A Guide to Hong Kong’s Top Museums and Cultural Programs During Art Basel 2023

The return of an ambitious, full-scale program for its Hong Kong show has been announced by Art Basel. The show will feature 177 galleries from 32 countries and territories, making it the largest in the city since 2019. The event will include the sector for monumental works and a new site-specific commission by Pipilotti Rist. Encounters, the curated sector dedicated to large-scale works, will return to the show for the first time since 2019 with 14 expansive presentations.

The Conversations sector will feature more than 85 speakers across the fair’s four days, offering a platform for dynamic dialogue among international artists, gallerists, curators, critics, collectors, and more, free and open to the public. 

With free public admission, the Film program will feature 29 video works, including ‘MEMORIA’ by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, as well as special screenings curated by Hong Kong-based Videotage and Ghost 2565, Bangkok’s triennial video and performance art series. Kabinett, the sector for thematic solo presentations within galleries’ main booths, will feature 15 galleries with a strong Asia focus. Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist will present a new, site-specific moving image work called ‘Hand Me Your Trust’, which will take over the M+ Facade, commissioned by M+ and supported by Art Basel and UBS. Art Basel, whose Global Lead Partner is UBS, will take place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) from March 23 to March 25, 2023, with preview days on March 21 and 22.

The 2023 edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong will feature its largest show since 2019, with 177 galleries from 32 countries and territories across Asia, Europe, North and South America, and Africa. The fair’s special sectors, including Encounters, Kabinett, Conversations, and Film, will all make a return. More than two-thirds of participating galleries have exhibition spaces in the region, with 33 of them located in Hong Kong.

Encounters

Alexie Glass-Kantor, Executive Director of Artspace in Sydney and the curator for the Australian pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, will curate Encounters for the sixth time. The sector will feature 14 large-scale installations under the theme of ‘This present, moment.’ For the first time, Encounters will showcase work not only inside the fair but also in a public space in Hong Kong, with a monumental installation at Pacific Place. According to Glass-Kantor, the opportunity to activate Encounters in a civic space accessible to the Hong Kong community after an extended period apart feels especially important. Every project in this year’s sector will consider how to hold space and be present individually and collectively in the singularity and precarity of this moment.

Highlights from Encounters include:

Blindspot Gallery will present Trevor Yeung’s ‘Mr. Cuddles Under the Eave’ (2021), which continues the artist’s practice of personifying botanic ecology and inanimate objects to express the complexities of human emotion and relationships. Jaffa Lam’s ‘Trolley Party’ (2023) is a site-specific work consisting of 14 meters of patchwork made from recycled and found everyday fabrics emerging from six chairs made of industrial trollies, inviting visitors to enter its serene interior. It is presented by Axel Vervoordt Gallery with Zilberman Gallery. Kukje Gallery will present Gimhongsok’s ‘Solitude of Silences’ (2017-2019), which features masked mannequin sculptures portraying laborers who represent an uncertainty over the value of labor. Yavuz Gallery will present Ukrainian artist Stanislava Pinchuk’s marble installation ‘The Wine Dark Sea’ (2022-2023) on migrant journeys and conceptions of hospitality. Sabrina Amrani will present Carlos Aires’s ‘Like Tears in the Rain’ (2023), a sculptural installation made with scrupulously shredded decommissioned Euro banknotes depicting a topography of money in the form of a bizarre landscape. Hanart TZ Gallery will present Inga Svala Thórsdóttir and Wu Shanzhuan’s ‘Constellation Forest’ (2018), inviting visitors to stroll and dwell within a “grove” of arched wooden forms resembling the vaults of a church. For the first time, Encounters will present a project offsite beyond the fair with a premiere monumental installation by Los Angeles-based conceptual artist Awol Erizku in Hong Kong’s Pacific Place, presented by Ben Brown Fine Arts and supported by Swire Properties, Official Partner of off-site Encounters.

Conversations 

From March 22-25, Conversations will take place at the HKCEC, offering a platform for lively discussions among members of the international art world on producing, collecting, and exhibiting art. Stephanie Bailey, a writer, editor, and Art Basel Content Advisor and Editor for Asia, curated the event. 

The program includes the following highlights:

• The future of biennales with Hoor Al Qasimi, Binna Choi, Shubigi Rao, ruangrupa, and Adeena Mey.
• Synergies between public and private patronage with Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani and Michael Govan. 
• Navigating multipolarity from an institutional perspective with Philip Tinari, Mami Kataoka, Nikita Yingqian Cai, Aaron Cezar, Aya Al-Bakree, and Christopher K. Ho. 
• Reflections on solidarity beyond feminism with curators Mia Yu and Azar Mahmoudian, and artists Jaffa Lam, Kresiah Mukwazhi, and Kawita Vatanajyankur. 
• Representing contemporary African art in Hong Kong with gallerists Baylon Sandri and Dolly Kola-Balogun and artists Wallen Mapondera and Victor Ehikhamenor. 
• Exploring the influence of Cantopop in the work of Sin Wai Kin, Ming Wong, and Rainbow Chan.

Prior to the fair, three talks are scheduled to take place, which include:

• A collective discussion on humor and critique with meme-makers Jerry Gogosian, Freeze Magazine, and The White Pube.
• A presentation on the future of crypto economies in collaboration with Art Dubai’s Global Art Forum, moderated by Shumon Basar.
• A lecture in partnership with the School of Modern Languages at the University of Hong Kong, examining the impact of architecture on the art of Stanley Wong. Attendance for Conversations is free of charge, and additional information will be provided closer to the event.

Film

The Film program at the upcoming fair will be curated by Li Zhenhua, a multi-media artist and film producer. It will feature 29 video works and eight screenings by artists from different parts of the world, including Tromarama, Mónica de Miranda, Angela Su, and Shen Xin. Videotage and Ghost 2565, two significant non-profit organizations that focus on video art in the region, will also curate a screening each.

On March 22, Theatre II at HKCEC will host a special screening of Palme-D’or-winning director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s ‘MEMORIA,’ which stars Academy Award winner Tilda Swinton. This screening will be a highlight of the program and will mark Weerasethakul’s first feature made outside Thailand.

Ghost 2565 will also present a short film on Weerasethakul’s contemporary art practice on March 25 at the Louis Koo Cinema, Hong Kong Arts Centre.

The short film program will showcase works such as ‘Runaway Girls’ by Inci Eviner, which explores the dreams and fears of girls living on the edge of society, either by choice or force, and ’45th Parallel,’ a recent work by Lawrence Abu Hamdan that investigates the history and mythology of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House. These works will be presented by Dirimart and mor charpentier, respectively. The short film program will be held at the Louis Koo Cinema of the Hong Kong Arts Centre, and the Film program is free to the public. More details will be announced closer to the fair.

Kabinett

Kabinett, the sector for thematic solo presentations within galleries’ main booths, will feature 15 galleries with a strong focus on Asia. The sector includes a range of notable works, including:

• Mazzoleni’s presentation of Hans Hartung’s body of work from the mid-1950s to mid-1960s, which showcases the Art Informel master’s research.
• ROH Projects’ display of works on paper by celebrated Indonesian artist Agus Suwage, titled ‘Siraman Duniawi,’ which explores identity from the perspective of ancient Hindu-Buddhist culture.
• Galerie du Monde’s exhibition of the late Hong Kong ink artist Wesley Tongson’s spiritual journey and artistic path, including his splash ink and monumental landscape paintings created with his hands, fingers, and nails.
• Galerie Urs Meile’s showcase of Hu Qingyan’s ‘World of Silence,’ a series of marble works that continues the theme of ’emptiness’ that the artist has been exploring in recent years.
• Rossi & Rossi’s survey of works by Rasheed Araeen, spanning from the artist’s early portraiture drawings to his minimalistic sculptures.
• Zeno X Gallery’s display of works by Martin Margiela, including a torso sculpture and film dust painting, similar to those in his touring museum show at the LOTTE Museum of Art in Seoul.

‘Hand Me Your Trust’ by Pipilotti Rist

A brand-new site-specific moving image work called ‘Hand Me Your Trust’ has been commissioned by M+ with the support of Art Basel and UBS. The work, created by Pipilotti Rist, is designed for the M+ Facade which is located within the undulating architecture of Hong Kong’s famous skyline along Victoria Harbour. The work employs Rist’s typically vibrant color palettes and freeform camera work, reflecting the dynamic shifts of scale present in Hong Kong’s urban landscape. Rist’s approach to the concept of hands is reflected in various scales, from an intimate human scale to the size of a building. As the hands move and chart a path around various objects, Rist examines not only Hong Kong’s design and architecture heritage, but also the individual hands that created and formed these ubiquitous forms. Rist sees hands not only as working and creating, but also as ornamental extensions of our emotions, used to communicate with others without words. The work will be displayed on the M+ Facade daily from March 18 to May 21 and every Saturday and Sunday from May 22 to June 17, 2023.

Cultural Partners

Art Basel is providing custom-built booths to various non-profit institutions in Hong Kong, such as 1a Space, Asia Art Archive, Asian Cultural Council, Asia Society, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong Art Gallery Association, CHAT – Centre of Heritage, Art and Textile, HK Open Printshop, and Para Site. In addition to these institutions, Art Basel is also offering support to local universities, such as HKU University Museum & Art Gallery, Academy of Visual Arts, HKBU, and Art Museum of CUHK.

Museum Shows and Institutions

Art Basel Hong Kong 2023 will offer visitors the chance to discover the diverse range of programming and exhibitions showcased by Hong Kong’s top museums and cultural institutions. These include:

• 1a space ‘Bon Voyage’
• Asia Art Archive
  ‘The Collective School’
• Asia Society Hong Kong Center ‘Fire’

• CHAT (Center of Heritage, Arts and Textile) ‘Clouds, Power and Ornament – Roving Central Asia’ ‘Patternways: Visualizing Hong Kong in Transition’ ‘Welcome to the Spinning Factory!’

• M+
  ‘Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now’
  ‘Beeple: HUMAN ONE’
  ‘Hong Kong: Here and Beyond’
  ‘M+ Sigg Collection: From Revolution to Globalisation’ ‘Individuals, Networks, Expressions’
  ‘Things, Spaces, Interactions’
  ‘The Dream of the Museum’

• Hong Kong Arts Centre
  ‘FILL IN THE BLANK’
  ‘Strelnikov’s Glasses and Other Stories by The Society of the Spectacles’
• Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre ‘Museum of Hands’
• Hong Kong Museum of Art
  ‘Angel Hui Hoi-kiu Make a Wish: A Site-Specific Art Installation’
  ‘By the People: Creative Chinese Characters’
  ‘Freezing Water: Being Between Here and There’
  ‘In-Between’
  ‘The Hong Kong Jockey Club Series: Joan Miró – The Poetry of Everyday Life’ ‘Zheng Chongbin A 10,000-Year View: A Site-specific Art Installation’
• Oil Street Art Space
  ‘Choi Sai-ho – Hush-Rush’
  ‘Lu Yang – DOKU Hong Kong Experience Center’ ‘Nadim Abbas – Ventriloquists’ Stone’
  ‘Joyful Tress (Arbores Laetae)’
• Tai Kwun Contemporary Art
  ‘Myth Makers – Spectrosynthesis III’
• Videotage
  ‘Foundation – a Web3 Media Art Festival’