Samson Young

Those visiting the Hong Kong pavilion of the Venice Biennale could explore the unique audio-visual exhibition of multidisciplinary artist Samson Young. With Songs for Disaster Relief, he presents a sensory experience that re-examines the popularity of charity songs from the 1980s.

Made-to-measure ChainTrack with variable speed

A custom ChainTrack rail was engineered to run with a very slow pace of just a few centimetres per second. But as the tempo of the music changed, the rail system adjusted its speed accordingly. A particularly challenging job! To realize the MIDI to DMX conversion, the artist developed a custom interface.

ChainTrack Drive 6000 DMX Pro

Because the Venetian venue is a historical building with a lot of nooks, it required 12 custom corners in the ChainTrack setup. A ChainTrack Drive 6000 was therefore the most reliable system, as the track was running daily for many hours and featured some special 90-degree corner sections.

Acoustics on point

To make sure the sound transmission between the rooms was reduced to a minimal, ShowTex supplied custom acoustical curtains made from 3 layers of flame-retardant fabric. An outer layer of Blackout Double was combined with an extra layer of Calmuc to enhance the acoustic properties of the drape even more. By custom embroidering song lyrics onto the cloth, the multi-layered curtains got an instant touch of luxury! 

Samson Young's Songs for Disaster Relief is co-presented by M+ and Hong Kong Arts Development Council.