Description

Art Central and lead partner UOB have announced details of the art programme for the 10th edition of the fair. Carefully curated by curator Aaditya Sathish, this year’s exhibition presents transnational narratives from a bold and innovative perspective. Highlights of the exhibition include a large-scale art installation specially commissioned from Hong Kong artist Nadine Tang, performances and lecture performances, as well as a rich and diverse video art program. Art Central will take place at Hong Kong’s iconic Central Harbourfront from March 26 to 30, 2025, with a VIP preview on March 25. Art Central 2025 is a project funded by the Arts and Cultural Events Fund under the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

As a focal event of Hong Kong Art Week, Art Central presents diverse artistic expressions with fascinating programming and actively promotes the development of the Asian art ecosystem. The exhibition’s specially-established Central Theatre will focus on the next generation of Asian artists, and will collaborate with well-known artists to host a number of performances, storytelling performances and lectures, presenting important dialogues in the art world on an international stage. A gallery exhibition will be held in conjunction with the programme, showcasing works by more than 100 galleries and over 500 artists from over 40 countries and regions around the world, making it a must-visit event in the city’s annual art celebration. The

The Video Art programme will present selected works from the Akeroyd Collection, the section of the collection of Shane Akeroyd, a Hong Kong philanthropist and renowned video art advocate, that focuses on moving images. For one hour each day, visitors can experience an exclusive screening of moving image works at Cinema Central. The Akeroyd Collection is committed to making its image collection widely circulated and displayed through its own website, image screenings and loans to international art institutions.

Hong Kong artist Nadine Tang commissioned to create a large-scale installation art

Art Central 2025 will present A Brazen Rift (After Branzi) (2025), a large-scale installation commissioned from local Hong Kong artist Nadine Tang (born 1980, Hong Kong). The work is inspired by unrealized architectural drawings by Italian architect and designer Andrea Branzi, proposing an alternative vision of urban life. For twenty years, the core of Nadine Tang's practice has been to question the ubiquitous image, using modules to liberate, question and re-create Branzi's two-dimensional perspective, turning it into complex installations and breathing life into bold and avant-garde eukaryotic structures.

This large-scale installation parallels the constant flow of people in the city center and the kinetic energy generated by the flow of people in the exhibition, inviting the audience to immerse themselves in this liminal environment between the two. This new commissioned work also demonstrates Art Central’s support for Hong Kong art and showcases the innovative spirit of this Mesozoic artist.

Video Art Program

Art Central’s video art program explores a range of moving image works and features a special on-site cinema, providing an exclusive platform for top artists to showcase their video art. Curated by Aaditya Sathish, the exhibition’s video art program “On the Shores of…” explores how contemporary networks facilitate the interaction between people and information while creating another new world. This platform enables artists and researchers to question and challenge hegemonic narratives, and to guide audiences into new logical and cognitive realms with unique and imaginative perspectives.

Project highlights include:

Cheng Shu-li (b. 1954, Tainan) presents Virus Becoming (2022). Cheng Shu-li is a renowned artist and filmmaker, regarded as a pioneer of Internet art. His multimedia works include film, video, installation, software interaction and durational performance, exploring diverse issues including race relations, human impact on ecology, biotechnology ethics and sexual politics.
Kwok Ka-chi (born 1964, Hong Kong) presents You Don’t Know Me, But… (1998). Kuo Ka-chi works in photography, installation and fashion. His artworks explore the social norms and views imposed by mainstream society on marginalized groups.
Raqs Media Collective (b. 1992, New Delhi) presents The Bicyclist Who Fell Into a Time-Cone (2023). The collective practice of "kinetic contemplation" explores the idea that people are dynamic but constantly entangled in the world and time. Oscillating between fact and fiction, the work explores the increasing prevalence of images and the sensory fractures they cause, evoking a sense that time is both frozen and spiraling out of control.
Riar Rizaldi (b. 1990, Bandung) presents Mirage - Eigenstate (2024). As an artist and filmmaker, his artistic practice focuses on the relationships and possibilities between technology, labor, nature, worldviews, genre films, and theoretical fictions. His work, which recently premiered at Gasworks (London), interweaves similar investigations into the nature of reality, positioning Western science as one approach within a pluralistic worldview.

Performing Arts and Storytelling Shows

This year’s exhibition will feature a new highlight in its performance programme – storytelling, a research-based art form that combines text, images and action. It will be performed every day at the Central Theatre during the exhibition. Named after the unfinished work "In Search of the Miraculous" by Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader, the project brings together multiple artists to explore history, matter and the body through the echoes of gestures, playing in artistic experiments and inviting the audience into an open and creative space.

Project highlights include:

Fu Xiuxuan (b. 1990, Singapore) will present in the shadow of the cosmic (2023). Fu Xiuxuan’s narrative performance uses a dialogue between a virtual puppet and synthetic voices, anime characters, and 3D influencers to trace the East Asian economic miracle and the emergence of techno-orientalism in the 1980s and 1990s, converging historical flows to present the digital image of East Asian women.
Tan Xiaoshi (b. 1989, Guangzhou) will present The Landscape Between Us II (2022). Qin Xiaoshi’s narrative performance deftly weaves personal memory and history together through a series of encounters with nature, from the mountains of Nansha to ancient legends and contemporary experiences. She delves into themes of memory, loss, and the delicate relationship between humans and landscapes, reflecting humanity's eternal quest for understanding and belonging.
IV Chan (born 1978, Hong Kong) presents Our Birthdays (uncut) (2025). In a new work commissioned for Art Central 2025, Chen Ziwen draws on the campy formalism of B-movies to delve into the horror film genre, examining the implications of vampires and mother figures in Chinese cinema. Chen Ziwen’s performance illuminates the closely intertwined relationship between queerness and the legacy of horror film. The
Tsui Haolin and Wong Pak-hang (born 1997, Hong Kong / born 1995, Hong Kong) present Reaching This Point is the Limit (2025). They were inspired by visiting a shopping mall in Sham Shui Po filled with old CCD cameras and DV camcorders, revisiting personal memories through outdated, malfunctioning, low-pixel electronic devices. Their work attempts to combine fragments of the past, present and future, while pondering the concept of death in a digital environment.
Shavonne Wong (b. 1991, Singapore) presents Talking to Machines: When AI Becomes More Than a Tool (2025). Shavonne Wong's show is a social experiment centered around an artificial intelligence companion, Eva, which aims to promote discussions about relationships and emotions in a world where artificial intelligence is increasingly integrated. Through Instagram interactions and live conversations, Eva challenges us to think more deeply about the complex emotions and ethical implications associated with artificial intelligence.

Curator Aaditya Sathish said: “This year’s Art Central programme is inspired by the urgent need to focus on the current state of our world, while imagining how it might change. The participating artists explore this central theme, presenting works that intersect transnational and personal experiences.”

Corey Andrew Barr, Art Central Fair Director, said: “Art Central’s curatorial work has always been about celebrating the energy, innovation and pioneering spirit of contemporary art in Asia. Under the curation of Aaditya Sathish, we aim to present a creative fair this year that inspires audiences, promotes dialogue and reflects the depth and diversity of art from the Asia Pacific region and beyond.”