Curated by Christina Brandt Jensen | Presented by After Sunset
Wednesday 26th March 5 – 9 pm
Whatever touches the soul, a sound, skin on skin, a look from afar, drags us out further into open water. Connecting beyond the border that once defined us. Every touch cutting through the lines of breaking waves like a river flowing out to sea.
Partly inspired by the book “A Single Man” (1964) by Christopher Isherwood, this durational performance for two dancers explores the essence of lack of closeness. Metaphorical layers and layers of cloth, dressing and undressing. Covering and peeling, so as to find their best fit into their misfit. Christine He and Jonathan Hung will use their bodies to build a site-specific conversation with the Central Theatre specially for Night Central 2025.
We hug into form, hug into a shape; hug onto skin, pore to pore sinking in.
We hug into the void, just to fill up the holes. May it block all the leakages, just to make our hearts whole. Squeezing veins so tight; the heart only remains.
We are alone together, moulding layers of forever.
Image: Christine He and Jonathan Hung, After Sunset Festival, 2023. Photographed by Wong Wei Him. Courtesy of After Sunset
Presented by UOB
Speakers: Kurt Chan (Artist and Educator), Phoebe Hui (Media Artist), Ying Kwok (Senior Curator, Tai Kwun Contemporary)
Moderator: Yau Wing Fung (Assistant Professor, Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University)
*The talk will be conducted in Mandarin and Cantonese.
Image: Bridging Boundaries: Ink Art as a Catalyst for Community Connections. Presented by UOB with Kwok Kian Chow and S. Alice Mong, Art Central, Hong Kong, 2024.
Presented by Hong Kong Arts Centre
Speakers: Monica Hsiao (Chief Investment Officer and Founder of Triada Capital) and Peter Lau (Chairman of the Board of Governors, Hong Kong Arts Centre)
Moderator: Rebecca Ip (Executive Director, Hong Kong Arts Centre)
This conversation brings together three distinguished leaders from the worlds of finance, art, and cultural management to explore the power of creativity, collecting, and cross-disciplinary connections. Monica Hsiao, a seasoned investor, art collector, joins Peter Lau, a cultural entrepreneur and arts advocate in an engaging discussion moderated by Rebecca Ip, Executive Director of the Hong Kong Arts Centre.
Image: Monica Hsiao in front of Andreas Eriksson’s Semaphore Gariwangsan. Photo by Felix SC Wong
Presented by School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong
Speakers: Miu Ling Lam, Victor Leung, Tobias Klein and Peter Nelson
This panel brings together leading voices in robotic art to explore the intersection of creativity, technology, and automation. Peter Nelson, an artist and scholar, examines the artistic potential of computer games, AI, and digital landscapes, blending art history with interactive media. Miu Ling Lam, a media artist and robotics researcher, pioneers innovations in robotic cinematography, immaterial displays, and bioinformatics, bridging art and science with award-winning interdisciplinary work. Victor Leung, a robotic fabrication expert, focuses on automation as a tool to enhance human creativity, reshaping industries through computational design and custom machines. Tobias Klein, an architect and artist, redefines digital craft by merging CAD/CAM technologies with cultural narratives, challenging traditional divides between digital and physical making. Together, they will discuss how robotics is transforming artistic practice, fostering new forms of expression, and reimagining the relationship between humans and machines in the creative process.
Image: Miu Ling Lam and Kaho Yu, Dis|integration, 2020, robotic light painting installation. Courtesy of the artists
Speakers: Wong Wo Bik, Shen Chao-Liang and Carol Chow
Moderator: Claudia Hinterseer
Join us for an engaging roundtable discussion featuring independent curator Carol Chow, renowned image-makers Shen Chao-liang and Wong Wo Bik, moderated by visual journalist Claudia Hinterseer. This forum will explore the dynamic intersection of creative photography and cultural documentation. Carol Chow will share her scholarly insights on gender dynamics and societal narratives, while Wong Wo Bik will present her evocative architectural imagery, examining the tension between construction and authenticity. Shen Chao-Liang will offer remarks about his poignant visual chronicles. In this dialogue, they will aim to unravel how the photographic medium functions simultaneously as an artistic vehicle and critical witness to our times. Drawing on her extensive background in visual storytelling, Hinterseer will guide this exploration of photography’s dual capacity to reflect and interpret our complex world.
Image: Wong Wo Bik, Utopian Landscape, 2023, digital photograph. Courtesy of the artist
Presented by Hong Kong Tourism Board.
Speakers: BOLOHO, Maggie Chu and Tung Wing Hong
Moderator: Shirky Chan (Curator, Art Central 2025)
Join us for a discussion in which artists explore the vibrant neighborhoods of Hong Kong, examining how these communities and histories influence their themes, materials, and messages. Additionally, the artists will share the experiences of having their studios and daily art practices under the roof of Art Central, highlighting the challenges and triumphs of showcasing their creations. Audiences are invited to engage and share their thoughts on the interplay between place and artistic expression.
Image: BOLOHO, YES SIR ! No.4, No.5, No.6, 2023, collective painting, colour gel pen on paper, 77.5 x 322.5 cm. Courtesy of the artist
Speakers: Peter A C Nelson and Roberto Alonso Trillo
Written and directed by Roberto Alonso Trillo and Peter Nelson, manτεία (meaning prophecy or divination) debuted at Freespace West Kowloon in December 2024. The performance was the outcome of a workshop series based around the principle of ‘multimodal mapping’, where artists are encouraged to build tangible data-driven links between their works. In this presentation, Trillo and Nelson will introduce the work of the participating artists (Taurin Barrera, Joseph Chan, Lazarus Chan Long Fung, Vvzela Kook, Current.cam, Samuel Swope, Davor Vincze and Karen Yu) and discuss their technological approach to collaboration.
Image: Peter A C Nelson and Roberto Alonso Trillo, manτεία, 2024. Photographed by Zoey Chan. Courtesy of the artists
Speakers: Kary Kwok, Ellen Pau, Alice dos Reis and Chanel Kong (Curator, Moving Image, M+)
Moderator: Aaditya Sathish (Curator, Art Central 2025)
From the latter half of the twentieth-century, video art has been a medium that is both formal and experimental. It has had the ability to catch the immediacy of certain moments, while also being a medium that allows for editing, speculation, and navigating myriad realities. Kary Kwok and Ellen Pau have been conducting expeirments into video in the 1980s and 1990s, reflecting on notions of the body and its alienation, while Alice dos Reis has been working in formats both digital and analogue, carefully treading the line between fiction and reality. Chanel Kong meanwhile is Curator, Moving Image at M+, and most recently worked on Shanshui: Echoes and Signals, an expansive exhibition that reflects on space and silences. Through the course of the conversation, the three artists and the curator, in tandem with Aaditya Sathish, will expand on the choices that take place in working with and showing the moving image.
Image: Ellen Pau, Drained 溜, 1988, Video Still. Courtesy of the artist, Kiang Malingue, and Videotage
Presented by Hong Kong Art School
Speakers: Prof. Eva Kit Wah Man (Director, Hong Kong Art School) and Jaffa Lam Laam (Academic Head, Hong Kong Art School)
How can contemporary art and education reshape our understanding of intangible cultural heritage? In this engaging talk, Prof. Eva Kit Wah Man and Jaffa Lam Laam will introduce the JOCKEY CLUB ICH+ INNOVATIVE HERITAGE EDUCATION PROGRAMME, exploring how creative approaches can revitalize traditional crafts, practices, and knowledge. They will also discuss selected tertiary programs at Hong Kong Art School that integrate heritage, innovation, and artistic expression, offering fresh perspectives on how education can preserve and reimagine cultural legacies. Join us for an insightful discussion on the intersection of art, tradition, and the evolving landscape of cultural heritage education.
*The talk will be conducted in Mandarin.
Image: Jaffa Lam Laam, PIU 3, 2018, recycled clothes. Courtesy of the artist
Speakers: Mark Lawson Bell, Shinduk Kang, Dai Ying, Aurore Vullierme and Shelley Wang
Moderator: Enoch Cheng (Curator, Art Central 2025)
A discussion on the 2025 Yi Tai Sculpture and Installation Projects featuring works by Mark Lawson Bell, Dai Ying, Shinduk Kang, Dean-E Mei and Roxane Revon, with curator Enoch Cheng and guests Aurore Vullierme and Shelley Wang. The conversation will delve into the artistic concepts, material approaches, and cultural influences shaping these dynamic installations. Through a series of presentations, speakers will share insights into the creative process, challenges, and evolving practices of the participating artists, culminating in an open Q&A session.
Image: Mark Lawson Bell, Uncharted Along, 2024. Mark Lawson Bell, Midnight Milk, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and SWANFALL GALLERY