Hong Kong Arts Festival makes its Metaverse debut through Meta12

(Hong Kong, 31 January 2023)

The Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF) embraces technology in the performing arts to reach new audiences. Now, the Festival is partnering with globally renowned architecture design studio MCG and metaverse studio X Social Group to build Hong Kong’s first Meta Art Theatre. The HKAF will showcase a series of programmes in the Meta Art Theatre, including Shuffle Dimensions, Like Them, Like Us—the making of dance opera Love Streams and Before the Sun Rises: The Yat-sen Musical Diary in the Meta Art Theatre. Audiences can now experience the arts and technology in a new way through the three-dimensional world of the metaverse.

“We are proud to be the pioneer of the metaverse in experimenting with the arts and reaching new audiences. The HKAF will initially showcase three highlighted programmes in the Meta Art Theatre to engage audiences” says Katy Cheng, Marketing Director of the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

“In addition to immersive performances, the Meta Art Theatre provides an interactive platform where the Hong Kong Arts Festival audience can interact, connect and communicate in the metaverse platform. The metaverse enables the Hong Kong Arts Festival to showcase some of our programmes virtually to Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area and even around the world,” says Eugene Lo, Associate Marketing Director of the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

MCG architect Ken Leung says: “The Art Theatre is designed as a place of inspiration, participation and contribution—to both the arts and the community. It is designed as a cultural destination with diverse and varied indoor and outdoor spaces that capture the full experience of the metaverse. The design focuses on the idea of community, making the theatre interactive, social and above all accessible. It serves as a theatre, film centre, archive and a catalyst for new artistic production.”

“It combines a range of theatre and exhibition spaces to accommodate various arts performances. As a place for public events, communication and exhibition, the interior space creates a continuous and fluid image through curved walls and ceilings, curated to cater to bespoke lighting design and sound systems. “

“Two intertwined buildings emerge from the ground, while the surrounding landscape continues as a sloping green carpet atop the roof of the building. These rooftop public spaces not only provide outdoor screening areas, restaurants and cafes, but also offer 360-degree views and new vantage points over the Art Park. The structural elements are expressed as a striking contemporary layer that defies gravity. This evolved structural grid resembles the iconic triangular structural waffle ceilings of some of the vernacular architecture in the Hong Kong arts scene.”

The Co-founder of Meta12 Mr. Terence Yip says that as a metaverse created in Hong Kong, Meta12 is dedicated to telling Hong Kong stories. It also strives to promote Hong Kong culture and strengthen the image of the city as a capital of the arts.

Samuel Lam, CEO of XSocial Group, says: “The metaverse is a virtual world that mirrors our physical world using Web3.0 technologies. We aim to engage our metaverse audience with a multi-sensory and story-living experience. It is a venue for meeting new friends online, as well as an environment which connects art, culture, heritage and architecture. The Meta Art Theatre is truly an artwork that combines art and architecture. It is a digital living space providing a new metaverse experience. We are looking forward to futuristic metaverse performances by top artistic performers from all over the world.”

Please visit us at: https://www.meta-artainment.io/arttheatre

About the Hong Kong Arts Festival

Launched in 1973, the Hong Kong Arts Festival is a major international arts festival committed to enriching the cultural life of the city. In February and March every year, the Festival presents leading local and international artists from all genres of the performing arts, giving equal importance to great traditions and contemporary creations. The Festival also commissions and produces work in theatre, music, chamber opera and contemporary dance by Hong Kong’s own creative talents and emerging artists, many of which have subsequently had successful runs in Hong Kong and overseas. Every year, the Festival also presents more than 250 “PLUS” and educational activities that offer diverse arts experiences to the community as well as tertiary, secondary and primary school students. In addition, through the “No Limits” project co-presented with The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, the Festival strives to create an inclusive space for people with different abilities to share the joy of the arts together.

About MCG | SNS

International, collaborative, and culturally engaged, MCG I SNS is a boutique design studio consisting of a multidisciplinary team of architects and interior designers dedicated to the highest levels of detail and creative expression. Creative cross pollination in the studio inherently informs our architecture and interiors projects and furniture, lighting, textiles, home décor and meta architecture designs of every scale. MCG I SNS aims to define and implement the new values of architecture in this digital age. We extend the design frontier to the digital world, thinking everyone should be empowered to shape their own metaverse experience. Blockchain-based real estate in the virtual world and associated platforms allow us to leverage our design skills in the physical world and to extend that into the virtual world.

About Meta12

Meta12 is a metaverse platform designed and built in Hong Kong. Based on the link between Web3.0 and blockchain technology, with green urbanism as the core concept, it creates an interoperable world of virtual and reality in parallel, bringing infinite possibilities to new experiences.

About X Social Group | Meta Artainment

Meta Artainment is a Web 3.0 creation studio by XSocial Group, an APAC award-winning digital agency in the Asia-Pacific, facilitating international brands in transforming their businesses into the Web 3.0 era through our metaverse platform and blockchain technology applications.

Media enquiries

For further enquiries, please contact Hong Kong Arts Festival Eugene Lo, Associate Marketing Director (Tel. (852) 2828 4985), at eugene.lo@hkaf.org, or Tobie Chan, Deputy Marketing Manager (Tel. (852) 2828 4931), at tobie.chan@hkaf.org or X Social Group Limited Michele Ho (Tel: (852) 3568 9059), at michele.ho@xsocialgroup.asia.