Do hiccups control you, or do you control the hiccups? Does the artist control the artwork, or does the artwork perhaps control the artist? 

HICCUP—a festival of body and sound co-presented by Tai Kwun Contemporary, Contemporary Musiking Hong Kong (Sound Forms), and Per.Platform—will host an array of sonic art, live performances, and interactive installations.

Hiccups are involuntary actions taking place in the body, an uncontrolled and unexpected spasming of the diaphragm that results in sharp, rhythmic sounds. HICCUP has invited sound and performance artists from Hong Kong, Chongqing, Taipei, Bangkok, and Tokyo to present work juxtaposing both modes of artistic practice—performance art rooted in sound and sonic art rooted in performance. Will the differences and similarities in the artists’ creative thought processes be amplified? Will the audience experience any unexpected chemical reactions? 

HICCUP features fourteen artists in eight performances and one workshop; sound waves bounce off found objects and materials, generating vibrations that viewers affect, changing the soundscape as they walk through the space; reflect on the body’s conscious and unconscious “behaviours” and “actions” and the physical poetry that blurs their borders, infiltrating our perception of time and space.

CMHK Curator: Karen Yu
Per.Platform Curator: Florence Lam
Tai Kwun Contemporary Education and Public Programmes Curator: Veronica Wong
Tai Kwun Contemporary Programme Coordinator: Sonia Cheng