Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk｜Exhibition Introduction

(Image Courtesy of the artist and Penguin Lab. Copyright © 2021 the artist)

Immortal souls, past lives, and cyberpunk futures fuse in a psychedelic solo exhibition by the Hong Kong artist Kongkee, which follows legendary Chinese poet Qu Yuan (c. 339-278 BCE), a singular commemorated hero of the annual Dragon Boat Festival holiday.

Kongkee’s animated film Dragon’s Delusion begins after Qu Yuan’s untimely ending, in which he drowned himself in a river, dejected and in despair over the state of affairs of those tumultuous times. From there, Kongkee imagines the poet’s resurrection 2,000 years after his death, from the waters of the Kingdom of Chu into a cyberpunk future. As his soul wanders a landscape filled with cyborgs and surprising romantic reunions, several worlds collide, reflecting Kongkee’s own philosophical outlook on the past and Qu Yuan’s futuristic language that possessed its own wandering quality and inspired generations of artists.

Part comic book, part motion picture, part speculative journey, Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk is an immersive experience complete with a large-scale LED installation and site-specific neon works, transforming Tai Kwun’s heritage site into a cyberpunk universe that bridges the past and the future.

For the presentation of Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk at Duplex Studio in Tai Kwun, apart from selected works from the previous exhibition, Kongkee will develop new site-specific works in connection with Hong Kong that reflect on the world we live in today. The exhibition is first organised by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and curated by Abby Chen, Head of Contemporary Art and Senior Associate Curator and this presentation at Tai Kwun is co-curated by Ying Kwok, Senior Curator at Tai Kwun.

Exhibition Details

• Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk
• Date: 9 Dec 2023 - 3 Mar 2024
• Time: 11:00-19:00 (closed on Mondays)
• Venue: Duplex Studio, Block 01, Tai Kwun
• Address: 10 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong

About the artist-Kongkee

Kongkee, a.k.a. KONG Khong-chang, (b. 1977, Chinese, born Malaysia, raised in Hong Kong) is an animation director and visual artist currently based in London. He was the Founder of studio Penguin Lab since 2008.

His work has been featured in film festivals, and captured the eye of Britpop band Blur, who partnered with Kongkee to create a comic book, Travel to Hong Kong with Blur, based on their hit album The Magic Whip (2015). In 2012 his comics Detournements: La littérature de Hong Kong en bande dessinée (co. Chihoi) was published in French in Europe. Kongkee started developing the comic series Mi Luo Virtual in 2013, which became the basis for Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk. In 2020 a chapter of this comic was animated and transformed into a short film Dragon’s Delusion that won the grand prize of DigiCon6, the top honor for the category in Asia. His most recent work Flower In The Mirror, an interactive video installation commissioned by M+ Museum, is currently on view in Hong Kong.

Source of the above information: Tai Kwun official website