Asia NOW to Feature Performance and Participatory Works

Asia Now 2025 21–26 October 2025

Asia NOW opens its tenth edition at Monnaie de Paris this week from 17 to 20 October.

This year’s edition includes an exhibition organised by Radicants, a global curatorial cooperative of some dozen members founded in 2022 by French curator Nicolas Bourriaud with Kuralai Abdukhalikova, Barbara Lagié, and Cyrille Troubetzkoy.

Entitled Ceremony, the programme features 19 artists—among them Leelee Chan, Isaac Chong Wai, Zadie Xa, and Trevor Yeung—who explore the power of community celebrations such as dances, processions, and festivals.

At the peristyle entrance of La Monnaie—the world’s oldest continuously-operating mint, situated along the Seine in the 6th arrondissement—visitors will be greeted by a participatory installation by Taiwanese artist Charwei Tsai, Ancient Desires – One Taste. It comprises around 70 hand-inscribed ceramic vessels made in collaboration with Nepalese potters that contain offerings for visitors.

Speaking to Ocula, Ceremony co-curator Alexander Burenkov said Tsai wants ‘to benefit the collective wellbeing of all sentient beings.’

‘Geographical, social, and spiritual motifs always inform Tsai’s practice, which encourages viewer participation outside the confines of complacent contemplation,’ he said.

‘This project contributes to [Radicants’] will to create not just a encyclopaedic range of different ceremonies peculiar to Asian culture as seen by contemporary artists, but to design spaces for slowing down in the numerous intermediate spaces of La Monnaie to disrupt the traditional dynamics of the art fair.’

Another highlight is Flags Parade, a costume performance by Brussels-based artist Darius Dolatyari-Dolatdoust.

‘One of our curatorial goals was to queer the traditional model of the art fair by creating more space for unexpected encounters and dynamics,’ Burenkov explained.

‘Dolatyari-Dolatdoust’s approach revolves around the making of costumes, which he considers as a space for transformation and hybridisation in its capacity to modify our relationship to the body, to dance, and to language. In his practice, the garment becomes a means of questioning his identity.’

A lesser-known video work by Turkish artist Nil Yalter, who this year received a Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, is also included in Ceremony. In Lord Byron Meets the Shaman Woman (2009), Yalter performs a shamanic ritual with electronic sounds.

‘Yalter utilises new technologies, including computer-generated geometric suprematist shapes, and introduces Byzantine forms to expand the trance-like experience through the multiplication of the image,’ Burenkov said.

‘We wanted to put together in dialogue established artists such as Yalter and Özlem Altin with names completely unknown to the French art scene, such as Qian Qian, Bobby Yu Shuk Pui, or Buryat artist Ariuna Bulutova, who turns to Indigenous practices and epistemologies in a quest to heal our relationship with the world beyond the human.’

Asia NOW has also commissioned two major works that will debut on preview day.

Palan & Pakghor [The Kitchen Garden & The Social Kitchen] is an interactive food-based exchange presented by Dhaka-based non-profit Britto Arts Trust. Over the fair’s duration, the artists will be cooking and inviting visitors to share food and conversation.

The second commission is an installation by artist and architect Sumayya Vally, They Who Brings Rain Brings Life, which will be activated in a performance at 6pm on 17 October.

The 71 participating galleries of Asia NOW 2024 come from across the Asia Pacific region, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. They include Perrotin, Galleria Continua, Yeo Workshop, Zilberman, Esther Schipper, Sabrina Amrani, and NIKA Project Space.

Asia NOW takes place in the busiest week of the art calendar for France’s capital, with Art Basel Paris and Paris Internationale also on view through 20 October. —[O]

Main image: Performance view: Sumayya Vally, They Who Brings Rain Brings Life, Dhaka Art Summit (3–11 February 2023). Courtesy Dhaka Arts Summit. Photo: Shadman Sakib.