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Enid Tsui

On the hottest day on record in Hong Kong – when the temperature nudged 37 degrees Celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit) – contemporary art’s best-known orchestrator of angst found herself forcing her way through the crowd at a former prison compound.
This was not the frosty, theatrically sullen Anne Imhof often seen in magazine shoots and society pages. Dressed in her customary black, she appeared not like the enigmatic art-world diva whom Marina Abramović picked as one of the most influential women of 2022. She was just another person trying not to melt in the August heat.
She arrived at the Tai Kwun arts and heritage centre in Hong Kong’s Central neighbourhood without an entourage, accompanied only by her partner, Devon Teuscher, a principal dancer at the American Ballet Theatre.
Declining Imhof’s suggestion that she join the interview, Teuscher affectionately patted her arm – “Today, it’s all about you” – and slipped away to get a coffee nearby.
Shortly afterwards, seated in an air-conditioned meeting room, the German-born Imhof recalled how the couple met during the making of her three-hour production, Doom: House of Hope (2025).
The work in New York – Teuscher and Imhof’s home along with Berlin – was a highly stylised adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.
True to Imhof’s famously curated gloom, the dystopian set featured brooding young people in school uniform, sports jerseys and joggers, a giant countdown clock, SUVs and a pervasive sense that civilisation had misplaced its keys.
Teuscher performed alongside 40 actors and dancers, including Eliza Douglas, Imhof’s former partner and long-time collaborator.

LGBTQ visibility in ‘House of Swans’
Imhof’s live performance work, House of Swans, will kick off her first solo exhibition in Asia, starting at Tai Kwun on September 25.
The piece, starring Teuscher, expands a ballet sequence from the end of Doom into an origin story for the House of Swans, a faction coexisting alongside the Capulets and Montagues, and it will most definitely be “queered up”, says Imhof, who strongly believes in normalising LGBTQ visibility.
In May 2025, shortly after Doom, Imhof and Teuscher posed on the red carpet at the Spring Gala of the American Ballet Theatre and, more recently, they were filmed for Valentino’s 2026 campaign, gazing at each other in a hotel room.
Imhof does not care about “bourgeois acceptance of being queer”, but when a major fashion brand wants to say that it is perfectly normal to show two LGBTQ women being intimate together, it is a statement she wholeheartedly supports.

The central character in House of Swans is a young woman who travels the world, finds like-minded allies and falls in love with the Queen of the Swans. Teuscher will be joined for the performance by more than a dozen dancers from Hong Kong Ballet (HKB).
Imhof promises that any references to classical tales of tragic, passive heroines such as Swan Lake and Giselle will be delivered with attitude.
“I’m interested in [classical forms] such as ballet because I want to tell different stories,” she says. “Because autocrats use ballet as a soft power tool par excellence, it doesn’t mean it’s theirs. This is almost like an attempt to claim it back.”
I think there’s a depression, a melancholia in my work that people respond to
Anne Imhof
The 48-year-old artist and former Frankfurt nightclub bouncer defies easy categorisation. She draws, sculpts, composes and, most of all, choreographs and directs large ensemble performances. These works blend dance, drama and potent tableaux to create psychological portraits of urban alienation.
Imhof soared to international prominence after winning the Golden Lion at the 2017 Venice Biennale for Faust. That durational performance transformed the German Pavilion into a bleak institution featuring a raised glass floor to establish an internal class system.
Outside, Dobermans patrolled behind fences; inside, model-like performers navigated the two levels with a calm intensity punctuated by occasional screams from a topless Douglas. Subsequent works have solidified her reputation for very stylish angst.


“I think there’s a depression, a melancholia in my work that people respond to,” Imhof says. “But this melancholia is in almost all of us. In a way, things that I see around me and feel are to be addressed in my work.”
She can be funny, though. Aside from performances, Imhof’s Hong Kong show will include an exhibition of video works, drawings and bronze reliefs.
Discussing bronze – another “classical” medium she aims to subvert – she adopts a deep, mock-macho voice to parody male artists who created monumental works. Slipping into character, she barks, “Put this in bronze. It’s 30 metres tall!” before clapping her hands to mimic a sycophantic reception.
A new bronze relief sculpture in Hong Kong will boast decidedly unclassical subject matter: female pleasure, agency and women existing for purposes other than simply to be looked at.
Returning to her normal voice, she adds: “Bronze is annoyingly classical. I tell you, I’m not happy with having to be done with something so early before it is shown. This is contradictory to my nature, which is to want everything in flux until the last minute.”

That clashes with Hong Kong’s need for control, Imhof quickly discovered. “At certain moments in the production of the show I have to basically open up about what I’m going to show, and also very precisely say what’s in which position, what’s hanging where … and hand in video texts. It was really hard for me,” she admits.
Imhof gives credit to Tai Kwun curators for respecting her creative space while explaining that the requirements were to do with the Temporary Place of Public Entertainment Licence (TPPEL) that all exhibitions in non-governmental venues in Hong Kong, apart from commercial galleries, require. The details requested for approval were tightened with the 2020 national security law.
“Generally, in my practice, I don’t give institutions the relief of like, ‘I’m done. Here’s what you get,’” she says. “Why I’m a performance artist is because I believe in this moment of energy when the audience and the artists are in one room, and they create something together and that’s what I live for.”
A video work titled Citizen will be shown as part of House of Swans. Based on Doom, it will feature suggestions of violence and scenes involving trans bodies. Consequently, she was told that she either cut out certain scenes or screen the full version in a room with a strict age warning.
“Putting the film in a room with an age warning was my choice,” she says. “The process to get the TPPEL was interesting in how it made me feel. I became really aware of how much I wanted to show it in its entirety.”

Collaborating with the HKB also required Imhof to learn a new kind of dance. She typically works with the same trusted performers for years – such as dancers from The Forsythe Company – who are accustomed to the free-flowing improvisation she demands. In a strictly hierarchical system such as classical ballet’s, first-timers need more coaxing.
“Everybody’s uncomfortable when it comes to doing something where they could make a fool of themselves, including me,” Imhof says. “When I came, I already knew that I needed more of a structure with them. I could get a lot more out of working with the dancers here because Devon is very smart and she is the translator.”
Not your traditional muse
During this second visit before the premiere, Imhof was still finalising the ensemble. The main cast, however, was set: starring alongside Teuscher will be the brilliantly expressive HKB principal dancer Wang Qingxin.
Is House of Swans, which contains significantly more ballet than Imhof’s previous productions, influenced by Teuscher?
“The draw towards ballet was always there. It’s not because of her,” Imhof says. “But of course, she is an amazing artist, and it’s amazing to be able to work with one of the best ballet dancers in the world.”
House of Swans will be “a fantastical piece about love and peace during a time of war”
Anne Imhof
Teuscher can be called her “muse” – as was Douglas – though this dynamic is far removed from the outdated trope of a passive woman inspiring a male genius from the sidelines, Imhof stresses.
Her collaborative process often blurs the boundaries between her private and public lives. Her relationship with her muses is more Andy Warhol, who was gay, than Pablo Picasso – she has named Warhol’s Factory as a major influence.
Even Imhof’s scrappy, early art school productions in Frankfurt’s red-light district relied on close friends to thrash out ideas, perform and heavily shape the creative process with their own distinctive styles.
“Maybe this word, muse, is the only one established to describe an admiration and an inspiration,” she says, “and also a presence that becomes enigmatic as an image in the work.
“For me, art can only be as good as it can be when there is a lot of agency involved in the collaborators. That means also that I have to relinquish control, which is sometimes not that easy.”
Douglas remains a close collaborator and appears in Citizen.
Always wary of “white cube” venues that erase local context, Imhof wants to acknowledge Tai Kwun as a loaded historical site. To metaphorically let in the compound’s history of discipline, control and confinement, she has requested that a gallery window remain open.
The performance space will see the return of the large countdown screen from Doom, though it will now appear crashed and half-sunken through the floor.
In Hong Kong, a countdown clock carries political overtones, but Imhof notes that the prop originated simply as the easiest way for performers and audiences to keep time during durational works. Furthermore, she says, a clock running backwards suggests “some kind of unknown”.

Apart from the subversion of traditional gender representation, Imhof tends to resist the notion that her art should deliver overt messages, which has led some critics to dismiss Doom as apolitical, naive and entirely atmospheric.
Imhof says she is well aware that the outside world is getting darker. Yet, she has become more determined to create beauty within it – not as an escape from reality, but as a refusal to surrender.
Just as in Doom, where the reverse-telling of Romeo and Juliet started with death and ended with love at first sight, Imhof promises that House of Swans will be “a fantastical piece about love and peace during a time of war”.
There is no doubt where that uplifting influence is coming from.
“It has been such a life-changing experience to meet the love of your life,” Imhof says. “When you fall in love, you just want to be a better person. Period.”
“Anne Imhof: House of Swans”, JC Contemporary, Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Road, Central, Tue-Sun, 11am-7pm. September 25, 2026 to January 3, 2027. There will only be two full-length public performances featuring Devon Teuscher, on September 25 and 26. For tickets, visit art-mate.net


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German artist Anne Imhof at Tai Kwun in Central, Hong Kong, where her work “House of Swans” will be performed from September 25, 2026. Photo: Karma Lo



A scene from Anne Imhof’s “Doom: House of Hope” (2025). Photo: Anne Imhof

Imhof and her partner, Devon Teuscher, at the American Ballet Theatre’s 2025 Spring Gala at Cipriani South Street, in New York, on May 28, 2025. Photo: Variety via Getty Images

Eliza Douglas (standing), Imhof’s former partner, during a performance of “Faust” at the German Pavilion at the 57th Venice Biennale in May 2017. Photo: Nadine Fraczkowski

Actors perform under a raised glass floor during a scene from “Faust” at the press preview of the 2017 Venice Biennale. Photo: AFP

One of Imhof’s bronze relief sculptures that will feature in “House of Swans” at Tai Kwun, Hong Kong. Photo: Ingo Kniest

Imhof, pictured at Tai Kwun, tends to resist the notion that her art should deliver overt messages. Photo: Karma Lo

The “Jumbotron” countdown clock in Imhof’s “Doom: House of Hope” (2025). Photo: Anne Imhof

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This official overview of the Gwangju Biennale Pavilion Project erroneously lists Thailand as a participant in the 2021 edition. Photo: Gwangju Biennale Foundation

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Drag artist Kudos (Lian Longqing) performs during “House of Linglong: Drag Tour – Hong Kong” at Eaton HK in August. Photo: Elson Li

Drag artist Missgengdiva performs during “House of Linglong: Drag Tour – Hong Kong” at Eaton HK. Photo: Elson Li

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DJ Floating has been performing for more than a decade. Photo: House of Linglong

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Luna Shaw (left) and Kearen Pang in a scene from A Taste of Home. Photo: courtesy of Windmill Grass Theatre

In this scene from A Taste of Home, Joey Leung and Edmond Tong reference a popular 1990s TV skit called “Mrs Mut and Lee” about cooking shows of the time. Photo: courtesy of Windmill Grass Theatre

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Award-winning artist talks about her ballet-infused work at Tai Kwun, challenges of working in Hong Kong and how falling in love inspired her


Award-winning artist talks about her ballet-infused work at Tai Kwun, challenges of working in Hong Kong and how falling in love inspired her.


German artist Anne Imhof on love, LGBTQ visibility and control ahead of her Hong Kong show

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Award-winning artist talks about her ballet-infused work at Tai Kwun, challenges of working in Hong Kong and how falling in love inspired her

Award-winning artist talks about her ballet-infused work at Tai Kwun, challenges of working in Hong Kong and how falling in love inspired her