Loosely Based on Professionalism: The Skate Video and Experimental Cinema

In conjunction with MoMI’s exhibition Recording the Ride: The Rise of Street-Style Skate Videos, the New York–based artist/filmmaker Simon Liu will present a performative lecture reflecting on his years growing up as a skateboarder and videographer in Hong Kong and how that period still impacts his wide-ranging filmmaking practice. The talk will be accompanied by screenings of skateboarding video parts (or “clips”) that he watched on repeat as a teenager, excerpts from his recent short films and video installations, and clips from EXIT, a Hong Kong scene skate video that Liu released in high school in collaboration with Owen Yu and Toby Tommerup. Reflecting on idiosyncrasies in form and approach within both local filmmaking and skateboarding scenes, Liu will present images and ideas surrounding chance encounters, building friendships, camera choreography, failure as an inherent element of the artistic process, and acts of defiance within public space. 

Ticket price includes admission to the Museum. Come early to see Recording the Ride: The Rise of Street-Style Skate Videos before the program. 

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). There is a $1.50 transaction fee per ticket for all online purchases. The cost of admission may be applied toward a same-day purchase of a membership. 

Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission. 

Artist bio:

Simon Liu (b. Hong Kong, 1987) is an artist filmmaker whose practice centers on the rapidly evolving psychological and sociopolitical landscapes of his homeland of Hong Kong through material abstraction, speculative history, and subversion of documentary cinema practices via short films, multi-channel video installations, mixed media prints, and 16mm projection performances. His work has been exhibited at museums and festivals including the Whitney Biennial 2024, Museum of Modern Art, MOCA Los Angeles, M+ Museum and the Toronto, New York, Berlin, Sundance, Rotterdam, BFI London, and Hong Kong International Film Festivals.