Design Trust Grants Spotlight | “Inter-island Festival 2023”

Design Trust Feature Grant Inter-island Festival led by Yip Kai Chun and ISLANDERS was successfully held on weekends from November 4th to 26th, 2023. In their second edition, the festival covered the outer islands of Peng Chau, Cheung Chau and Lantau Island’s Mui Wo and Chi Ma Wan, as well as the inter-island sea. The Festival presented new projects spanning from urban/rural cultures, environmental conservation, to design and crafts generated from cross-disciplinary collaborations and participatory processes right in the localities.

Before the formal start of the festival, a community engagement tour was conducted on Sunday October 15th, inviting the local islanders to become part of the Inter-island Festival 2023. Mobile photo booths was set up at the four islands to shoot personalised posters for the communities in response to the 2023 edition’s focus on the islanders and the daily lives of them on the island.

Borrowing the existing inter-island ferry connection between Peng Chau, Mui Wo, Chi Ma Wan and Cheung Chau, Inter-Island Festival celebrated and builds upon the rich and varied cultures of living by the inter-island sea. The festival invited scholars, artists, architects, biologists, poets, craftsmen, musicians, writers, performers, neighbours to exchange, collaborate and create original works to reshape our routines with poetic, humoristic, inspiring shared moments around our sea.

The second edition of Inter-island Festival was organised around five themes of “nonhuman neighbours”, “floating lives”, “anthropocene islands”, “island microhistories” and “coastal sensorialities”, presenting the richness of island culture in Hong Kong through multiple lenses. Highlighted works include “My path to Peng Chau Cinema” by Jimmie Lu, “Situating Circatidal” by Joanne Chan, Fok Chun-wing, Tommy Hui, “ReCreation” by Elizabeth Brie, “A Tango with Kaito - a love triangle between kaito, island and humans” by Island Studies Network (HK) and "Island Bee & Bee" by Roger Lee & YIWOOO.CO, collectively presenting the multifaceted islanders life and ecology in Hong Kong.

For more information on their project, visit their website here.