Tommy Simoens has the honour to present the exhibition Lí Wei: Feng Shui, the artists first full solo exhibition at the gallery, after a series of performances and workshops in the past year.

The exhibition marks the permanent move of the artist from Hong Kong to Antwerp, and brings together a series of works dealing with the deeply embedded beliefs and rituals of Feng Shui in today’s Hong Kong, as the artist experienced in the last years.

In Hong Kong, as in most of Asia, “Feng Shui” (which can be loosely translated to “the way of wind and water”) is everywhere. It is an ancient chinese art of arranging buildings, objects, and space in an environment to achieve harmony and balance. In case of “bad” Feng Shui, the unbalanced energies can attract ghosts that bring bad luck and unexplained misfortune. The same goes for the balance in one’s own energy. It is widely believed that Feng Shui masters can stop the ungoing wheel of fortune to re-direct one’s life to a path of personal and financial prosperity. Depending on how much one can pay, Feng Shui masters can re-write ones future. You just need to “choose the date”, and “change your name”.

The central artwork in the exhibition, the “Shaking House”, is a continiously shaking translation of the famous Lui Seng Chun building . Lui Seng Chun s located at the intersection of Lai Chi Kok Road and Tong Mei Road in Mong Kok, the Kowloon district. it was designed in the typical Western Neoclassical style by architect W. H. Bourne.

Lí Wei: “When I first went to visit the building, I happened to sit in a taxi whose driver lives nearby. The elderly driver told me vividly some of the building’s strange legends: There had been several demolition and renovation plans for it, but they all ended up with deadly supernatural incidents. In the end no company dared to take it over. Years later when the building was listed as a “Class 1 Historic Building” by the Hong Kong government to be preserved, still no one was willing to sign for it. Eventually a “Justice of Peace” took it. Under the guidance of Feng Shui masters, he had the building converted to what we see today – the Lui Seng Chun Building of The Hong Kong Baptist University School of Chinese Medicine. In 2022, it was declared a historical monument by the Hong Kong government”.

“The entire exhibition is filled with a sense of oppression and uncertainty – with everything confined and in a state of restlessness”. The many coloured LED lights the exhibition, react to the audience’s attention, reflecting the way we respond to the real world. To administer machines and programs with a certain “humanity”, it is our best chance to observe human nature”.

Lí Wei (b. 1981 in Beijing). Lí Wei graduated from the Sculpture Department, Central Academy of Fine Art in 2007. Derived from his incisive observation of life, Lí Wei’s work provokes reflections on the ever-changing surrounding environment where he lives and experiences, raising questions about the broader socio-cultural and geopolitical structures of the world.

His work has been exhibited widely across the world, including solo exhibitions including “Hearsay” & “Spring”, Villa Sträuli, Winterthur, Switzerland, 2017; Cellar and Garret, Klein Sun Gallery, New York, NY, 2017; Secure for Now, Tour Exhibition, Studio 9 & X Gallery, Hong Kong; F2 Gallery, Paris, France; Primo Marella Gallery, ARTISSIMA, Turin, Italy, 2016; Still Nobody Cares, A2Z Art Gallery, Paris, France, 2015; Nobody Cares, Red Brick Art Museum, Beijing, China, 2015; Peace, Primo Marella Gallery, Milan, Italy, 2014; Thank God, Gallery Yang, Beijing, China, 2013; Hero, Today Art Museum, Beijing, China, 2011.

His major group exhibitions includes Mirrors—The Reflected Self, Rietberg Museum, Zürich, Switzerland, 2019; New voices: A DSL Collection Story, Klein Sun Gallery, New York, NY, 2016; China 8 – Contemporary Art from China, Mulheim Museum, Mulheim, Germany, 2015; Commune, White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney, Australia, 2014; Asia Triennial Manchester – Harmonious Society, Manchester Cathedral, Manchester, UK, 2014; Hugo Boss Asia Art, Rockbund Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2013; Criss-Cross: Artworks of Young Chinese Contemporary Artists from Long Collection, Long Museum, Shanghai, China, 2013; The Unseen – The Fourth Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Provincial Museum, Guangzhou, China, 2012; and BMW New Face 2011, Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, China, 2011.