Frank Lloyd Wright once said, “The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.” There are three multi-media music performances in this part devoted to the three great master-builders of our time, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Louis I. Kahn and Le Corbusier. These experimental productions demonstrate the theories and aesthetics of architecture through the use of lights, sound, music and space.

Programmes
Multimedia Music Performance: Looking for Mies
Performance: Corbu and Kahn
Music + Lecture: Architecture is… Discourse with Music
Exhibition: My Modern Architects

Multimedia Music Performance
Looking for Mies

Grand Theatre, HKCC
30 / 9 & 2 / 10 8:15 pm
1 / 10 3:00pm
Ticket Price: $320, $260, $180, $120

Director and Designer: Mathias Woo
Music, Sound Design and Live Performance: VSOP
Digital Image Design: Tobias Gremmler (Munich)
Illustration Artist: Li Chi Tak
Performer: Dick Wong

This is a on Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Mies is a pioneering figure in Modern Architecture. His concepts of free flowing spaces and simplified architecture have made major contributions to architectural philosophies, and become his greatest legacy. His famous phrase, “Less is More” has become the essence of mid 20th Century architecture, and a classic signifier of Modernist Architecture and Minimalism.

In “Looking for Mies”, the stage itself is a universal space, containing different combinations of sets and lights, with different stories taking place on it. Mies said, “God is in the details”. The concept of universal space is not a space for architecture only but a personal space within. And a lot of thoughts and ideas could be developed within this space.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886 – 1969)
Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe was born in Aachen, Germany. He was trained in his father's stone-carving business before deciding to become an architect and joining Peter Behrens studio in 1908. Mies is famous for his dictums 'Less is More' and 'God is in the details'. Mies was the Director of Bauhaus from 1930 until the school's closing in 1933. In 1938 he became Director of Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology. In 1958 Mies built what has been regarded as the ultimate expression of the International Style of architecture, a large glass work, the Seagram Building in New York. His later works provide a fitting denouement to a life dedicated to the idea of a universal, simplified architecture.

Costume sponsor:

In Cantonese and English with Chinese and English surtitles.
Running time is approximately 90 mins without intermission.

Performance
Corbu and Kahn

Studio Theatre, HKCC
16 - 17 / 10   8:00pm
17 -18 / 10   3:00pm
Ticket Price: $320, $240, $140

Director and Designer: Mathias Woo
Corbu and Kahn is a performance in 2 parts built around the ideas of the two master architects. The 1st part is on Le Corbusier and the 2nd part is on Louis I. Kahn.

Part One: Une Petite Maison
Performer: Cedric Chan
Music: Yellow Cow
Photo: Karena Lam
Une Petite Maison is a text on the design philosophy of Le Corbusier based on the idea of a little house he built for his parents in 1922 –1923. “A house is a machine for living in”. Le Corbusier believed, and “the arrangement is practical and spatially economical, with a minimum use of space for each function”. These are the concept and conditions for the plan of the little house.

Part Two: The Life and Times of Louis I. Kahn
Guest Performer: Kam Kwok Leung
Music Director and Live Performance: Jason Choi
Louis I. Kahn could be seen as a philosopher on Modernism. He lectured on the philosophy of architecture with passion and emotions. Kahn’s writings on architecture are like hymns and poetry, and every sentence is compact with meticulous thoughts, inspiring us, such as, “Without light, there is no architecture”, and “The reason for living is to express”. Local showbiz veteran Kam Kwok Leung is invited to play the role of Louis I. Kahn, allowing audience to catch a glimpse of the life this master architect of humanism. The performance will be made more poignant with the participation of Jason Choi, who will experiment on the music of Mozart.

Le Corbusier (1887–1965)
Born in Switzerland, and is one of the most famous architects, designers and writers of the 20th Century. “A house is a machine for living,” he wrote. He discovered the potential of reinforced concrete which allowed him to explore unusual shapes. He was interested in mass-produced urban housing and town planning. He disseminated his ideas in a host of theoretical writings on architecture that laid out guidelines for urban planning. Le Corbusier’s influence on modern architecture is enormous.

Louis I. Kahn (1901–1974)
Louis I. Kahn was a poet architect, a philosopher architect. To Kahn, an architect was like a religious worker, guarding the noble spirituality of architecture. In 1947 Kahn was appointed Professor at Yale University, and he continued to teach throughout his architectural career. Kahn’s architecture and theories on architecture altered the aesthetics of international architecture in the 80’s and the 90’s. He exercised a profound and prevalent weight of influence on latter 20th century world architecture.



Costume sponsor:

In Cantonese and English with Chinese and English surtitles.
Running time is approximately 105 mins with intermission.

music + lecture
Architecture is... Discourse with Music

Studio Theatre, HKCC
30 / 9 – 3 / 10   8:00 pm 
Ticket Price: $120

Music Creation & Performance
Programme A (30/9, 1/10): Aenon Loo, Alok, KWC
Programme B (2–3/10): João Vasco Paiva, Sin:Ned, Pun Tak Shu
Guest Speakers: 30/9 Liu Jiakun (Chengdu), 1/10 Zhu Xiaodi (Beijing), 2/10 Wang Shu (Hangzhou), 3/10 Zhang Lei (Nanjing)
Co-organisers: Domus China, People Mountain People Sea
Music Curator: Steve Hui (Nerve)
Music Advisor: Anthony Wong

“Architecture is... Discourse with Music” is an experiment and a creative dialogue between music and architecture. Beginning with electronic music, local artists will share their feelings and experiences of architecture with the audience through the three stages of exploring architecture, getting to know architecture and feeling architecture. Four architects from the Mainland will be invited to participate and lead the audience to embark on an adventurous journey to the magical world of architecture.

Conducted in Mandarin.
Running time is approximately 105mins without intermission.



Exhibition
My Modern Architects

Foyer, HKCC
14 / 9 - 11 / 10
Free Admission

Participating Artists:
Karena Lam (Actress)
Lai Tat Tat Wing (Comic Artist)
Li Chi Tak (Illustration / Comic Artist)

Three creative practitioners from different disciplines will express their views on “What is Architecture?” through some designs and images ——Karena Lam will show her love for Le Corbusier with her photos, Lai Tat Tat Wing will interpret Louis I. Kahn with a strip of comics, and Li Chi Tak will imagine the 3-D space of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe with some black and white illustrations. These works will be published and displayed in the exhibition.