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Enid Tsui

Signal Festival reveals Prague in a different light.
The annual digital art extravaganza – one of the Czech Republic’s most popular cultural events – only begins when darkness has all but swallowed the city’s famous architecture.
For its 2024 edition, which ran from October 10-13, nearly half a million people filled the city’s night streets to see the illuminated artworks on display during the four nights of the festival.
Now negotiations are under way for the festival to launch in Hong Kong.

“I will only do it if it is meaningful,” said Martin Posta, one of the festival’s co-founders. “I don’t want to helicopter in a European festival just for the sake of doing it. But it would be very exciting, of course, to have Signal in Asia.
“Signal Festival is called that because just like a signal that transmits information or energy, the festival aims to connect people with cutting-edge digital and light-based art, fostering creativity and dialogue between artists and the public.”
The Prague festival – which launched in 2013 – is also very much about showcasing the city itself.
This year, around 20 artworks by Czech and international artists were shown along two routes on opposite sides of the Vltava river from 7pm to midnight. And for the first time, the festival was given the run of the sprawling Prague Castle compound, where the Czech president lives and works. It was a big draw, Posta said.
Apart from the free outdoor installations, 16,000 tickets for indoor “Gallery Zone” installations were sold, each costing 440 Czech koruna (US$19); a VIP ticket was 1,990 Czech koruna.

There was also a new conference called Signal Forum, co-organised with the Sensorium festival from the Slovakian capital Bratislava, featuring speakers bridging the arts and sciences, such as the Chinese artist Xin Liu.
The forum brought intellectual heft to a festival that attempts to go beyond mere spectacle: this year’s theme was the unpredictable, evolved ecology that human civilisation is facing because of its own technological development.
Czech artist Filip Hodas’ Eternal Recurrence certainly had elements of the apocalyptic. This video-mapping work transformed the Baroque facade of the 17th-century Archbishop’s Palace at Hradcanske Square into a ruin first, and later, a site of organic rebirth.
Its heavily amplified soundtrack had a regular, pulsating bass reminiscent of the thumpers that the Fremen used to attract the sandworms in Dune, and it could be felt deep within the castle compound.
All night long, it called forth a huge crowd to gaze in awe at the vision that took place several times each hour just outside the main castle gate.

People also stood transfixed by another work on the other side of the river. Chinese artist Cao Yuxi planted the latest of the digital totems from his “Dimensional Sampling” series in the middle of Old Town Square.
Nearby, Prague’s famous medieval Astronomical Clock stood in shadow while Cao’s giant illuminated cube mutated along with music composed by Hong Kong cross-disciplinary artist Lawrence Lau Hiu-kong.
“I have attended a lot of digital art festivals around the world and this is definitely one of the best,” said Cao, who is based in Shenzhen. “The team here are so experienced and professional. Setting up is not stressful at all. And there is so much freedom for artists to do anything they want.”
There were attempts at conveying complex ideas through art. Jiri Prihoda’s elegant light tunnel Capriccio, inside the Sternberg Palace, was built on the precise foundations of Cartesian geometry, classical architecture and the physical laws of balance.
At the Kunsthalle Praha, Britain’s pioneering United Visual Artists studio referred to chaos theory in its creation of structured patterns made using real-time data.
There are things to consider, like how crowded Hong Kong is, and how many distractions there are at night
Signal Festival co-founder Martin Posta
But the most profound aspect of the festival was how it brought strangers together as they roamed the streets with a common purpose.
And despite the size of the crowd, there was a certain quietness that allowed participants to soak in Prague’s architecture and history, encouraged by works such as Coded Tapestry: Prague, a monumental video shown in the dark hall of the Prague Castle Riding School.
Created by Seohyo, a Korean artist and professor at the Samsung Art and Design Institute in Seoul, the piece was a mosaic of Prague’s traditional architectural elements.
Can all this happen in Hong Kong? Posta was in the city in 2017 to witness the Lumieres Hong Kong light art festival, which memorably saw buildings such as the General Post Office lit up with video art.
He is also aware that the city has a huge appetite for mega events combining art and technology – an area that the Hong Kong government particularly wants to push – and has been talking to HKWalls, the Hong Kong street art festival, as a potential partner.

But he has reservations.
“There are things to consider, like how crowded Hong Kong is, and how many distractions there are at night. Prague is a very special place. It has a lot of space for crowds to gather and have all these historical buildings that can engage in an interesting way with contemporary art.”
There is also the cost. Hong Kong is far more expensive than Prague, and in the festival’s home city, the local government provided around a third of the €2 million (US$2.2 million) budget this year and also gave access to many public venues.
“We think an event like Signal would be a great asset to the arts and cultural scene in Hong Kong,” said Maria Wong, managing director of HKWalls.
She added that no such festival had been attempted at the same scale in the city before and that she expected that the quality of the artworks and production would be “truly amazing”.
Roaming freely through Prague Castle at night and basking in the camaraderie of fellow festivalgoers, it was not hard to imagine how wonderful it would be for somewhere like Government House to be opened up for the same purpose in Hong Kong.
Pie in the sky, perhaps. But the value of a festival like Signal is surely measured by how it can change the way residents see their city.


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Prague’s ‘amazing’ Signal Festival could come to Hong Kong

A crowd gathers in Prague’s Old Town Square around Chinese artist Cao Yuxi’s “Dimensional Sampling”, a piece of light art with sound by Hong Kong’s Lawrence Lau that was part of the Signal Festival 2024, in the Czech Republic. Photo: Signal Festival

Korean artist Seohyo’s “Coded Tapestry: Prague” is shown on a large screen at the Prague Castle Riding School. Photo: Enid Tsui

A scene from “Iron Horse: Fractured”, a production by Mirenka Cechova shown in the courtyard of the Clam-Gallas Palace. Photo: Enid Tsui

Crowds gather outside the Archbishop’s Palace in Prague to watch Czech artist Filip Hodas’ “Eternal Recurrence”, which was projected onto the palace facade. Photo: Enid Tsui

A night view of Prague from the terrace of the Lobkowicz Palace at Prague Castle, where the Signal Festival after-party was held on October 11, 2024. Photo: Enid Tsui

Hong Kong’s East Kowloon Cultural Centre opens first venue with ‘art tech’ show

Interior stage at East Kowloon Cultural Centre in Kowloon Bay.
12OCT24 SCMP / Edmond So

Japanese sound artist Ei Wada (left) and Hong Kong new media artist Keith Lam ahead of their performances of Remediation Ensemble at The Theatre at the East Kowloon Cultural Centre in Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong. The show will also feature musician Akira Ataka, rapper Gold Mountain and drummer Kitt Lau. Photo: Edmond So

The exterior of the East Kowloon Cultural Centre in Kowloon Bay. Photo: Edmond So

The stage at The Theatre in preparation for the performances of Remediation Ensemble. Photo: Edmond So

Part of the set for Remediation Ensemble. Photo: Edmond So

Sun Museum helps Hong Kong artists shine in first exhibition at new location

Chloe Sun, founder of Sun Museum, poses with artworks featured in the “Hong Kong Paintings in Sai Yuen Lane” exhibition, which brings together 92 local artists to celebrate the opening of the private museum’s new Sai Ying Pun location. Photo: May Tse

Paintings featured at Sun Museum’s “Hong Kong Paintings in Sai Yuen Lane” exhibition. Photo: Facebook/Sun Museum

Traditional-style artworks on show at Sun Museum. Photo: Facebook/Sun Museum

Skyward Glance at Sai Yuen Lane, an ink-on-paper piece from Hong Kong artist Mak Sik-yun, featured in “Hong Kong Paintings in Sai Yuen Lane”. Photo: Facebook/Sun Museum

Artworks on show at Sun Museum. Photo: May Tse

A visitor takes a photo of an artwork at Sun Museum. Photo: May Tse

The interior of Sun Museum’s new location features colours inspired by Chinese porcelain. Photo: Facebook/Sun Museum

Giant pigeon statue on New York’s High Line challenges residents’ views on immigration

A person walks past a giant pigeon statue, called Dinosaur, created by Colombian artist Iván Argote, on the High Line in New York on October 21, 2024. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

The hyperrealistic sculpture is cast in aluminium. Photo: EPA-EFE

The statue will be on display until spring 2026. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

A close-up of one of the statue’s feet. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

People relax in front of the statue on October 21, 2024. Photo: Getty Images via AFP

Young naked women are their canvas – nude art of 2 anonymous Hong Kong artists challenges city’s conservative attitudes towards sex

Lousy’s body paint on a nude woman. The anonymous Hong Kong graffiti artist paints bold designs on young, naked women then photographs them in erotic poses. Photo: Lousy                                                         

Another of Lousy’s “kissfaces”, on Queen’s Road West in Hong Kong. Photo: Lousy

Lousy’s photobook “Yook”, published in 2020. Photo: Lousy

Matsushimaon’s body art on a nude woman. Photo: Matsushimaon

Professor Sonia Wong says there is not a lot of space in erotic or explicit artistic disciplines for women to express their sexuality, especially in Hong Kong. Photo: Professor Sonia Wong

Artist Lousy’s portrait. Photo: Lousy

Lifestyle

Arts & Culture

The digital art extravaganza, whose 2024 edition was mesmerising, is in talks to launch in Hong Kong, but its co-founder has reservations


The digital art extravaganza, whose 2024 edition was mesmerising, is in talks to launch in Hong Kong, but its co-founder has reservations.


Hong Kong

Czech Republic