Indonesian duo Senyawa’s immersive, otherworldly music – filled with ritualistic chants, howls, and deep guttural sounds – defies categorization. Consisting of Rully Shabara and Wukir Suryadi, the band draws from indigenous traditions as well as contemporary music genres like heavy metal and noise. ‘They are trying to push the boundaries of how we understand sound and music,’ says Louiza Ho, a curator at the Hong Kong art hub Tai Kwun Contemporary, where the band will perform later this month.

Senyawa will be among the leading acts of Artists’ Night, an annual event that aims to nurture regional talent from multidisciplinary backgrounds – this year in association with Art Basel Hong Kong for the first time. ‘We are no longer just focusing on physical works presented on the wall. We want to give different sensory experiences to audiences,’ says Ho, explaining that the former 19th-century prison and police station will come alive with musical performances and immersive installations spread across the prison courtyard and auditorium spaces. The event will be grounded in themes of nature, ecology, and eco-spirituality inspired by ‘Green Snake: Women-centred Ecologies’ – a large-scale group exhibition currently on view at Tai Kwun Contemporary.

‘Since the 1970s, sound and music have played a significant role in the art world, particularly within the Fluxus movement,’ says Ho. ‘The intersection of sound and art has created an exciting space for experimentation.’ Advancements in digital technology have also inspired new possibilities, with many artists now creating immersive environments for audiences using moving images, sound, music, light, movement, and design.

Berlin-based Chinese artist and composer Pan Daijing, who will be headlining Artists’ Night, is a prime example. Traversing multiple disciplines, she is known for her haunting operatic performances imbued with fragility, despair, and undertones of violence. Her visceral, site-specific work combines visual art, opera, theater, dance, and music. She has made a name for herself both as a musician at festivals across Europe (among them CTM and the London Contemporary Music Festival) and as an artist who has exhibited and performed at venues including London’s Tate Modern and Palais de Tokyo in Paris. However, her practice is not widely known in Asia, she had a solo exhibition at Tai Kwun Contemporary in 2021 and participated in the Shanghai Biennale in 2021 and Gwangju Biennale in 2022. Ho says the team hopes to expose Asian audiences to Daijing’s work through an outdoor installation and the inaugural performance of an audio-visual concert responding to the themes of ecology and spirituality.

Upon entering the courtyard at Tai Kwun Contemporary, visitors will encounter Daijing’s monumental video installation Hour between Dog and Wolf (2024), made using experimental footage of dancers and performers shot in locations across Hong Kong, as well as film documentation of her last live exhibition at the gallery, Echo, Moss and Spill (2021). Also scattered across the yard will be installations evoking elaborate rock formations by local artist Vaevae Chan, including a work that looks like an outstretched stone hand bursting out of the ground.

Meanwhile, Daijing’s ethereal performance with live music and a two-channel video will take place in the indoor auditorium. In a similar vein to Fist Piece, which premiered at Kraftwerk, Berlin, in 2017, her new concert centers on an evocative personal narrative about herself and her mother. ‘After initially playing audio recordings of industrial soundscapes, Pan will use her voice mixed with electronic music to express not only her own vulnerability in relation to the natural world, but that of all humanity,’ says Ho. ‘Even though you are sitting in an auditorium, it feels like Pan is talking to you individually.’

Senyawa’s first performance will see the band interact directly with the audience. For Senyawa X, the duo will invite people onto the stage to engage with a wooden instrument strung with cables, handmade by Suryadi, who is known for building elaborate instruments with found materials, including farming tools, bamboo, metal, and glass. Once activated by participants, Suryadi’s instrument will trigger visuals to appear on a large projection screen to which Shabara will respond with powerful, raw vocals.  

The band’s second performance will be the global premiere of their latest album Vajrayana, inspired by the Buddhist Pawon Temple, which forms part of Yogyakarta’s famed Borobodur temple complex. ‘Senyawa are inspired by their surroundings and nature,’ says Ho. ‘They are exploring how humans live with nature in harmony.’ The event culminates in a dance party with a set by Hong Kong DJ, musician, and producer, Xiaolin, which blends acid house, electro, and techno. ‘The whole evening is about channeling and bringing people into a different world,’ says Ho. ‘Sound is a more direct medium than other art forms. You can really feel the atmosphere artists want to create and have a very intimate sonic experience.’