The ReStart Art Club", the annual private party hosted by Princess Alia Al-Senussi and Dino Sadhwani during Art Basel Hong Kong returned this year after a hiatus due to the global pandemic and was held on Thursday, 23rd March 2023 at K11 ATELIER King's Road. This one-night only event brought together the global creative community and luminaries from different disciplines across regions to celebrate the reinvigoration of the international art scene in Hong Kong.
Hosts & Host Chairs of "The ReStart Art Club"
(From Left) Michael Govan, Eva Chow, Adrian Cheng, Dino Sadhwani, Princess Alia Al-Senussi, Philip Tinari & Alan Lau
Curated by Jason Swamy and produced by COI Communications, the theme of this year was an exploration of the binaries of art - familiar and foreign, digital and analog, acoustic and electronic, while showcasing the confluence of age, ethnicities, and cultures.
To highlight the concept of dualisms, the event was chosen to be held at K11 ATELIER King's Road, a contemporary office space with a vertical creative city concept, while the set paid homage to the industrial heritage of the area.
Art Basel Hong Kong's largest private event honoring movers and shakers of the art world returns
Alongside the hosts, this event was brought together by 5 distinguished Host Chairs: Adrian Cheng of K11 Group, Alan Lau of M+, Eva Chow of LACMA, along with Michael Govan of LACMA and Philip Tinari of UCCA, both of whom have participated in previous editions of the event, as well as 18 esteemed Host Committee members from around the region.
Celebrating arts, culture, and creativity in all shapes and forms
As guests arrived the venue, they were instantly met with a blend of cultures through a Chinese music performance with a modern twist, where musicians performed amidst an elevated stage full of larger-than-life flowers, and dancers dressed in matching colored body suits were concealed within the installation and emerged to greet and interact with guests.
Tying in the themes of nature and dualities, guests were then invited to enjoy a Five Flower Tea infused gin cocktail before traversing through the depths of nature at the digital exhibit created by d'strict at ARTE M Hong Kong, which is the first ever overseas showcase of Korea's largest immersive media art exhibition. In the future, ARTE M Hong Kong will move to 11 SKIES, Hong Kong's largest retailtainment new landmark, with more works added to the collection in a larger space with F&B facilities as a permanent exhibition.
Guests were then offered a molecular sphere cocktail and guided into a lift with an eccentric dance performance to continue their journey. The lift opened into an unrefined yet mysterious speakeasy decorated with traditional Hong Kong and industrial elements where spectacular performances were unveiled sequentially.
An endless night of enthralling performances from award-winning virtuosos
The 2023 edition saw over 8 local and international acts which were flown in from Ukraine, Switzerland, United States, Mexico, France, Philippines, Taiwan and more. One of the highlights of the evening at The Amber Room was an enthralling set by Sly5thAve, a Grammy-award winning musician. A dramatic curtain reveal marked the beginning of a high energy dance performance at The Green Room, followed by a riveting solo performance by accordion player Mario Batkovic, and DJ and dance performances that continued throughout the night.
A range of canapés inspired by local flavors and the Hong Kong dim sum culture were offered to guests to pay homage to our vibrant city, and beverages were sponsored by Two Moons Distillery, Moët & Chandon, Don Julio 1942, and KHEE Soju. Within the speakeasy, there was also a dragon-i branded lounge area, which served as a forerunner to the after-party that continued at the club.
Other contributing artists at the event included Min Joon Lee, the international collective Hyper Futurism with a curation of digital artworks, and Magic Room with a selection of Hong Kong-styled neon signs.
The hosts, Princess Alia Al-Senussi and Dino Sadhwani, have successfully created yet another captivating, fun-filled event and captured the spirit of reconnecting and restarting. The party lived up to the hype from its previous editions and will certainly be remembered as a must go-to event in the calendar during Art month in Hong Kong. It is hoped that the event will continue the success in celebrating the collaboration among people passionate about art and culture, performance, gastronomy, music and entertainment.
Sponsors: 11 SKIES, d'strict, Moët & Chandon, Don Julio, Cloudy Bay, KHEE Soju, Two Moons Distillery
Hosts: Princess Alia Al-Senussi and Dino Sadhwani
Host Chairs & Host Committee Members who attended: Adrian Cheng, Alan Lau, Eva Chow, Michael Govan, Philip Tinari, Alan Lo and Yenn Wong, Alison Chan, Claudine Ying, Edward Tang, Eugene Tang, Gilbert and Martina Yeung, Ivan Pun (Myanmar), James Neary, Jonathan Cheung, Katrina Razon (Philippines), Lester Lam, Loui Lim, Marc Spiegler (Switzerland), Pranitan (Pete) Phornprapha (Thailand) and Rishabh Tongya (India)
Some notable guests from the art world include: Sir David Adjaye, Cecile Debray, Marc Spiegler, Kyoko Hattori, Vassilis Oikonomopoulos, Marisa Chearavanont, Lim Se-Ryung, Beeple, Staffan Ahrenberg, Simon De Pury, Sean Lee, and Aaron Cezar
Some notable guests from the fashion and entertainment world include: Tina Leung, Lisa Haydon, Georgina Wilson, Kelly Cheung, Serrini, Fiona Xie, Sarah Song
Some of the local prominent guests include: Bruce Rockowitz, Sonia Cheng, Kevin Poon, Rigel Davis, Karim El Azar, Marisa Yiu, Sonia Cheng, Antonia Li, Feiping Chang, Emily Lam, Elly Lam & Victoria Tang
About Hosts
About Princess Alia Al-Senussi
Princess Alia Al-Senussi, PhD, is an active member of the contemporary art world with a focus on cultural strategy and patronage systems. She is a cultural strategist, writer, patron, public speaker and academic.
Princess Alia has served as Art Basel's UK and MENA Representative for over a decade, and is also currently Senior Advisor, International Outreach for Art Basel. In 2019 she was appointed Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Culture, Saudi Arabia, where she focuses on developing international partnerships whilst working on a variety of projects across the Ministry's commissions and the Diriyah Biennale Foundation. Princess Alia is a visiting lecturer at Brown University's Watson Institute, working with the Middle East Studies Program.
Princess Alia is currently a member of the Tate Modern Advisory Council (London), the Strategic Advisory Panel of the Delfina Foundation (London), the Board of Trustees of The Showroom (London), the Board of Trustees of FUNTASIA/Elisa Sednaoui Foundation (UK / Egypt / Italy), the Board of Governors of Aiglon College (Switzerland) as well as a member of Therme Art Advisory Board (Germany) and the UCCA Contemporary Circle (China).
She continues to serve a0073 a founding member of the Tate's Acquisitions Committee for the Middle East and North Africa, the Board of 1:54 The African Art Fair, and the Middle East Circle of the Guggenheim, the Middle East Studies Advisory Committee at Brown University, the Serpentine Future Contemporaries (and founding committee member) as well as was a founding member of the Board of Patrons of Art Dubai, having played an integral role in the founding of the fair. Princess Alia is also a member of the British Museum committee for the acquisition of Middle Eastern art.
Dr Alia has a PhD in Politics from SOAS (London), examining the nexus of power and cultural patronage, featuring Saudi Arabia as a case study. She graduated Magna Cum Laude in International Relations (honors) and Middle East Studies from Brown University and holds an MA in Political Science from Brown and an MSc in Law, Anthropology and Society from the London School of Economics.
About Dino Sadhwani
Dino is a seasoned and passionate entrepreneur who brings decades of experience building successful ventures to the table. After attempting his first business at the age of fifteen and later moving to Los Angeles for university, Dino went on to launch, grow, and help lead multiple successful start-ups worldwide in the diverse realms of F&B, wellness, commodities, venture capital, and supply chain management. He is also the co-founder and host of one of the international art world's preeminent experiences: LACMA's annual Art Basel party in Hong Kong. A proud perfectionist with a skilled attention to detail, Dino has a proven gift for numbers and pattern recognition. He enjoys creating and growing efficient, foolproof systems that fuel transformation and enrich lives.
A dad who loves nothing more than spending time with his children, Dino winds down with a football at his feet or a racquet in his hand. He has an affinity for mathematics, psychology and philosophy, and orients his life around the energies of probability and potential.
Host Chairs
About Adrian Cheng
Adrian is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of New World Development, which spans property, infrastructure, construction, hotels and other consumer and technology businesses. Since joining the company in 2006, he has reinvented the brand's DNA through 'The Artisanal Movement', infusing craftsmanship, heritage, design and creativity into all of the company's ventures. In 2008, Adrian established the K11 brand, K11 Group, the world's first 'cultural-retail' concept, with the intention of merging art and commerce and curating the customer journey with a focus on the next generation. Envisioned as the 'Silicon Valley of Culture', K11 MUSEA is a world-class cultural retail destination in Hong Kong, which helps meet the growing consumer demand for immersive and unique experiences.
In 2010, Adrian founded the K11 Art Foundation, the first private, non-profit organization to support Chinese artists and curators. Further to this in 2018, Adrian founded the K11 Craft & Guild Foundation, in an effort to preserve and rejuvenate traditional and aging Chinese art. Adrian was awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star by the HKSAR government in 2022 for his outstanding contributions to Hong Kong. At the start of 2023, Adrian was appointed as the Chairman of the Mega Arts and Cultural Events Committee by the Hong Kong Government to strengthen the city's status as a cultural exchange hub between China and the rest of the world.
About Alan Lau
Alan Lau is Vice Chair of M+, Hong Kong's largest contemporary art museum. He is also Chairman of ParaSite, the longest standing non-profit local art space. He co-chairs the Asia Pacific Acquisition Committee of Tate, and the Asia Art Circle of Guggenheim. He has been a technologist for 20 years, with leadership roles in McKinsey and Tencent. Mr. Lau is currently CBO of Animoca Brands, a $6bn blockchain company building multiple open metaverses to mass-onboard Web2 users to Web3.
About Eva Chow
Eva Chow, also known as Eva Chun, began her creative endeavors at a young age training in Korean traditional watercolor. She later moved to the United States where she enrolled at the Otis Parsons School of Design and started her fashion career. With the international success from selling to Bergdorf, Barney's, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and more, Eva opened her flagship showroom in 550 Seventh Avenue in New York. She joined CFDA in 1991 and was touted as 'one of the top five young designers in America' by The New York Times. A favorite to celebrities like Nicole Kidman, Sharon Stone and Angelica Houston to name a few, many of her designs have also been photographed by eminent photographers like Helmut Newton and Herb Ritts, and have appeared in numerous issues of Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, as well as the cover of Vanity Fair and Women's Wear Daily. It was in New York where she met collector, designer and restaurateur, Michael Chow, and the pair married in 1992. Eva also serves on the Board of Trustees at Los Angeles County Museum (LACMA) where she has founded and co-chairs an annual 'Art + Film' gala with Leonardo DiCaprio since 2011, attended by guests from all over the world of art, film and fashion.
About Michael Govan
Michael Govan joined the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) as Chief Executive Officer and Wallis Annenberg Director in 2006. In this role, he oversees all activities of the museum, from art programming to the expansion and upgrade of the museum's 20-acre campus. During his tenure, LACMA has acquired by donation or purchase more than 56,000 works for the permanent collection, doubled gallery space and programs, and more than doubled its average annual attendance to well over one million. Currently the museum is in the process of building a new, state-of-the-art permanent collection building designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor.
About Philip Tinari
Philip Tinari is Director and Chief Executive of UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. Since joining in 2011, he has led its transformation into China's leading independent contemporary art institution, with an annual audience of over one million visitors. Tinari was founding editor of the magazine LEAP, contributing editor of Artforum, co-curator of the 2017 exhibition "Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World" at the Guggenheim, and artistic director of the First Diriyah Biennale.
Institutions
About LACMA
Located on the Pacific Rim, LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, with a collection of more than 149,000 objects that illuminate 6,000 years of artistic expression across the globe. Committed to showcasing a multitude of art histories, LACMA exhibits and interprets works of art from new and unexpected points of view that are informed by the region's rich cultural heritage and diverse population. LACMA's spirit of experimentation is reflected in its work with artists, technologist, and thought leaders as well as in its regional, national, and global partnerships to share collections and programs, create pioneering initiatives, and engage new audiences.
https://www.lacma.org/
About UCCA
UCCA Center for Contemporary Art is China's leading contemporary art institution. Committed to bringing the best in art to a wider audience, UCCA shares a wide range of exhibitions, public programs, and research initiatives to a public of more than one million visitors each year across three locations. UCCA Beijing sits at the heart of the 798 Art District, occupying 10,000 square meters of factory chambers built in 1957 and regenerated in 2019 by OMA. UCCA Dune, designed by Open Architecture, lies beneath the sand in the seaside enclave of Aranya in Beidaihe. UCCA Edge, designed by New York-based architecture firm SO – IL, opened in Shanghai in May 2021. Formally accredited as a museum by the Beijing Cultural Bureau in 2018, UCCA also operates non-profit foundations, licensed by the Beijing Bureau of Civil Affairs and the Hong Kong government. UCCA's commercial ventures include the retail platform UCCA Store, the children's education initiative UCCA Kids, and collaborations and projects under the rubric UCCA Lab. Opened in 2007 and revived by a committed group of Chinese and international patrons in 2017, UCCA works to bring China into global dialogue through contemporary art.
https://ucca.org.cn/en
About K11 Art Foundation
Founded by Dr. Adrian Cheng in 2010, K11 Art Foundation is a non-profit organization in Hong Kong dedicated to fostering the development of Chinese contemporary art. In pursuing our mission, we are committed to supporting artists and young curators through K11 Art Foundation's exhibitions, artist residencies, and educational programmes. We also actively establish partnerships with leading art and cultural institutions around the world, collaborating with curators and other industry specialists to create impactful cross-cultural exchange and contribute to the expanding global contemporary art discourse.
Over the years, K11 Art Foundation has collaborated with the Royal Academy of Arts, Serpentine Galleries, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, and Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris; Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and MoMA PS1, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, in Beijing; and Videotage, British Council Hong Kong, Design Trust, and Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong, among others.
www.k11artfoundation.org
Working Partners
About Jason Swamy - Creative Director
Jason Swamy is a creative visionary and thought leader that has helped shape cultural zeitgeist through art, music, food, wellness, thought leadership and community building. He's best known for his involvement with the legendary Robot Heart, award winning Wonderfruit and critically acclaimed Further Future.
He is highly sought after globally for his creative, curation and experience design ability. He's a tastemaker that has influenced many. Always pushing boundaries, his work defies definition.
Swamy has worked with A-listers from tech leader Eric Schmidt, 3 Star Michelin Chef Gaggan, Grammy Winner Skrillex to award winning hotels like The Upper House, NASDAQ listed tech behemoth Netease and innovative casino group Melco Crown to name but a few.
About COI Communications - Producer
COI stands for Collection of Individuals – as they curate the best collection of talent from their core team, vendors, collaborators and clients - because they believe that a group of likeminded and determined individuals working together in tandem can create a force strong enough to break traditions, assumptions and expectations.
Based in Hong Kong, COI Communications is a boutique events and communications agency founded with a curious spirit and a specific objective: to offer businesses a new way to engage their audience in its most genuine, yet creative form.
COI does not believe in using the same formula for each project. This is why they surround themselves with talented crafters, eccentric creatives and disruptive thinkers to ensure that each project, no matter the size or scope is as unique and enjoyable to its end users as it has been for their team to create.
Source: Xinhua Finance Agency
