Inside Soho House Hong Kong: the artsy members club is hosting street art festival HKwalls 2023 – again – and helping nurture a new generation of creatives along the way
- The exclusive hang-out is going street, partnering with the HKwalls festival again this year to bring a splash of colour – and world class artists – to Central and Sheung Wan
- It’s where film Chilli Laugh Story director Coba Cheng met his lead actress Sandra Ng, while the Soho Mentorship programme guides young talent in step with Own Academy
Hong Kong’s creative community has never been without a fighting spirit, and in recent years, it has needed one – pandemic-related restrictions kept creatives apart, making collaborations all the more difficult. “Collaboration is key when it comes to what we do,” reiterates Maria Wong, managing director of street art festival HKwalls. “It’s important to identify the right partners to spark ideas with.”
Wong is a curator and arts producer who has brought the city’s streets to life. Each instalment of the HKwalls festival has splashed colour across a different district, and this year, the festival sets its sights on Central and Sheung Wan, an area that is home to its festival partner, Soho House Hong Kong.
The organisations first partnered in 2021, with Soho House hosting the “Tools of the Trade” show. The members’ club again lends its support this year by serving as the festival hub, creating room for a wide range of accessible art experiences. This includes hosting an exhibition of past and present HKwalls artists, throughout the event’s weeklong run, and staging the closing art battle on Sunday. “They really value creativity and they do not shy away from ideas that are unconventional,” Wong explains.
This year, HKwalls will welcome a wave of international street artists for the first time since 2019, with Innerfields from Germany, Koga One from France, Lauren YS and Jurne from the US, and Zed 1 from Italy among those signed up. Branching out from street art, the festival also hosts two activations in Tsim Sha Tsui, including a digital animation from Spanish artist J. Demsky inspired by Ghost in the Shell. “We are so excited we are able to welcome international artists back to Hong Kong,” says Wong.
It’s a fitting partnership – Soho House offers not only an opportunity for members of the public to enjoy the artwork on display and take home a piece of work from one of the festival’s participating artists, but also for the artists themselves to spend time.
Lending itself as a space for creatives to build a community – from its musicians to its artists and filmmakers – is one of Soho House’s most important tenets. Its infrastructure supports this, with a cinema offering film screenings, lounges that offer live music and spaces to host art exhibitions.
Not only have the city’s creative talents found a space to call their own, they’ve also found connections that have led to new projects. Coba Cheng – one of its members and a rising filmmaker in Hong Kong – was introduced to Sandra Ng and Peter Chan at a dinner in Soho House. As a result of this meeting, Ng later went on to star in Cheng’s breakout film, Chilli Laugh Story. The impact of this meeting isn’t one that Cheng downplays. “Before Soho House, I was a creative director and a brand owner,” he says. “After [the meeting with Ng] I am a film director.” Not just that – his farcical romcom became the highest-grossing Hong Kong film during of summer 2022.