2009-09-10
The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation
Sponsors U.K. Premiere of Wind Shadow,
by the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan
Committed to fostering Chinese arts and culture, the Robert H. N. Family Foundation has been working to enhance cross-cultural understanding. The Foundation is pleased to sponsor the U.K. premiere of
Wind Shadow, presented by the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan. The performances will run from October 6 to 10, 2009, at the Barbican Centre in London.
Wind Shadow marks the first cross-disciplinary collaboration between choreographic master Lin Hwai-min and leading mainland Chinese visual artist Cai Guo-Qiang. After its Taipei debut in 2006, the programme has been performed at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York and, upon invitation by Pina Bausch, featured at the NRW International Dance Festival in Germany.
Robert Hung-Ngai Ho, founder of the Foundation, says, “Over the past 30 years, the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan has been presenting Chinese aesthetics on the international stage, serving to connect the origins of Asian culture with the Western arts world. It has played a pivotal role in fostering cultural exchanges. Cai Guo-Qiang is an outstanding artist who produces unique visionary works. Through art, he connects the individual with society and contemplates various phenomena around the world, triggering much reflection among audiences. Having sponsored the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre’s performances of
Wild Cursive in New York and London, as well as the exhibition
Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe at New York’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Foundation is happy to support the U.K. premiere of
Wind Shadow.”
Wind Shadow is a journey of movement developed from the themes of wind and shadow. Its production is built upon state-of-the-art visual ideas, blending dance and installation art to exert a stunning appeal. Circulating in an aura of black and white, light and shadow, the dancers convey with refined movements and delicate variations the relationship between person and shadow, with each illustrating a dialogue between emptiness and existence. The person and the shadow are dependent on each other, but the wind is intangible. To portray the wind, dancers visualize the flow of air through dexterous movements complemented by flying kites, flags and wings – all working together to depict the wind. The explosive images produced earlier by Cai Guo-Qiang, together with the gunpowder drawings he created specifically for
Wind Shadow, will be projected onto the stage, penetrating the fluttering flags.
Wind Shadow, which lasts 80 minutes, is a moving work of installation art. Powerfully imaginative and philosophical, it explores the universe and the unknown while pondering contemporary circumstances and living conditions.
“The ideas
Wind Shadow presents on stage are relevant to everyday life,” says Robert Hung-Ngai Ho. “The Foundation hopes that audiences, while appreciating the performance, will reflect more on the society in which we live, and care more about it.”
About the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation
Founded in 2005, the Robert H. N. Ho Foundation has deep roots in Chinese culture. Its mission is to foster and support Chinese arts and culture, in particular cross-cultural understanding between China and the world.
Since its inauguration, the Foundation has taken an active role in supporting arts and cultural programs around the world. In 2007 it backed
Britain Meets the World: 1714–1830, an international venture between the British Museum and the Palace Museum in Beijing. In early 2008, it partnered with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York to present
Cai Guo-Qiang: I Want to Believe, the museum’s first-ever solo retrospective on a contemporary Chinese artist. In the same year, the Foundation supported
Power & Glory: Court Arts of China’s Ming Dynasty, the first-ever cooperative effort among the Asian Art Museum, the Palace Museum Beijing, the Shanghai Museum and the Nanjing Municipal Museum. The exhibition encouraged dialogue among the museums in China and the U.S.
Convinced that Buddhist philosophy can be an important path to personal and societal transformation, the Foundation supports programmes that provide a variety of platforms and tools to apply Buddhist insights to everyday life. It also initiates programmes that explore the relationship between Buddhist philosophy and the arts. In 2009, the Foundation presented in London
The Many Faces of Buddhism, an initiative to raise awareness of Buddhism in contemporary society and to advance the conversation about what role Buddhism can play in today’s world. A series of events draws on Buddhist views and practices to develop public programmes that creatively inspire audiences to live and interact with compassion. The series coincided with the opening of
The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Gallery of Buddhist Sculpture at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Programmes included dance performances from four Buddhist traditions and cultures, a forum to explore connections between Buddhism and art, and a festival of Buddhist-themed films.
The Foundation is also collaborating with the Honolulu Academy of Arts in a multi-year project that aims to preserve, document and present the living Vajrayana Buddhist culture of Bhutan. A constituent exhibition,
The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan, began touring in early 2008 and will continue until 2010, embracing such destinations as New York, San Francisco, Paris, Cologne and Zurich.
In its home base of Hong Kong, the Foundation focuses on arts education. It designs and operates
Through Our Eyes, bringing a fresh approach to the arts to young people.
Through Our Eyes explores the issues of identity, family, community, cultural heritage and the environment, helping young people find and express their authentic voices through photography. It is currently an extra-curricular programme in schools and has served more than 1,000 students from 200 schools in southern China and Hong Kong. In 2008, the Foundation piloted
Get It Write! – a mentoring programme that helps teenagers to express themselves authentically through writing. The programme also aims to cultivate the culture of literary appreciation among youth. In early 2009, the Foundation piloted
Leap!, a project that serves children aged 4 to 6. Leap! is an educational venture presented in collaboration with Cloud Gate Dance School of Taiwan. While encouraging self-discovery and expression among children, it inspires them to become happy learners and to be compassionate toward others.
To learn more about the Foundation, please visit its website at
http://www.rhfamilyfoundation.org
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| The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation |
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