May 5–December 5, 2021
Artists: Tarek Atoui, Celeste Burlina, Alice Chauchat, Mette Edvardsen, Claudia Fernández, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Serene Hui, Ricky Jay, Kazuo Kitai, Nile Koetting, Lina Lapelytė, Nicholas Mangan, Yuko Mohri, Pan Daijing, Liliana Porter, Sean Raspet, Algirdas Šeškus, Sriwhana Spong, Trevor Yeung, Scarlet Yu and Xavier Le Roy. Joining from July: Maria Hassabi, Jamila Johnson-Small, Tamiko Nishimura, Moe Satt, Tino Sehgal, among others.
“Whenever you arrive, several visible performances are happening, and several invisible ones. They are created by different artists and ask for our attention, time and gentleness. Timed releases of artworks, like different clocks running at different speeds, bring rhythm to the space: songs, photographs, sounds, smells, gestures appear in uneven cycles.” —A text on the wall of Tai Kwun Contemporary
trust & confusion is about the conversation of certainty and chance; the transformative power of bodies, intangibles, and ephemeral encounters; music and magic; and the luck of being alive, with all the concerns that come with it, be they human or not. Evolving, accumulating, the exhibition unfolds over several episodes, with more than 20 newly commissioned works from an intergenerational, international, and cosmopolitan group of artists from May to the end of the year.
The exhibition is an invitation to observe how things emerge in relation to each other—sounds, identities, gestures, smells—and to be a part of it, being surprised and giving attention to your inner landscape while a spectacle is taking place around you.
“Have you ever experienced trust & confusion at the same time?” a stranger suddenly asks a visitor. A conversation unfolds. A glimpse is evoked here.
Changes in the course of the exhibition take place after each full moon, when the tides are the deepest and the forest the noisiest. Some artists’ contributions will remain for months but in fresh configurations; others will appear in changing roles with the unfolding of time. As tribute to the bare human voice as a most vibrant and direct form of communication, a weekly release of voices by artists, writers, poets, and choreographers is made available on trusting.hk, where you also find the calendar of the moon to guide you through the coming episodes.
Voices released so far: SERAFINE1369, Eduardo Costa, Candice Lin, Simone Forti, Isabel Lewis, Laure Prouvost, Zheng Mahler, Yang Yeung.
Curated by: Xue Tan, Raimundas Malašauskas
Associate Curator: Tom Engels
Assistant Curators: Louiza Ho, Erin Li
