October 17 – October 20
More than just an art fair Asia NOW is a curated platform fostering rich dialogues and deeply engaged programming. It encompasses a global selection of galleries showcasing artists from across Asia, and an ambitious platform dedicated to commissioning site-specific installations, projects, and performances. These works spark broader conversations around contemporary issues, uniting like-minded communities across the region and beyond.
The tenth anniversary edition of Asia Now, under the artistic direction of curatorial cooperative Radicants founded by Nicolas Bourriaud is a sensorial showcase entitled Ceremony. This tribute to collectivity challenges the art fair format to activate La Monnaie in an immersive congregation that includes art in all its vibrant and ritualistic forms.
Here, ceremony is a form of cultural practice, a celebration of ancestral wisdom and a critical tool that both reinforces and transforms social structures, traditions and hierarchies of power. The artists invited by Radicants mediate the interconnected human experience, speaking to the strength of assembly, and resonating with the communal spirit of Asia Now, a fair that has always brought together artists and galleries from the diverse global, cultural landscapes constituting the Asian continent and its diasporas.
Asia Now is a place of gathering, the only fair dedicated to exhibiting artists across Asia. It plays host to a multipolar world in which the Global South is redefined and celebrated as a testament to connectivity and vitality. This approach goes beyond geography to consider questions of methodology, wherein Asia becomes a spirit to be harnessed, a lens through which critical, postcolonial narratives are examined, and a region that is thought through rather than reified. Driven by a keen sense of discovery, Asia Now brings to the forefront divergent cosmologies and aesthetic traditions where universes coexist, amplifying voices from the global South.
Within La Monnaie’s exhibition spaces, artistic practices engage with hospitality, conviviality, and social cohesion. The work transcends mere representation, exploring ceremonies through mutual care and the exuberant expressions of life. It invites contemplation on how artistic expressions can facilitate the processing of loss and trauma, particularly in these times marked by conflict and political upheaval. Ultimately, Asia Now stands as a vital testament to the enduring necessity of ceremonies in fostering empathy, resilience, and a shared vision of a more interconnected existence.