Art Basel announced its programming on Tuesday for the 2025 edition of its Hong Kong fair, set to open with a VIP preview day on March 26 and running until March 30.
The fair, which will have 240 exhibitors this year, including 23 first-timers, is planning a series of curated programs, including Encounters, dedicated to large scale projects; Kabinett, where participating galleries present thematic exhibitions with a focus on presentations from Asia; a film program; and more.
Last year, ahead of the opening of the 2024 edition of Art Basel Hong Kong, director Angelle Siyang-Le told ARTnews that she was focused on deepening the connection between the fair and the city’s art scene. She appears to have furthered that goal this year, based on the programming.
The fair’s film program, which will feature seven screenings representing the work of 30 artists, is curated by Para Site, a beloved independent Hong Kong arts center. The program features collaborations with Videotage, another beloved Hong Kong arts nonprofit, which focuses on new media, and Nowness Asia, an arts and culture video platform. Additionally, the fair’s culture partners include a wide gamut of Hong Kong institutions, including 1a space, Asia Society Hong Kong Center, HASS Lab, the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association, and Tomorrow Maybe, an experimental art space we named as a “gallery to know” in the city last year.
The fair will again present a collaboration with M+ on the museum’s facade. This time, Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen, who was a winner of the Chanel Next prize last year, will show Night Charades, a tribute to golden age Hong Kong cinema that uses AI to generate “ever-changing combinations of characters and scenes.”
For the last time, curator Alexie Glass-Kantor, formerly the executive director of Syndey’s Artspace, will curator Encounters, which will feature 18 large-scale installations. Fourteen of those works are site-specific to the fair, including an off-site work at Hong Kong’s Pacific Place Park Court by Zurich-based artist Monster Chetwynd, which combines sculpture and performance. Last year, one of the buzziest presentations was in Encounters, Mak2’s topsy-turvy mirrored Copy of Copy of Copy of Copy (2024).
Thirty-six galleries are participating in Kabinett this year. Among the presentations are a series of gestural ceramics and paintings from the ’60s and ’70s by Martin Wong, presented by P.P.O.W. and a group presentation of ink paintings from the post-Mao period in China by Beijing’s INKstudio.
