The popular Film sector will once again be curated by Beijing and Zurich-based curator, multi-media artist and producer Li Zhenhua. The program will be presented in collaboration with the Hong Kong Arts Centre adjacent to the HKCEC. Following the success of the program’s expansion last year, the Film sector will continue to include feature-length and documentary films, with screenings taking place both at the Hong Kong Arts Centre and the HKCEC.
Conversations, the long-established morning program of talks and panel discussions, offers audiences first-hand access to renowned cultural speakers and opinion leaders from across the international art world. Complementing the Conversations program, the afternoon Salon series serves as a platform for shorter, more freestyle presentations, including artist talks, panel discussions, lectures and book launches. Full details on the talks program will be released in the coming months.
In addition, Art Basel is working closely with key cultural organizations across the city, including Asia Art Archive (AAA), the Asia Society, Para/Site Art Space, Spring Workshop and M+, Hong Kong’s new museum for visual culture, offering an associated program of events onsite and throughout the city that takes place during the week of the show. In March 2017, M+ will present ‘Ambiguously Yours: Gender in Hong Kong popular culture’. Comprising more than sixty works, this exhibition examines how Hong Kong popular culture has acted as a platform for new, progressive, and even socially subversive ideas about gender. Through select examples from film, fashion, music, photography, and print media, ‘Ambiguously Yours’ explores different representations of gender ambiguity and androgyny from the 1980s to today.
Reflecting a long-term commitment to the local art scene, Art Basel continues to support the annual Hong Kong Art Week organized by the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association, taking place from October 27 – November 9, 2016.