The Works：Actress and activist Shabana Azmi, "Invisible Light" at Eduoard Malingue Gallery, HK Art

At the beginning of last month Indian film, theatre, and television actress Shabana Azmi came to Hong Kong as part of “India By The Bay”, a festival of indian performing arts, cultural dynamism and contemporary offerings. The festival was co-presented by Asia Society Hong Kong Center and Teamwork. The event for which she was here was called “Shabana Azmi In Conversation”. While she was here, she took a little time out to also be in conversation with The Works.
This year’s Hong Kong Arts Festival is under way, and for those impressed by numbers it is featuring 1,500 artists in 137 programmes that include 16 new works or world premieres and 10 Asian premieres. In our first story on this year’s event, we look at a production that focuses on just three women: “The Amahs”, co-written by Roger Lee, also co-writer of the award-winning film “A Simple Life”, and Hong Kong’s leading female playwright Wong Wing-sze. March is a busy month for the arts in Hong Kong.
This year, there’s not only Art Basel but also a new art fair: Art Central on offer. Galleries and other art organisations are already preparing to take part or to visit. Some locally based galleries are also beefing up their presence and opening up new spaces. The Edouard Malingue Gallery is one of them. Inaugurating its second space in Central, the exhibition “Invisible Light” showcases the work of five artists from Hong Kong, Istanbul, Paris and New York.
At a first encounter the idea of a flute and bassoon in tandem might seem a little like an odd couple. But maybe it’s not such an odd couple after all. “Duo Fluxion” combines the talents of Izumi Nikaido from Japan, and Hong Kong’s Tak Wing-leung. They’re in our studio talking to Ben Pelletier.