Alicja Kwade: Pretopia

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Alicja Kwade: Pretopia is the artist’s first solo institutional exhibition in Hong Kong. Showcasing works that span different periods of the Polish-born artist’s career, the exhibition reflects on our perception of time. It also proposes new perspectives for viewing and understanding reality.

Pretopia shows nine works from her career, together with newly commissioned installations tailored to the history and architecture Tai Kwun’s F Hall. Within the symmetrical space of the exhibition, the artist has laid out a sculptural environment where each work relies on the presence of others. In a way, the exhibition can be seen as a multiverse.

Adept at drawing from abstract scientific and philosophical concepts, Alicja Kwade transforms them through a consummate use of materials, both natural and artificial. Her artworks frequently incorporate objects such as clocks, fluorescent tubes, clock hands, chairs, mirrors, metal gates, bricks, and rocks. Together, her works orbit around the examination and questioning of reality and social structures.

Alicja Kwade has moreover created her first site-specific installation in Hong Kong, Waiting Pavilions, specially commissioned by Tai Kwun Contemporary for the Prison Yard. The work investigates the passage of time in the setting of a former prison, bridging the past and present within this landmark heritage site.

Alicja Kwade: Pretopia is part of Tai Kwun Contemporary’s new Breakthrough series, which underlines emerging artistic positions through solo presentations, commissions, and innovative formats. For Spring 2025, Alicja Kwade: Pretopia is presented alongside Hu Xiaoyuan: Veering and Maeve Brennan: Records. These solo exhibitions by three female artists explore materials and storytelling through diverse approaches.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Alicja Kwade (b. 1979 in Katowice, Poland) lives and works in Berlin. She is recognised as the leading installation artist and sculptor of her generation. She is internationally known for her sculpture, expansive public installations, film, photography, and works on paper, which challenge scientific and philosophical concepts by dismantling the boundaries of perception. Her practice investigates and questions the structures of our reality and society, reflecting on the perception of time in our everyday lives. Taking the form of sculptural objects, installation, and moving images, her works draw on concepts of space, time, science, and philosophy.

In 2019, Kwade was selected for the prestigious Roof Garden Commission at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. She also participated in the Helsinki Biennial (2021), Desert X in California’s Coachella Valley (2021), the Setouchi Triennale in Japan (2019), the 57th Venice Biennale (2017), and the Third ARoS Triennial in Aarhus, Denmark (2017).