As sensitive indicators of socio-political moods, and as valuable contemporary documents, the exhibits reflect not only the history of Swiss mentality but also global trends.
Location: Goethe-Gallery & Black Box Studio, 14/F Hong Kong Arts Centre, No.2 Harbour Road, Hong Kong
Veronica Fusaro, with a signature sound that blends sparse electronica with melancholic R&B and a rising pop star in Switzerland, is making her Hong Kong debut in December.
Location: The Afternmath, L/G, 57 - 59 Wyndham Street, Central, Hong Kong
ENSEMBLE MISE-EN is a New York-based contemporary music collective led by composer Moon Young Ha. Comprised of talented musicians, ENSEMBLE MISE-EN strives to bring a repertoire of challenging new sounds to diverse audiences, wishing to impart an experience that is simultaneously multicultural and intellectually and aesthetically pleasing.
Location: Lee Hysan Concert Hall, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Sponsored by Pro Helvetia Shanghai, three energetic and active Swiss projects will be touring seven Chinese cities in November in China. Join them if you wish to get away and enjoy freedom through music. 2m2 is the result of teamwork between China’s noise experimenter Mei Zhiyong, and the eclectic Swiss drummer Maxime Hänsenberger. An explosive collaboration is to be expected! Also joining the league are PURPURA and NuR, Andrea Nucamendi’s and Claudia Cerri’s solo projects of abstract and experimental electronic music, promising to give the audience a feast of sound.
Location: SAAL, Suite D, 3/F, 54 Hung To Road, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong
Young Artist in Residence @ V54
An initiative run by a local charity, Po Leung Kuk, aiming to provide low rental fees and short-term residencies for young artists, to encourage them to express their appreciation of Art and Culture of East & West and life history, and also to make contributions to society by promoting the value of Art and Culture to young people.