The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, Berlin (HKETO Berlin) is presenting the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) project to a Berlin audience through an exhibition organised in collaboration with the Aedes Architecture Forum and the WKCD Authority. The exhibition, entitled "Constructing Culture", is the first of a series of activities that HKETO Berlin has planned to stage this year in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and is also an integral part of the Asia-Pacific Weeks 2017 in Berlin.
      
     Stretching across 40 hectares of land along the waterfront of the renowned Victoria Harbour, the WKCD will encompass 17 arts and cultural venues as well as space for arts education. The WKCD will transform the cultural landscape of Hong Kong and serve as an example for the sustainable integration of arts and culture into the steadily changing urban landscape of a metropolis, connecting and inspiring Hong Kong's local art scene and at the same time being a place to create and present world-class events and exhibitions.
      
     The opening ceremony on May 26 (Berlin time) featured the welcome remarks by the Founder of the Aedes Architecture Forum, Dr Kristin Feireiss, as well as speeches by the Senator for Urban Development and Housing of the Berlin Senate, Ms Katrin Lompscher; the Chief Executive Officer of the WKCD Authority, Mr Duncan Pescod; and the Director of HKETO Berlin, Ms Betty Ho.
      
     In her speech, Ms Ho talked about the diverse and vibrant culture of Hong Kong, with a distinct flavour of "East meets West", as well as the achievements of the city in the past 20 years. She said, "The West Kowloon Cultural District is a vivid example of our achievements in infrastructure development and cultural pursuits. These achievements were made possible under 'one country, two systems', which enables Hong Kong to fully utilise our strengths to progress further. We stay together, we have made progress, and we are ready for new opportunities."
      
     In the afternoon, lectures were given by renowned experts such as Mr Martin Biewenga from the Dutch urban planning and landscape architecture firm West 8; Founding Partner of the multi-disciplinary architecture studio ESKYIU Dr Eric Schuldenfrei; and Lead Architect of Bing Thom Architects Mr Earle Briggs. All of them are significantly contributing to the successful implementation of this mega infrastructure project in Hong Kong.
      
     The exhibition in Berlin is running until July 13 at the Aedes Architecture Forum.
            
Address: 
Aedes Architecture Forum
Christinenstr. 18-19                                            
10119 Berlin
 
Opening hours:
Tuesday to Friday, 11am to 6.30pm
Sunday and Monday, 1pm to 5pm
 
Website:
www.aedes-arc.de/cms/aedes/de/programm?id=17509235
 
About HKETO Berlin
 
     HKETO Berlin is the official Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government representative in commercial relations and other economic and trade matters in Germany as well as Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.

Ends/Monday, May 29, 2017
Issued at HKT 22:13

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