September 2025 Round-Up
MOMENTUM, Orasis Art Space, Cemeti - Institute for Art and Society, The Listening Biennial and Fukuoka Asian Art Museum
MOMENTUM #4 - Leviathan's Hand
Exhibition view of MOMENTUM #4 - Leviathan’s Hand. Image courtesy of FAZAL Unlimited.
This month, FAZAL Unlimited launches the fourth edition of MOMENTUM—a project that invites artists to create large-scale artworks—with the works of Thai artist Butsapasila Wanjing. Continuing his practice that engages with history, mythology, and postcolonialism, the works in this show present an alternative possibility beyond the current structures of religion and state. Informed by his Lanna heritage, the series of paintings and sculptures interrogate the deep roots of colonialism in Thai governance by reviving the suppressed history of the Lanna, while offering a hopeful image of an unfinished future.
MOMENTUM #4 - Leviathan’s Hand is on show from now until 14 September 2025. More information here.
Segue #2: Lim Keng - Breath of Lines
Installation view of Segue #2: Lim Keng - Breath of Lines. Image courtesy of Orasis Art Space.
Orasis Art Space presents an archival exhibition, Lim Keng - Breath of Lines, exploring five decades of artist Lim Keng’s sketches. Lim was known for his direct, on-site sketching which utilised various unconventional mediums such as pens, sticks, wooden branches, as well as vinegar bottles filled with ink. Curated by Suwarno Wisetrotomo, the exhibition is a retrospective on Lim’s practice, while offering a lens into the evolving landscapes and urban life of Surabaya where the artist was situated. The exhibition is the third in line of the Segue series, which highlights Orasis Art Space’s efforts in reviving key artists in Indonesian art history with a focus on Surabaya.
Lim Keng - Breath of Lines is on show from now until 14 September at Orasis Art Space, Surabaya. More information here.
Berbalik dan Melihat ke Belakang
Installation view of M. Shodiq and Rokateater, Aku Lahir Ketika Ninja Datang ke Kampung Kami, 2025, acrylic on tarp. Image courtesy of Cemeti - Institute of Art and Society.
Berbalik dan Melihat ke Belakang, which translates to “Turn Back and Look Behind”, is an exhibition that invites audiences to attend to the layered backdrop of histories using the language of theatre. Drawing on the Japanese concept of fukeiron—a theory which posits place as a political witness—the five artists interweave elements of scenery, procession, and residue as records of social and historical processes. Through murals, theatrical backdrops, paintings, as well as artifacts from the cultural festival AMUK 1812, memory becomes the method to reading the present.
Berbalik dan Melihat ke Belakang is on view until 20 September 2025 at Cemeti - Institute for Art and Society, Yogyakarta. More information here.
The Listening Biennial
Irazema H Vera, Recording the Amazonas river, 2023. Photo taken by Leslie Searles.
The third edition of The Listening Biennial will be launched in Singapore for the first time. Curated by artist Alecia Neo and co-programmed with Ethos Books publisher Ng Kah Gay, the international event is shaped around the practice of Third Listening, a type of relational listening that encourages empathy and attunement to all lifeforms. With over 20 participating artists, musicians, researchers, and activists, the multi-faceted programme unfolds across three parts: first through exhibitions and various experiences during the Singapore Night Festival from August to September, followed by a co-learning laboratory and public programmes with LAB x LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore in mid-September. The show will finally conclude its run with a listening circle at LASALLE in October.
The Listening Biennial is open to public from now until 6 September at venues across the Bras Basah.Bugis precinct in conjunction with Singapore Night Festival, and will move to LAB @ LASALLE from 10 to 15 September, followed by 17 to 18 October for the listening circle. More information here.
Vietnam: The Landscape of Memories
Thao Nguyen Phan, Mute Grain, 2019, 3 channel video (15 min. 45 sec.), collection of the Nguyen Art Foundation. Image courtesy of the artist and Nguyen Art Foundation
Commemorating 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum unveils over 70 artworks detailing the images and memories of the country’s historic transformations through war, colonisation, and modernisation. Of note is the Nguyen Phan Chanh Conservation Project section in the exhibition. Working closely with the MITANI Foundation for Protection of Cultural and Artistic Properties, the section is dedicated to artist Nguyen Phan Chanh who is known as a great master of silk paintings in modern Vietnamese art. The special segment also highlights the urgency of restoration that many Vietnamese artworks require, with the project playing a significant role in building bridges between Vietnam and Japan through the future conservation of these artworks.
Vietnam: The Landscape of Memories will be on view from 13 September to 9 November 2025 at Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, before moving to Okinawa Prefectural Museum. More information here.
