Starting this 31 October, the Singapore Biennale 2025 (SB2025) will once again turn the city into a dynamic celebration of contemporary art. Commissioned by the National Arts Council (NAC), supported by the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY), and organised by the Singapore Art Museum (SAM), the eighth edition of the Biennale unfolds across five key locations: the Civic District, Wessex Estate, Tanglin Halt, Orchard Road, and SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark.
A City-Wide Exploration of “Pure Intention”
Guided by the theme “Pure Intention”, SB2025 invites audiences to rediscover Singapore through immersive and participatory artworks that explore everyday rituals, histories, and the evolving pulse of the city. This year’s edition coincides with Singapore’s 60th anniversary (SG60), reflecting on the nation’s shared heritage, transformation, and aspirations for the future.
Art in Nature and Neighbourhoods
The Rail Corridor, once a railway route linking Singapore to Malaysia, emerges as a living gallery where art and history intersect. Artists such as Aya Rodriguez-Izumi (Japan/USA), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand) and Guo-Liang Tan (Singapore) bring nature, memory, and community together through interactive installations like Gate: 3 and Two Who Remember the Sea. Meanwhile, Emily Floyd’s (Australia) Field Library transforms open green spaces into playgrounds for thought, offering a dialogue on social change and collective learning.
Over at Tanglin Halt, one of Singapore’s earliest housing estates, art takes on new life within old shophouses. Adrian Wong’s (USA) With Hate from Hong Kong reimagines cinematic nostalgia through the lens of family and cultural memory, while Joo Choon Lin’s (Singapore) The laugh laughs at the laugh, The song sings at the song reflects on transformation and the cycles of life through ever-evolving kinetic forms.
In Blenheim Court, a colonial-era residence is reimagined as a hub for global artistic dialogue. Works by Jesse Jones (Ireland), ikkibawiKrrr (South Korea), and Allora & Calzadilla (Puerto Rico) explore how humans coexist with history, ecology, and tradition each offering meditations on identity, mythology, and resilience.
Reimagining Histories in the Civic District
At the Civic District, the Biennale transforms heritage landmarks into immersive artistic encounters. Fort Canning Park, once a royal seat and colonial stronghold, hosts large-scale, site-specific installations that reinterpret the city’s layered past.
Ayesha Singh’s (India) Continuous Coexistences (Singapore) turns architectural drawings into monumental sculptures that shift perspectives on urban growth, while Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork’s (USA) HNZF IV invites visitors to navigate between harmony and dissonance through sound and sculpture. Nearby, Kapwani Kiwanga’s (Canada/France) Flowers for Africa: Rwanda presents a delicate floral arch that reflects on memory and impermanence.
As night falls, lololol’s (Taiwan) Light Keeper transforms Fort Canning into an interactive sound and light journey, weaving together stories of navigation, technology, and the human search for direction.
Inside National Gallery Singapore, Seung-taek Lee’s (South Korea) monumental Earth Play installation, a seven-metre balloon painted as Earth, creates a contemplative space that reminds visitors of our shared planet and collective responsibility.
Art Meets Everyday Life on Orchard Road
Amid the city’s iconic shopping stretch, Lucky Plaza and Far East Shopping Centre step into the spotlight as unconventional art spaces.
At Lucky Plaza, Filipino artist Eisa Jocson presents The Filipino Superwoman X H.O.M.E. Karaoke Living Room, a joyful installation created in collaboration with Filipino domestic workers. Visitors are invited to sing along in this reimagined living room, celebrating resilience, humour, and togetherness through karaoke culture.
Filmmaker Tan Pin Pin (Singapore) explores Singapore’s evolving identity through two reconstituted film scenes. On one side, footage of Inuka, the late polar bear born in captivity, mirrors cycles of containment and artifice. On the other, 80km/h, a work updated annually, captures the city’s rhythm through dashcam footage, juxtaposing human ambition with nature’s restraint.
Just down the road at Far East Shopping Centre, Yuri Pattison (Ireland/France) presents entropy study, a reflection on uncertainty and speculation. Architectural models from China’s real estate market are paired with a real-time animation titled cloud gazing (americium), where digital clouds generated by quantum randomness evoke ancient divination rituals and the human urge to foresee the future.
A School for the Imagination at 20 Anderson Road
Once home to the Raffles Girls’ School, the former campus now becomes a playground for artistic exploration, bridging science, spirituality, and heritage.
In the school hall, Kei Imazu (Japan/Indonesia) layers myth and history through large-scale paintings, while Young-jun Tak (South Korea/Germany) captures how knowledge and craftsmanship pass through generations. Immersive film works by Diakron & Emil Rønn Andersen (Denmark) and Riar Rizaldi (Indonesia) blur boundaries between art and memory, while Angelica Mesiti (Australia/France) invites viewers into a meditative dance of movement and mimicry.
Elsewhere, Özgür Kar’s (Türkiye/the Netherlands) animated skeletons perform haunting woodwind tunes, and Brandon Tay (Singapore/China) explores the meeting point of spirituality and science in Serpent Vessel and Votive Spiral. Outside, on the school field, Hothouse (Singapore) curates PRIMAL INSTINCT, featuring sculptures by Salad Dressing, Tini Aliman, and Elizabeth Gabrielle Lee, extending the Biennale into the open air.
Reimagining the Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark
At SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, the Biennale transforms the museum into a living dialogue between trade, technology, and memory.
At the entrance, CAMP’s (India) Metabolic Container repurposes a 20-foot shipping container filled with goods from Batam, symbolising the ceaseless flow of trade and consumption. Inside, Paul Chan’s (Hong Kong/USA) Khara En Tria (Joyer in 3) greets visitors with three colourful, wind-blown nylon figures that dance between joy and contemplation.
In Gallery 1, artworks from Singapore’s National Collection sit alongside contemporary commissions to explore cycles of creation and decay. Highlights include Pierre Huyghe’s (France/Chile) Offspring, an AI-driven installation responding to light and motion; Álvaro Urbano’s (Spain/Germany/France) sculptural plants that echo nature’s resilience; and Cui Jie’s (China) Thermal Landscapes, inspired by Singapore’s modernist watchtowers. Ju Young Kim (South Korea/Germany) merges aviation components with delicate Art Nouveau motifs, while Ming Wong’s (Singapore/Germany) Filem-Filem-Filem nostalgically documents fading cinema architecture across Southeast Asia.
Even the museum café, SIP at SAM, joins the Biennale experience. RRD (Red de Reproducción y Distribución) (Mexico) presents Gastrogeography: Stories from Mexico to Singapore, connecting two culinary cultures through cookbooks, packaging, and handcrafted objects, reminding visitors that stories of food are also stories of people and place.
Art That Engages the Senses
Across Singapore, multi-location projects invite you to see, taste, and feel art in new ways. Huang Po-Chih’s (Taiwan) Momocha turns the act of drinking kombucha into a cross-cultural experience. Created in collaboration with Singaporean brand Moon Juice Kombucha, the project offers limited-edition brews infused with spices and herbs from the artist’s hometown in Taiwan. Each flavour tells a story of migration, memory, and the ties between agriculture and art. Visitors can sample Momocha from vending machines at National Gallery Singapore, Blenheim Court, 20 Anderson Road, and at SIP at SAM.
Meanwhile, Debbie Ding (Singapore) transforms MRT stations at Fort Canning, HarbourFront, and Orchard with Rules for the Expression of Architectural Desires, a series of striking posters that reimagine Singapore’s cityscape as a shared emotional and imaginative space. These public artworks invite commuters to reflect on how urban life is shaped by dreams as much as by design.
At multiple Biennale venues including Blenheim Court, Tanglin Halt, Far East Shopping Centre, Fort Canning Centre, National Gallery Singapore, and SAM, Izat Arif (Malaysia) installs terrazzo benches etched with Malay and English inscriptions. Serving as both sculpture and seating, the benches encourage quiet moments of rest and reflection, where contemplation becomes part of the art itself.
Conversations, Workshops, and Performances
SB2025’s opening weekend comes alive with public programmes designed to deepen audience engagement through talks, performances, and interactive experiences.
At SAM’s Engine Room, visitors can join artist talks by Ahmet Öğüt (Türkiye/the Netherlands), The Packet (Sri Lanka), Fiona Amundsen (New Zealand), Gabriela Golder (Argentina), and RRD (Mexico). RRD will also host a hands-on workshop introducing the mimeograph, an analog printing tool that traces the history and politics of image reproduction.
Beyond the museum walls, the Biennale activates other city spaces, including 20 Anderson Road, where Hothouse (Singapore) presents a performance activation featuring works by Tini Aliman and Elizabeth Gabrielle Lee.
Plan Your Visit
The Biennale runs from 31 October 2025 to 29 March 2026. Admission to SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark is SGD15 for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents and SGD25 for tourists and foreign residents, while local students and educators enjoy free entry. All other venues are free and open to all, with complimentary shuttle buses operating on weekends to connect major Biennale sites across the city. Singaporeans may also use their SG Culture Pass credits to redeem admission.
Supported by a Community of Partners
Made possible through the support of generous partners, collaborators, and patrons, Singapore Biennale 2025 continues to champion diversity, accessibility, and artistic innovation, transforming the city into a living canvas where art, community, and imagination converge.
