If art is a casualty of war, then Butoh would have been the spark, which flickers and glows, creating the movement of new life, rose from the ruins of the spirit of avant-garde and forever refusing to fade into oblivion.
Over 4 days in January 2025, Hong Kong will witness an unprecedented congress of butoh dancing at the new Sotheby’s Maison, an initiative and partnership between Nicolas Chow, chairman at Sotheby’s, the Xevarion Institute and Dr. Damien Charrieras at SCM.
We are delighted to have legendary Butoh dancers Tadashi Endo, Ima Tenko, Yasuo Fukurozaka, Masami Yurabe with Miwako Inagaki, Yuri Nagaoka and Seisaku to participate in this festival.
A comprehensive exhibition at the Catalyst gallery and the Sotheby’s Grotto will take place during the festival period, with historical artefacts, photographic, cinematographic and sculptural remnants / memento mori displayed to the Hong Kong public for the first time, in association with the Hijikata Tatsumi Archive at the Keio University (Tokyo), curated by Takashi Morishita. The festival will kick off at the School of Creative Media (CityU HK) where films screenings of significant archival materials will accompany the artists’ seminar.
Congress of Butoh Souls at Sotheby’s absorbs the artificial lights that defines this city, through the movements of this collection of renowned dancers, reflects and projects to us Hong Kong’s own history of busy forgetting, but not forgotten, beauty and aspirations.
