Art Basel Hong Kong 2017: Conversation

The Conversations series brings together the art world’s most prominent talents and thinkers, each of them offering their unique perspective on producing, collecting and exhibiting art.
Conversations is held daily from Wednesday, March 22 to Saturday, March 25 in the auditorium on level 1, at the entrance of Hall 1A of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Conversations will be free to the public also during Private View on Wednesday through entrance 1A on Level 1.
The talks will be accessible in English,
Cantonese and Mandarin.

The Program

Wednesday, March 22, 2017
– 10am to 11.30am | Cities on the Move | 20 Years on
Wong Hoy Cheong, Artist, George Town/Kuala Lumpur; Xu Tan, Artist, Guangzhou/San Francisco; Anthony Yung, Senior Researcher, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong; Ellen Pau, Artist, and Co-Founder, Videotage, Hong Kong. Moderators: Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries, London and Hou Hanru, Artistic Director, MAXXI, National Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome and Curator, 2017 Bi-City Biennale of UrbanismArchitecture, Shenzhen

This Conversation revisits ‘Cities on the Move’, a groundbreaking exhibition curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Hou Hanru that opened twenty years ago. ‘Cities on the Move’ investigated the effects of globalization and extreme urbanization through a presentation of contemporary art and architecture from Asian cities. In this discussion, the original curators reflect on ‘Cities on the Move’ and discuss its continuing importance with a panel of speakers.

– 12pm to 1.30pm | Premiere Artist Talk | Kingsley Ng
Kingsley Ng, Artist, Hong Kong in conversation with Valerie C. Doran, Curator and Writer, Hong Kong

Ng will be in conversation with Valerie C. Doran to discuss his deep interest in light and the environmental implications of Hong Kong’s built environment.

– 3.30pm to 4.30pm | Virtual Frontiers | Artists Experimenting with Tilt Brush
Cao Fei, Artist, Beijing; Yang Yongliang, Artist, Shanghai. Moderator: Freya Murray, Program Manager, Google Arts & Culture, London

Featured artists will discuss their approach to making art in virtual reality and reflect on the impact virtual tools such as Tilt Brush by Google, a 3D painting application, might have on their practice and more broadly on the arts sector.

– 5.30pm to 7pm | More Than Outreach | What Makes an Institution Public?
Rhana Devenport, Director, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland; Suhanya Raffel, Executive Director, M+, West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong; Michael Govan, CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles; Mami Kataoka, Artistic Director, The 21st Biennale of Sydney and Chief Curator, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo. Moderator: András Szántó, Author and Cultural Consultant, New York.

Whom does an art institution serve? How should art institutions engage with the public? What role should the public play in guiding an art institution’s programs and collections? These are the questions guiding this panel discussion, which brings together leading curators and museum directors from Asia and the United States.

Thursday, March 23, 2017
– 11am to 12.30pm | Collective Efforts | teamLab
Takashi Kudo, Artist, teamLab, Tokyo in conversation with Ikkan Sanada, Art Business Advisor, teamLab, Singapore

teamLab was founded in 2001 as an interdisciplinary artist collective whose expansive practice involves collaborations in the fields of art, technology and science. This conversation brings together two members of teamLab discussing their collective efforts and beyond.

Friday, March 24, 2017
– 11am to 12.30pm | Supporting the Arts | When Patronage Becomes Form
Roobina Karode, Director and Chief Curator, Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi; Veronika Zonabend, Co-Founder, RVVZ Family Foundation, Moscow; Qiao Zhibing, Art Collector and Founder, Tank Shanghai, Shanghai; François Quintin, Managing Director, Lafayette Anticipation – Fondation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette and Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin, Paris; Hallam Chow, Founder, H2 Foundation for Arts and Education, Hong Kong. Moderator: William Lim, Architect and Managing Director, CL3, Hong Kong

This conversation brings together patrons and collectors from around the world to reflect on how private individuals can support art. Whether they’re interested in founding a private museum, supporting creative initiatives or advising a non profit, there are more ways for patrons to engage with art and artists than ever before.

Saturday, March 25, 2017
– 10am to 11.30am | Artist Talk
Keiichi Tanaami, Artist, Tokyo in conversation with Mizuki Takahashi, Senior Curator, MILL6 Foundation, Hong Kong

Japanese pop artist Keiichi Tanaami talks with Hong Kong-based curator Mizuki Takahashi. Tanaami rose to prominence in the 1960s and ‘70s working as a graphic designer, illustrator, painter and video artist. His psychedelic art can now be found in prominent collections around the world, including that of The Museum of Modern Art, New York and M+, West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong.