“Performance Co-Lab: Rehearsing Symbiosis” (Performance Co-Lab) is Tai Kwun’s new initiative in response to the first edition of the Hong Kong Performing Arts Expo (HKPAX). Carrying on Tai Kwun’s continuous effort in breaking the conventions of space and form, it is a platform to encourage interdisciplinary performance creation, while tapping on the HKPAX occasion to showcase the emerging artists in the Greater Bay Area to the international peers.

The inaugural edition of Performance Co-Lab is organized and curated by Tai Kwun in collaboration with guest co-curators Joseph Lee (Hong Kong) and Guo Rui (Guangzhou). Revolving around the theme “Rehearsing Symbiosis”, artists from disciplines of movement, moving images, sound, music, visual arts, object, lighting and more are invited to learn, exchange, collaborate, and share experience and knowledge in the creative process. It will foster interdisciplinary dialogues and facilitate organic interactions and collaborations within a process-oriented environment.

Taking place in Guangzhou and Hong Kong across two weeks, Performance Co-Lab facilitates the participating artists to gain a deeper understanding of the different cultures and practices in the two cities. The Guangzhou Workshop week focuses on learning. It will be led by mentors Tang Fu Kuen (Singapore) and Joanne “Bob” Whalley (UK), who are both veterans in interdisciplinary collaboration, to share the knowledge, methodology and practices. The artists will then return to Hong Kong for the Workspace week and put the learnings into practice. It is a space for artists to develop their artistic research in an open and transdisciplinary environment, supported by the two mentors as consultants. The result of their collaboration will be presented in the latter part of the HKPAX, inviting local and international peers across the performing arts industry to observe and feedback on their research outcomes.

Project Milestones