For people living with a disability, daily life can come with a host of challenges. Inclusion and understanding are vital.
No Limits, co-presented by the Hong Kong Arts Festival and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, is doing its part by creating a barrier-free environment so people with different abilities can participate in the arts.
Now in its sixth edition, this year’s programme – with the theme “Showcasing Human Perspectives” – starts on February 24 and will include six live performances of dance, music and theatre, as well as four online programmes featuring works by European and Asian filmmakers and actors.
All works share the experiences of performers with disabilities, from the challenges they face in daily life to interpersonal relationships.
Opening this year’s programme is Hong Kong classical pianist Lee Shing, with a recital, Reminiscing, that features works by Beethoven and Schumann. Lee has been studying piano since he was a child despite his deteriorating vision.
In Shape on Us, Israeli contemporary dance company Vertigo Power of Balance presents an inclusive programme featuring eight dancers with varying physical abilities, while Teatro La Plaza, from Peru, reimagines Shakespeare’s Hamlet in a retelling by a group of young actors with Down’s syndrome.
In Scored in Silence, London-based Japanese artist Chisato Minamimura presents excerpts of recorded interviews with elderly deaf people who lived through the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, her moving work a combination of signing, mime, projected 3D animation, video footage, sounds and vibration.
In Gentle Unicorn, award-winning Italian artist Chiara Bersani dresses as the mythical beast, her theatre performance probing the wrongs suffered by this imagined animal while inviting the audience to reflect on their own perceptions.
Online programmes feature Team Chocolate, a seven-part television drama centred on friendship, family and love with Jasper, a young man with Down’s syndrome, in the main role.
Goodbye CP, an action documentary by award-winning filmmaker Kazuo Hara, presents a complex portrait of adults with cerebral palsy, while the animated short The Penguin Who Couldn’t Swim focuses on disability and bullying.
All for Claire is a short animation created in collaboration with internationally recognised dancer and choreographer Claire Cunningham.
For programme details, go to art-mate.net.