IBA Stage: 9th Asian Art Biennial

Yoshinori Niwa, Unavoidable Work in Order to Keep Us Alive (New Iteration), 2019/2024, neon tube, 175 × 200 cm.
Courtesy of the artist.
Installation view, 2024 Asian Art Biennial.
Image courtesy of NTMoFA.

IBA Stage: 9th Asian Art Biennial – How to Hold Your Breath

February 13, 2025 (Thursday)
4:00 PM (Taiwan Time/GMT+8)

We are delighted to present the next edition of IBA Stage, featuring the curatorial team of the 2024 Asian Art Biennial, one of Asia’s most interesting platforms for contemporary art. This year’s Biennial, curated by Fang Yen-Hsiang (Taiwan), Anne Davidian (Armenia/France), Merv Espina (Philippines), Haeju Kim (South Korea) and Asli Seven (Turkey/France) under the evocative theme “How to Hold Your Breath,” explores the intersections of resilience, transformation, and alternative imaginaries in the face of global challenges.

Since its inception, the Asian Art Biennial has been recognized for engaging deeply with regional as well as global perspectives, offering an expansive view of contemporary art practices across diverse contexts. The 2024 edition continues this tradition with a compelling focus on relationality, reciprocity, and the metaphysical act of pausing to envision collective futures.

About the 2024 Asian Art Biennial

Under the evocative theme of “How to Hold Your Breath,” the 2024 Asian Art Biennial explores the act of voluntarily pausing a vital function, creating a state of anticipation and transformation. The curatorial team draws inspiration from practices as ancient as the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and as contemporary as global socio-political upheavals, inviting us to imagine a world of resilience and renewal amidst uncertainty.

In the words of the curatorial team, the exhibition was presented with the following opening passage:

“On March 27, 2021, Croatian freediver Budimir Šobat breaks the record for the longest voluntary breath hold, at 24 minutes and 37.36 seconds.

In June 1986, amidst a year marked by disasters and dissent—from the bloodless People Power Revolution that ousted the three-decade-long Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines, to the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe—the song Take My Breath Away tops the charts.

In the early centuries CE, the compiled Yoga Sutras of Patanjali describe the practice of kumbhaka as the gradual cessation of breathing, the discontinuance of inhalation and exhalation. The retention of breath has long been known as one of the oldest and simplest techniques for accessing altered states of mind.”

Read the full curatorial statement here.

Join the Conversation

To have the possibility to hear and discuss with the individuals behind biennials has been a key component of what we believe IBA can offer to our members and the wider public and we value your participation through our live streams. As always IBA Stage events are meant as a moment to hear about a project through its makers and have the opportunity to participate in a Q&A session at the end of the presentation.

Click here to register for the event!

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This event will take place on February 13 at 4 PM Taiwan time. Stay connected with us through our social media channels for updates and further details.