“Dragon’s Delusion” Screening

Making its dazzling North American debut, the award-winning Dragon’s Delusion from Hong Kong animator Kongkee immerses audiences in the artist’s futuristic, neon-soaked dystopias that draw on myth, poetry, and eternal questions about life and death, man and machine, reality and illusion. The 30-minute film imagines the legendary Chinese poet Qu Yuan’s soul on a journey from the Warring States period more than 2,000 years ago to a fantastic 21st-century Asia of cyborgs, popstars, ancient enemies, and surprising romantic reunions. At its heart is the mystery of whether we can ever truly know ourselves and master our desires, as Qu Yuan, embodied now in the mechanical “Android Joe,” returns again and again to the places and people of his past.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kongkee, aka Kong Khong-chang (b. 1977), is an animation director and visual artist based in London. Penguin Lab studio, which Kongkee co-founded in 2008, created the comic book “Travel to Hong Kong with Blur” for the Britpop band Blur’s 2015 Hong Kong-themed album “The Magic Whip.” In 2012, his graphic novel “Detournements: La littérature de Hong Kong en bande dessinée” (co-authored with Chihoi) was published in French in Europe. His original animated short “Dragon’s Delusion: Preface” was awarded the 22nd DigiCon6 Asia Grand Prize by Japan TBS in 2020. In 2022, he was commissioned by M+ Museum in Hong Kong to create the interactive video installation Flower In The Mirror.