House of Swans
September 25, 2026–January 3, 2027
Tai Kwun Contemporary proudly presents Anne Imhof: House of Swans, the artist’s first major solo exhibition in Asia. Curated by Ying Kwok and Tiffany Leung, the exhibition features a substantial body of new work conceived specifically for Tai Kwun, encompassing a newly produced ballet performance and accompanying soundtrack, video installations, paintings, and sculptures. With its striking scenography, House of Swans foregrounds the artist’s deepening connection to classical ballet and takes audiences through imposing and intimate architectural spaces to create a powerful choreography.
Revisiting and expanding upon her previous performance work DOOM: House of Hope (2025), House of Swans forms a stage for performances through large-scale installations of chain-link fences, crowd barriers and lockers, among which are situated her paintings, bronze reliefs and figurative drawings. Elsewhere, Imhof registers the body’s absence in a new series of paintings that she adds forms, shades, lines and drawings to by scratching into their surfaces, capturing the trajectories of her unseen physical movements. Amplifying the sense of movement on a grand scale, an imposing jumbotron that has crashed to the floor of a large gallery displays a countdown to the exhibition’s conclusion in concert with footage from DOOM. A sense of tension extends to two large-scale cloud paintings that evoke the state of suspension before a storm arrives. In a smaller gallery, a large glass container houses salvaged archival film reels from Hong Kong’s Clear Water Bay Film Studio, once associated with the height of Hong Kong cinema. Through the intersection of these timelines, the works hold viewers between figuration and abstraction, contingency and control, and permanence and impermanence.
Two interconnected spaces on the third floor recall both an urban sports field and a dance studio, transforming the gallery into a stage where performers and viewers alike are suspended between the exercise of freedom and the constraints of discipline. A speaker array moves along a track overhead, playing original music incorporating classical and electronic music that activates the space and shifts its atmosphere. In the smaller gallery, behind crowd barriers with reflective surfaces, paintings draw on the “Mad Scene” from the 1841 classical ballet Giselle, in which the revelation of betrayal precipitates a rupture with reality, opening onto both breakdown and transformation.
The four-act ballet House of Swans follows Amalia, a young woman living within a society governed by discipline and routine. After encountering a group known as the Swans, whose movements and lives deviate from the prescribed order, she begins to question the world she has grown up in. Caught between desire, personal conviction and duty to her family, Amalia must make a choice that will change everything. The performance was developed with Devon Teuscher, Michael Dé La Nuez, Remy Young, Toon Lobach and Daniil Simkin, alongside Qingxin Wang, Ryo Kato, Gouta Seki and the corps de ballet of Hong Kong Ballet. The ballet’s original score was commissioned from composer Jacob Madden and developed in close collaboration with Imhof. During the opening week on September 24–26, international dancers and musicians joined Hong Kong Ballet dancers for performances. Madden performed the score live with a solo performance by Levi Strasser, alongside prerecorded musical contributions by Ville Haimala and Luke Hülsmann. On selected weekends in October and November, adapted performances by Hong Kong Ballet dancers provide a window into the unfolding narrative of House of Swans and showcase Imhof’s ongoing inquiry into bodily expression and individual transformation.
Anne Imhof: House of Swans
Curated by Ying Kwok, Tiffany Leung / Exhibition Architecture: COLLECTIVE Studio / Engineering Design: Arup / Performance Partner: Hong Kong Ballet.
September 25, 2026, to January 3, 2027 / Tuesday–Sunday: 11am–7pm / Closed on Mondays, except public holidays—in which case closed the day after.
Adapted Performances by Hong Kong Ballet: October: 3, 4, 10, 11, 24, 25, 31 / November: 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 29 2:30–3:15pm, 3:45–4:30pm
