Singapore, 1 September 2025 – Singapore Art Museum (SAM) is thrilled to announce a diverse line-up of more than 80 artists for the highly anticipated Singapore Biennale 2025 (SB2025). Commissioned by National Arts Council, Singapore (NAC) and organised by SAM, the eighth edition invites audiences to rediscover Singapore through the transformative lens of art, fostering deep reflections on contemporary life and our collective future. Set against the backdrop of Singapore’s 60th birthday and presented as an SG60 signature event, SB2025 is anchored by the theme ‘pure intention’. Within this framework, art functions as a lens to view the evolution of Singapore’s urban and social environment. It demonstrates how art reframes the everyday, inviting us to reconsider the people, spaces, and layered histories that shape who we are, both individually and as a society.
Mr David Neo, Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth, said, “SB2025 presents an opportunity for Singaporeans and our international visitors to understand and appreciate Singapore at SG60 through the lens of contemporary art. Arts play a vital role in building a connected society. At SB2025, Singaporeans will get to explore and enjoy the arts right where they live, work and play.”
This edition features over 100 artworks, including more than 30 new commissions. Speaking through diverse media, participating artists from Singapore and Southeast Asia, as well as Argentina, Australia, Germany, India, South Korea, Türkiye, the United States and beyond present a timely global survey. Together with curators Duncan Bass, Hsu Fang-Tze, Ong Puay Khim, and Selene Yap—alongside curatorial contributors from Singapore and around the world—the artists will engage with the city's evolving architectural, social, and cultural landscape, connecting Singaporean realities with shared global experiences.
Through the lens of pure intention, artists and audiences are invited to look closer at the rituals and lived experiences that have shaped our urban environment through the Biennale’s presence across the island. Audiences are invited to embark on a journey of discovery as they encounter art in unexpected places—from pre-colonial and colonial landmarks to shopping malls, historic housing estates, and greenspaces. Locations include Rail Corridor South, Wessex Estate, Tanglin Halt, Civic District, Orchard and SAM at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, among others. Complementing these are roving projects designed to spark artistic discovery within the fabric of our everyday lives. Expansive in scale and spirit, SB2025 hopes to spark critical dialogue on contemporary issues with a Southeast Asian lens.
In a joint statement, the curators shared, “SB2025 provides a unique opportunity for us to reflect on the many ways our city has been shaped by its architecture and systems, as well as the people who move through it. By inviting diverse voices to respond to themes of rapid urban development, historical contradictions and speculative futures with pure intention, this edition unpacks Singapore’s multifaceted realities within global narratives. In activating spaces that are part of our daily rhythms, we hope to foster greater dialogue across cultures and communities, sparking moments of connection and curiosity towards the cosmopolitan futures we share.”
Everyday Places Quietly Charged
Coinciding with SG60, this edition of the Singapore Biennale highlights the stories that anchor places to people. For instance, the Rail Corridor is a 24-kilometre path that embodies Singapore’s memories—both as a former commercial railway route and as a present-day nature trek for recreation and appreciation of biodiversity. The residential neighbourhoods adjacent to the Rail Corridor, including the black-and-white colonial buildings of Wessex Estate and the public housing flats at Tanglin Halt built in the 1960s, were profoundly influenced by the tracks’ presence. For decades, the railway was a silent witness to progress, ferrying goods and people, carrying with it the material imprints of regional development. Today, this continuous green passageway not only safeguards our history of cross-border interactions but also actively cultivates new pathways for contemporary movement and discovery.
The Rail Corridor and adjacent neighbourhoods feature artwork highlights such as an installation by Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand) and Guo-Liang Tan (Singapore), which reimagines the scrolled theatre backdrops characteristic in Weerasethakul’s films as a kinetic outdoor installation. Artist Emily Floyd (Australia) presents a new rendition of her Field Library series, a vibrant sculptural installation situated amidst the greenery of Wessex Estate, which functions as both a gathering space and an open-access library. At the Tanglin Halt market, Joo Choon Lin’s (Singapore) immersive performance installation challenges the conventions of human perception: where the world around us is pictured as activity, event, and movement.
Monuments to Material Histories
Singapore’s central Civic District hosts artworks that explore the complex histories of the communities that have laid the foundations of various nations. Gala Porras-Kim (Colombia/USA/United Kingdom) encourages audiences to reflect on labour and rest by celebrating the Sunday gatherings of migrant worker communities through their poetry. National Gallery Singapore’s Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Commission, Temple by Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Vietnam/USA) invites audiences to take part in the creation of a healing soundscape and contemplate land, history, and conflict, by interacting with the monumental installation that features elements made from defused unexploded ordnance found in the Quảng Trị province of central Vietnam. Adjacent to the historic Fort Gate, Kapwani Kiwanga’s (Canada/France) Flowers for Africa: Rwanda recreates a triumphal arc based on archival documentation and constructed of fresh foliage to commemorate Rwanda's independence. Curatorial contributor Asian Film Archive (Singapore) will present a multidisciplinary project in conjunction with their 20th anniversary, featuring three newly commissioned installations and an experimental film programme excavating the layers of loss, decay, and the possibilities of re-emergence within the film archive.
Collectively Shaping Social Spaces
SB2025 examines Singapore’s strata-titled malls, presenting them as case studies of how familiar everyday spaces transform and adapt amidst rapid urban development. These privately owned, strata-titled retail developments, such as Lucky Plaza and Far East Shopping Centre, emerged from Singapore’s property policies before the turn of the millennium. Yet, they cultivated distinctive cultural ecosystems that defy standardisation. The unique ownership structures have enabled immigrant entrepreneurs and niche communities to flourish, preserving vital pockets of social diversity in the face of the city-state’s growth. By engaging with these sites, the Biennale invites reflection on how layered histories persist within—and even because of—Singapore’s fast-paced transformation.
In collaboration with H.O.M.E. and Filipino domestic workers in Singapore, Eisa Jocson (the Philippines) presents a new commission through a series of karaoke videos. Visitors are encouraged to sing along to these personal anthems of inspiration, struggle, and perseverance in a retail unit at Lucky Plaza. Artworks by Tan Pin Pin (Singapore) explore Singapore’s contrasting temporalities to reflect on how the city’s pasts, presents and futures collide in a landscape shaped by artificial containment and capitalist acceleration. Water Under The Bridge/A Bridge Under Water, a multimedia installation by curatorial contributor The Packet (Sri Lanka), adopts the form of an internet café to present a stream of existing and newly commissioned works. At 20 Anderson Road, Riar Rizaldi’s (Indonesia) Mirage: Agape further blurs the lines of dream and reality by exploring the relationship between science and spiritual knowledge systems. Also at the same site, PRIMAL INSTINCT, staged by curatorial contributor Hothouse (Singapore), presents new works by Salad Dressing, Tini Aliman, and Elizabeth Gabrielle Lee within a reconceived grass field.
Conversations Between Past and Present
At Tanjong Pagar Distripark, SB2025 draws connections between works from Singapore’s National Collection and contemporary practices. Expanding on the theme of pure intention, the Biennale will reflect the far-reaching impact of Singapore’s rapid urban development on its citizens. This creates a compelling dialogue, juxtaposing historic paintings, prints, and photographs by Liu Kang (Singapore) (1911–2004), Lim Mu Hue (Singapore) (1936–2008), Lim Yew Kuan (Singapore) (1928–2021), and Wu Peng Seng (Singapore) (1915–2006) against contemporary artworks. In SAM’s Gallery 1, Pierre Huyghe’s (France/Chile) Offspring is a dreamlike installation that uses local climatic conditions and visitor proximity to manipulate light, smoke and an algorithmic score into infinite variations, making each encounter with the work unique. Audiences can also encounter Figures, dedications, and civilisations by curatorial contributor Hyphen— (Indonesia), a constellation of artworks that trace alternative political narratives and citizen-led initiatives to conserve Indonesia’s historical dioramas—recasting their figures, reanimating lost possibilities, and challenging the imbalances they were made to preserve.
Several artworks will also be displayed throughout the city over the course of the Biennale, continuing to bring art into the everyday. Akira Takayama/Port B (Japan), directed by Akira Takayama, is set to present a newly commissioned project in collaboration with students from the National University of Singapore’s Architecture Department. The initiative will take the form of a pop-up board game centre, designed to guide audiences in exploring Singapore. It will be presented at regional libraries in Woodlands, Jurong, and Tampines, as well as 20 Anderson Road.
SB2025 will run from 31 October 2025 to 29 March 2026. A list of participating artists is also available on the Singapore Biennale’s website (https://www.singaporebiennale.org/). An admission ticket is required for entry to Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, one of the main Biennale venues. All other sites, located in publicly accessible spaces across the city, are free and open to all. Tickets are priced at SGD15 for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents, and SGD25 for tourists and foreign residents. Local and locally-based students and educators enjoy free admission.
Early bird tickets at 20% off will be available from 17 September to 30 October 2025. Singaporeans may also use their SG Culture Pass credits to purchase tickets.
For more information please visit the Singapore Art Museum website.
Tagged 02/09.