Free to the public with simultaneous translation, Art Basel Hong Kong Conversations will present 15 talks at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 22 to 25 March. Helmed by writer and editor Stephanie Bailey, here are six talks from the program worth seeking out. Discover the full program here.
Thinking Historically in the Present, After Okwui: What is the Future of the Biennale?
The recent documenta 15 set off a firestorm of controversy due to accusations surrounding the exhibition of a work containing anti-Semitic depictions, as well as racist and queerphobic abuse against participating artists. This talk is an opportunity to hear the perspective of Indonesian art collective ruangrupa’s Farid Rakun and Ade Darmawan, who were part of the event’s curating team. ‘There was an idea of creating a safe space to have this conversation which wasn’t the case in Europe,’ says the talk’s moderator Adeena Mey, Editor and Research Fellow at Afterall. ‘Hong Kong is a place where we can frame narratives differently and actually orient them towards thinking about the future of biennales and not be stuck in some kind of European, historical, local perspective.’ Rakun and Darmawan will share the stage with artist Shubigi Rao, who curated the Kuchi-Muziris Biennale; Binna Choi, Co-Artistic Director of the Singapore Biennale 2022; and Hoor Al Qasimi, Director of the Sharjah Biennial and founder of the Sharjah Art Foundation. Together, they will reflect on the format and future of biennials as well as ecological concerns.
Thursday, March 23, 2023
4:30 – 6 pm
Auditorium, N101B, Level 1, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
1 Expo Drive, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Mindscapes: On Art, Mental Health, and Forms of Healing
In the wake of the pandemic, it has become more urgent than ever to address the topic of mental health. ‘Particularly in Asian culture, there is a real taboo when it comes to talking about mental illness,’ says moderator Melissa Karmen Lee, CEO at the Chinese Canadian Museum, Vancouver. She hopes this panel can help reduce stigmas and shed light on how art can contribute to healing. Lee will be joined by the sister of the late Hong Kong artist Wesley Tongson, who suffered from schizophrenia, as well as artists Yuki Iiyama, Indu Antony, and Christine Wong Yap. The latter are artists-in-residence at the London-based Wellcome Trust’s ‘Mindscapes’ program; an international project which aims to transform how we approach mental health. Alongside Tongson, each artist will share how they raise mental awareness through thought-provoking projects involving local communities, including Antony’s upcoming Mindscapes exhibition, which opens at MAP Bengaluru this April.
Saturday, March 25, 2023
4 – 5:30 pm
Auditorium, N101B, Level 1, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
1 Expo Drive, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Locating the Continent: Representations of/from Africa in Hong Kong
While contemporary African art has captured the attention of institutions and collectors in the West and the Middle East, this hasn’t exactly been the case in Asia, says Dolly Kola-Balogun, Founder and Creative Director of Retro Africa gallery in Abuja, Nigeria. She sees the fair and this panel as a chance to spark much-needed intercultural exchange. ‘It’s an opportunity to show that African art is universal. It's not niche. It's not some emerging genre that’s a fleeting [trend],’ she says. Kola-Balogun will be joined by Baylon Sandri, Founder and Director of SMAC gallery, alongside artists exhibiting at Art Basel Hong Kong: Zimbabwean mixed-media artist Wallen Mapondera, who was among the artists presented at the Zimbabwe Pavilion at the 2022 Venice Biennale, and Nigerian-American artist Victor Ehikhamenor. Critic and curator Jareh Das will moderate the conversation.
Friday, March 24, 2023
10:30 am – 12 noon
Auditorium, N101B, Level 1, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
1 Expo Drive, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Ink and Miniaturism: Bridging Histories of Painting from East to West Asia
At first glance it may be hard to find a connection between the panelists in this talk. Taiwanese figurative painter Tseng Chien-Ying, Pakistani miniature painter Wardha Shabbir, and Iranian-born American artist Amir H. Fallah all appear to have vastly different practices. ‘But if you actually look closer, they share a common history,’ says co-moderator Craig Yee of INK studio gallery. Yee explains that they all reference historic paintings from Iran, South Asia, and China made using natural mineral pigments with the binding medium of animal glue. The panel – co-moderated by Yeewan Koon, a professor of art history at the University of Hong Kong – will explore the little-known transnational history of miniature paintings. ‘There is an enormous tradition in East Asian painting that was actually related to Persian miniature painting. The court painters in the Tang and Song dynasties also used heavy mineral pigments,’ says Yee. ‘People often think that this is the only moment that art has been truly global but artistic exchange has always been there. The history of this medium demonstrates this.’
Friday, March 24, 2023
12:30 – 2 pm
Auditorium, N101B, Level 1, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
1 Expo Drive, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Patronage as Practice: Developing Synergies Between Private and Public Institutions
Last month, more than half a million visitors streamed into Dhaka Art Summit over nine days, according to the event organizers. ‘You see everybody there from the taxi drivers and garment [factory] workers to the head of state… the event works as a pop-up museum,’ says collector Nadia Samdani, who explains that Bangladesh doesn’t have any major contemporary art institutions. Samdani and her husband Rajeeb, who co-founded the summit, are among the speakers in this panel, which will reflect on the unique role that patrons in Asia play in vitalizing local arts ecosystems, and how public institutions, in turn, engage with those patrons. They will be joined by Roobina Karode, Director and Chief Curator of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi; Michael Govan, CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and moderator Doryun Chong, Chief Curator at M+, Hong Kong.
Wednesday, March 22, 2023
2:30 – 4 pm
Auditorium, N101B, Level 1, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
1 Expo Drive, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
What Comes After Sinofuturism? Living Between Real and Virtual in Greater China
This talk punctures the myths surrounding Sinofuturism, a term often fetishized to encapsulate the entanglements of real and virtual conditions in Greater China and reconciles written theory with the lived realities of artists on the ground, says moderator Billy Tang, Executive Director and Curator of Hong Kong-based art space Para Site. He will be sitting down with Hong Kong-born artist Nadim Abbas, Chinese artist Li Shuang, curator and critic Wu Jianru, and Taipei Biennial co-curator Freya Chou to discuss the topic, which he says encompasses themes of Orientalism, future trajectories, science fiction, and imaginations of utopias. ‘With the acceleration of [urban] development that has happened in Greater China, specifically in the Pearl River Delta region, the future is already here to a certain degree,’ he says. ‘So, we will look at how artists are responding to that.’
Saturday, March 25, 2023
12:30 – 2 pm
Auditorium, N101B, Level 1, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
1 Expo Drive, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Curated by Stephanie Bailey and taking place at Art Basel Hong Kong, the Conversations program will run from Wednesday, March 22 to Saturday, March 25, 2023. See the full program here.
Free to the public, all 15 panels will be made available after the fair on the Art Basel website.
Published on March 9, 2023.
Caption for full-bleed image: Wesley Tongson, Mountains of Heaven No.305, 2002. Courtesy of the Wesley Tongson Charitable Trust.