Samson Young
Inversions

A commission by OGR Torino, the hub of Fondazione CRT, on the occasion of Luci d’Artista

From 23 October 2026 to 10 January 2027
OGR Torino, Corte Est

First illumination: Friday 23 October 2026 | 7.10 PM

Free admission

OGR Torino presents Inversions (2026), a video installation by Samson Young commissioned for the 29^th edition of Luci d’Artista, a City of Turin project created by Fondazione Torino Musei and curated by Antonio Grulli.

Conceived specifically for the Corte Est courtyard in front of the OGR Torino complex, the artwork explores the theme of this year’s edition, Memories and Future Dreams, by bringing together Hong Kong’s architectural and cinematic past, its changing urban landscape and technological research.

At the heart of the work is the Kam Tin Tree House in the city’s New Territories. Originally a public building, it was abandoned during the Qing Dynasty and gradually enveloped by the aerial roots of a Chinese banyan (Ficus microcarpa) growing next to it. This hybrid architecture, in which nature and the built environment intertwine, has become a popular filming location.

In Inversions, Tree House footage overlaps with frames from the final fight scene in Drunken Master, an early classic of martial arts cinema. Through algorithmic modifications and the percussion performed by David Cossin, cinematic and historical layers merge, encountering the region’s more recent developments: the widespread presence of technology companies and advanced research laboratories.

Like the banyan’s aerial roots, the work wraps itself in multiple levels of meaning. Martial arts and a natural landmark are transformed by cinema, technology, and the architecture they encounter within a constantly evolving landscape.

SAMSON YOUNG
Samson Young is a multimedia artist working with sound, performance, video and installation. He has exhibited at venues including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Gropius Bau in Berlin, Performa 19 in New York, the Biennale of Sydney, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, the Shanghai Biennale, the National Museum of Art in Osaka, and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin.

He founded CMHK, a sound art and experimental music collective, and represented Hong Kong at the 57th Venice Biennale. His awards include the BMW Art Journey Award, a Prix Ars Electronica Award of Distinction in Digital Musics & Sound Art, and the inaugural Uli Sigg Prize. He was a visiting fellow at the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society at the University of Chicago and a research fellow at the Menil Drawing Institute in Houston.

CREDITS
Inversions (feat. David Cossin), 2026
Video installation with stereo sound (composition for vibraphone and electronics), duration 6:29.

Supported by the Visualization Research Centre (VRC) at the Hong Kong Baptist University.

Computer programming, music composition, video and sound editing: Samson Young
Music performance (vibraphone): David Cossin
Video performance: Michael Schiefel, Samson Young
Camera: Leung Ho Sing, Leung Tin Chun Jimmy
Footage: algorithmically modified clips from Drunken Master (1978)

PHOTO CREDIT



Artwork image: Inversions, Samson Young. Courtesy the Artist.
Portrait: Fritz Beck