Sea of Stories (SOS) is an array of dynamic initiatives: a radio broadcast, bookmaking, pop-up storefront, film screening, and performances—accompanied by a talk, tours, workshops, and an exhibition. Spanning a full day and evening while traveling between indoor and outdoor locations, audiences can unlock secrets and re-imagine narratives by navigating through AAA's collection and sites within Sheung Wan.

 

Talk | Word on the Street: Art in the Urban Playground 

11am–12:30pm | English | Registration required 

Word on the Street: Art in the Urban Playground

Artists, curators, archivists, and critics consider how the legacy of ink art, calligraphy, and related forms like graffiti endures by tracing their influence on contemporary art, exhibitions, collections, writing, street culture, and Hong Kong’s urban vernacular. 

Speakers
Aric Chen, Curator of Design and Architecture, M+
Ocean Leung, Artist
Elaine Lin, AAA Collection Manager
Stan Wu, Co-director, HKwalls 

Moderator
Ingrid Chu, AAA Public Programmes Curator

 

 

Walking Tour | Sheung Wan: Five Senses Tour

A deeply historic yet increasingly popular part of Hong Kong, Sheung Wan is a treasure trove of stimulation. In this 90-minute guided walking tour, we invite participants to open up all their five senses and find the extraordinary in the ordinary on and off the beaten paths of Sheung Wan.

Meeting point: Asia Art Archive

Final stop: PMQ, 35 Aberdeen Street, Central

11am–12:30pm | Cantonese | Registration required 
Guide: Chow Chung Wah, Author, Lonely Planet guidebooks; Co-founder, Walk in Hong Kong

3:30–5pm | English | Registration required 
Guide: Elaine Ng, Lawyer, Weekend Farmer, and Volunteer Guide, Walk in Hong Kong

Programme Partner
Walk in Hong Kong offers lovingly designed and well-researched local walking tours that are fun, informative, and celebratory of the city’s tales, past and present, in all their gritty quirky glory. www.walkin.hk

 

 

Kids Workshop | Be An Author! Vintage Storytelling Workshop

11am–12:30pm | Cantonese and English | Age 3–12 | Registration required 
The creation of every fairy tale starts with storylines and storyboards, and with children’s boundless creativity, they are the greatest authors to be. Through the workshop, the storyteller will guide children to explore a sea of vintage printed material hidden within AAA’s library, and then inspire them to create their own story by writing and drawing a storyboard.

Storyteller: Jeulianne Bilan

Programme Partner
Àlazizi is an assemblage of creative studio, publisher, gallery, and arts development centre in Hong Kong. Àlazizi believes that as long as children and grown-up artists approach the world with naïvety, passion, and a sense of adventure, their creations will be both unique and heart-warming. www.alazizi.net

 

 

Pop-up Storefront | Your Neighbourhood Archive

10am–4pm | Cantonese and English 
How does the past resonate through the sights, sounds, and tastes of today? Read and listen to selections from AAA’s pop-up storefront book and audio collection, sip varieties of tea sourced from neighbourhood shops, take a studio portrait, and consult Hollywood Road experts on district antiques by bringing in your own home treasures.

10am-2pm | Photo portrait studio
Take a studio portrait, write a personal story, and display these as part of a temporary storefront presentation with a keepsake of your picture and story by return post.

2-3pm | Personal treasure storytelling
Share stories of your personal treasures with Hollywood Centre antique shop owners.

Programme Partner
I-m-ageplayground shares and promotes the appreciation of classical film photography, offering traditional darkroom facilities, equipment rental, and workshops that inspire creativity by encouraging the engagement of analogue technology in the digital age. www.i-m-ageplayground.com

 

 

Exhibition | Excessive Enthusiasm: Ha Bik Chuen and the Archive as Practice

10am–6pm 

 Image: Exhibition view of Excessive Enthusiasm: Ha Bik Chuen and the Archive as Practice, 11 March-
Image: Exhibition view of Excessive Enthusiasm: Ha Bik Chuen and the Archive as Practice, 11 March-

An exhibition stemming from AAA’s ongoing research into the archive of Hong Kong-based artist Ha Bik Chuen (1925–2009) that presents a selection of collage books shown publicly for the first time, and an architectural model of an exhibition reconstructed with reference to Ha Bik Chuen's exhibition documentation.

 

 

Self-guided Scavenger Hunt and Tour | Taipingshan Secrets

Cantonese and English 
A self-guided tour and scavenger hunt that provide participants with a map and a series of clues to discover special or secret parts of the neighbourhood.

Pick up maps at the AAA library.

 

Programme Partners
Pound Lane Concern Group aims to preserve, protect, and restore the environment and heritage of Pound Lane and its neighbourhood areas. www.facebook.com/groups/poundlanecg 


Taipingshan Community Storytelling is a project initiated and presented by the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority to re-examine and rediscover the history and culture of Tai Ping Shan area. www.facebook.com/tpsstories


transverse studio is a collaborative practice which intersects the trajectories of landscape, culture, urbanism, and infrastructure through a documentary process of investigation, design, and activism. www.transversestudio.com

 

 

Workshop | Pound Lane Poetry

2–5pm | Cantonese | Registration required 
On the left, there is a public toilet over a hundred years old; on the right, there is the famous stone wall tree of Hong Kong. Is it poetic space, spatialised poetry, or the combination of both? Making connections between literature, art, and community is the focus of this workshop.

Facilitator: Ricky Yeung, Artist and Educator

Ricky Yeung is Asia Art Archive’s inaugural educator-in-residence.

 

Radio Broadcast | 15 Invitations: Samson Young—AAAFM99.3

2–6pm | Cantonese and English

Image: Samson Young, AAAFM99.3, 2015.
Image: Samson Young, AAAFM99.3, 2015.

Hong Kong artist Samson Young mines AAA’s collection of audio material to conduct a series of live broadcasts from a roving radio station in and around Asia Art Archive. His transmissions feature invited collaborators, while AAA’s e-journal Field Notes documents the programme through regular podcasts.

Samson Young, Artist

Samson Young — AAAFM 99.3 is a part of 15 Invitations, Asia Art Archive’s 15-Year Anniversary programme generously supported by S. H. Ho Foundation Limited and the C. K. & Kay Ho Foundation.

 

 

Workshop | Experimental Calligraphy Big Re-action with Frog King
4–6pm | Cantonese | Registration required

Experimental Calligraphy Big Action: The Art of — Water
Experimental Calligraphy Big Action: The Art of — Water

Interactive workshop with Hong Kong-based artist Frog King, exploring ink as a medium in the creation of art today. The workshop references the concept and model behind Experimental Calligraphy Big Action: The Art of —Water, an experimental happening by the artist in 1977 with students from Hong Kong Polytechnic University. A sharing session on Frog King’s art practice and his personal archive in the AAA Collection to follow.

Facilitator: Kwok Man Ho Frog King, Artist

 

 

Outdoor Screening | Revival: Sheung Wan Flea Market

7–9pm | Cantonese | Registration required | Registered participants will be notified of screening venue in Sheung Wan

Revival: Sheung Wan Flea Market

The Sheung Wan flea market was a hub for hairdressers, fortunetellers, gold fish sellers, carts selling sweets, dim sum, and the first generation cart noodle. ‘Art Deco’ also appeared in the form of public art made of metal. Following the outdoor Cantonese film  screening of The Pregnant Maiden (Dir / Scr: Chor Yuen, 1968), Kith Tsang and Ricky Yeung share their childhood stories on growing up in the district. 

Special thanks to Fung Hing Keung (Honkaz), Hong Kong Film Archive, Leisure and Cultural Services Department

Speakers
Kith Tsang, Artist & Associate Professor, School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Ricky Yeung, Artist and Educator

Programme Partner
Putyourself.in provides a platform to help self-organised events sell tickets online. The platform is created with the belief that everyone could be an event organiser, sharing his/her interests with others. www.putyourself.in

 

 

Open Call and Screening | Summer Night Screening

9pm–late | Cantonese | Registration required
The desire to tell and listen to stories has not diminished—in fact more and more alternative formats of storytelling are playing a prominent role in society. PageNEXT selects a collection of original short films and videos from an open call to pair with videos from AAA's collection. Discussions led by the young adults following each screening aim to use film and video/moving image media as a language to communicate and encourage cultural exchange.

Open call
https://www.facebook.com/events/1077503765612711/

Programme Partner
PageNEXT consists of students and graduates from tertiary education who have previously taken part in AAA programmes. The group actively organises art activities for their peers with the aim to develop and shape the role of art in society.

 

 

Registration
Due to limited capacity, some programmes require registration; please register at registration@aaa.org.hk or 2844 1112 by 2 July, stating your full name, contact number and the programme(s) you wish to join.

All registered participants will receive email confirmation.
Walk-ins may be accepted subject to availability.
The library and all events will be closed when Typhoon Signal No. 8 or above is hoisted or a Black Rainstorm Warning is in force.

 

Free Admission to all Open Saturday Programmes.

 

Open Saturday is a day-long programme centring on art as a means of inquiry. Invited collaborators from various fields share fresh perspectives on a range of topics for diverse audiences to actively explore art’s capacity to generate ideas.

 

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