Set within an old Venetian building opposite the main entrance of the Arsenale, the Hong Kong Collateral Event \u001cFermata: Hong Kong in Venice\u001d invites a slowdown amid the 61st Venice Biennale. Curated by the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA)\u0014Hong Kong\u0019s first public art museum\u0014the presentation marks HKMoA\u0019s first curatorial undertaking for the Hong Kong exhibition at the Biennale. Comprising five new site-specific installations by Kingsley Ng and Angel Hui, the exhibition aligns with the Venice Biennale 2026 theme \u001cIn Minor Keys,\u001d tracing poetic cadences in ordinary experience and linking Hong Kong with Venice through shared, everyday conditions.<\/p>\n
The \u001cfermata\u001d begins in the courtyard with Kingsley Ng, an established artist known for multimedia and spatial interventions that turn the familiar ethereal. Evolved from earlier iterations, his three works here map impressions between the two cities. Sometimes, There Are Clouds in Puddles<\/em> animates mechanically triggered dichroic ribbons that catch sunlight and suggest showers rippling across five turquoise, translucent pools. The piece is inspired by a poem by the late Hong Kong poet Leung Ping-kwan (Yasi), lingering on the fleeting atmosphere of a rainy day.<\/p>\n Indoors, Sky Well<\/em> arranges soap bubbles within a hemispherical structure drawn from well-like spatial archetypes in Hong Kong and Venice, while a single bulb swings overhead. Reflections multiply on the concave surface, forming an optical play that intimates a cosmos and the passing nature of things. Ng\u0019s final installation, Laundry Nocturne<\/em> (2026), projects the silhouette of a solitary sheet in moonlight, accompanied by field recordings of Hong Kong at night\u0014from newspaper printing and sewage treatment to teahouses preparing for the day. Carried into daytime Venice, these sounds salute unseen labour and the quiet upkeep that keeps cities running.<\/p>\n Offering a tactile counterpoint, Angel Hui\u0019s practice leans into material experiment, daily objects, and traditional artistic language. Known for plastic bag embroidery, she debuts in Venice with two installations conceived as one spatial embrace: Drifting Sanctuary<\/em> and I Would Like to Open a Window for You<\/em> (2026). In the first room, plastic bags commonly used in Hong Kong for pet fish are embroidered with goldfish using traditional Suzhou technique, drifting above as their shadows ripple across the walls.<\/p>\n Those moving silhouettes lead to a slowly rotating wrought-iron window in the adjoining room. I Would Like to Open a Window for You<\/em> is ornamented with patterns associated with both Hong Kong and Venice, hand-made by Hui in collaboration with Hong Kong master artisans. As its outline sweeps the rooms, the two installations read as a single, immersive sanctuary where overlooked objects register care and delicate beauty.<\/p>\n Jointly presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC), and jointly organised by the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) and the HKADC, \u001cFermata: Hong Kong in Venice\u001d is on view in Venice (Campo della Tana, Castello 2126, 30122) through 22 November 2026.<\/p>\nAngel Hui: craft, care, and everyday sanctuaries<\/h2>\n