IBA Stage: Hawai’i Triennial 2025
Installation view of Hawai’i Triennial 2025 at Honolulu Museum of Art
IBA Stage: Hawai’i Triennial 2025
March 27, 2025 (Thursday)
7:00 pm (Hawai’i/GMT-10)
We are thrilled to announce the next edition of IBA Stage. Joining us for the second even of the year will be the curatorial team of Hawai‘i Triennial 2025 (HT25)—Hawai‘i’s largest contemporary art exhibition bringing together artists from Hawai‘i, the Pacific, and beyond. Organized by Hawai‘i Contemporary, the Triennial serves as a platform to connect communities across the Pacific through art displayed across multiple venues in Hawai’i.
Since its founding as the Honolulu Biennial in 2017, Hawai‘i Triennial has grown into one of the most relevant contemporary art events in the Pacific region. The inaugural biennial and its 2019 successor collectively welcomed over 200,000 visitors. The first Hawai‘i Triennial in 2022 featured 43 artists and art collectives, drawing over 100,000 visitors. The shift to the triennial format was coupled with the intention to expand the event across multiple islands to signal the intention to build on an inclusive and collaborative approach fostering a critical dialogue with Hawai’i diverse territory.
Hawai‘i Triennial 2025 continues on this trajectory, expanding beyond O‘ahu to include exhibitions and programs across Hawai‘i Island and Maui, deepening connections within the archipelago. Through contemporary art, the Triennial explores urgent cultural and environmental issues that resonate within and beyond the Pacific region.
The theme of Hawai‘i Triennial 2025, ALOHA NŌ, is a profound call to reconsider the layered meanings of aloha. Curated by Wassan Al-Khudhairi (Honolulu), Binna Choi (Seoul/Amsterdam), and Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu (Honolulu), the Triennial challenges conventional understandings of aloha as a mere greeting or commercialized term. Instead, it positions aloha as a deeply embedded practice of care, resistance, solidarity, and transformation—a way of living that fosters meaningful relationships with the land (‘āina), ocean, environment, and each other.
The curatorial statement of ALOHA NŌ reads as follows:
ALOHA NŌ is a call to reconsider what we think we know about the word aloha. While the term is often used and commercialized, its true meaning goes much deeper. Aloha is not just a greeting—it is a way of living, rooted in deep love, truth, and connection. Aloha is not just a feeling—it involves building meaningful relationships with the land (‘āina), the ocean, the environment, and with each other.
To know it in English, ALOHA NŌ is an expression of refusal and negation. To know it in ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i (Hawaiian language), ALOHA NŌ conveys a deep affirmation and intensity, to aloha deeply. ALOHA NŌ invites all of us—natives, settlers, immigrants, and visitors—to know aloha and embody new understandings of love as acts of care, resistance, solidarity, and transformation. Equally, it is a proposal to find resonance across different cultures and geographies, especially sovereign is/lands with similar histories and struggles against colonial occupation and capitalist violence.
ALOHA NŌ manifests with more than 100 artworks and projects by 49 artists and art collectives from Hawai‘i, the Pacific, and the world. Accompanied by lively public programs, the exhibition is presented in multiple venues across O‘ahu, Hawai‘i Island, and Maui, for the first time extending beyond O‘ahu and echoing the potential of inter-archipelagic relations.
The artworks you will encounter at each place and their constellations through the pathways will articulate the notion of aloha nō and unravel its kaona (layered meaning), including:
- Aloha ‘Āina (Love for the land)
- Mo‘okū‘auhau (Genealogy connecting people and place)
- Mo‘olelo (Storied traditions)
- Ho‘opono (Healing through truth-telling, forgiveness, and mutual growth)
ALOHA NŌ shall contribute to healing the wounds inflicted on our ‘āina, our people, and our relationships, and foster deeper connections through forgiveness and love.
Curators:
- Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Honolulu
- Binna Choi, Seoul / Amsterdam
- Noelle M.K.Y. Kahanu, Honolulu
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!
Stay connected with us through our social media channels for updates and further details.
