HKMoA Showcases Local Artists at Venice Biennale with 'Fermata: Hong Kong in Venice' Exhibition

2026-05-09 16:42 Last Updated At：16:58

"Fermata: Hong Kong in Venice" Collateral Event of the 61st Venice Biennale unveils

The Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) in collaboration with the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) organised "Fermata: Hong Kong in Venice" as a Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia (Venice Biennale) to present the artworks of Hong Kong artists Kingsley Ng and Angel Hui. In its first curation of Hong Kong Exhibition at the Venice Biennale, the HKMoA adopting the musical symbol "Fermata" as the curatorial theme engaged in dialogue with "In Minor Keys", the theme of the Venice Biennale this edition, extending the mission of "connecting art to everyone" and bringing Hong Kong's unique East-meets-West culture and life experiences to the international stage. The exhibition will run from today (May 9) to November 22.

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"Fermata: Hong Kong in Venice" Collateral Event of the 61st Venice Biennale unveils Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

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"Fermata: Hong Kong in Venice" Collateral Event of the 61st Venice Biennale unveils Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Speaking at the opening ceremony held on May 8 (Venice Time), the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Miss Rosanna Law said: "Venice Biennale is the world's oldest international art exhibition. For over 130 years, this prestigious event has drawn art lovers from every corner of the globe. Hong Kong has been proud to participate as a Collateral Event since 2001- one of our flagship overseas art programmes, supported by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. Over the past 25 years, this platform has not only showcased the excellence of our artists, but has also become a vital channel for sharing Hong Kong's rich stories with the world."

"This year marks the beginning of our country's 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development. In alignment with this national direction, Hong Kong is committed to fostering greater artistic and cultural exchanges between the Chinese Mainland and countries around the world. It is in this light that our participation in the Venice Biennale carries special significance," Miss Law added.

The Chairman of HKADC, Mr Kenneth Fok,expressed that HKADC was delighted to collaborate with the HKMoA to present Hong Kong artists' outstanding creations to the international arts community. The partnership not only strengthened the local institutional ties, but also enhanced the visibility and influence of Hong Kong arts on the global stage. Mr Fok expected that through this exhibition, more audiences from around the world would have a deeper appreciation of Hong Kong artists' creativity and increased international exchange could be fostered.

Other officiating guests included the Director of Leisure and Cultural Services, Ms Manda Chan and the Museum Director of the HKMoA, Dr Maria Mok.

An established media artist, Kingsley Ng, is known for his poetic, site-specific installations that extend the viewer's perceptions of life. His works have been presented extensively in notable exhibitions locally and internationally. He draws inspiration from "hanging laundry", a common everyday scenery in Venice and Hong Kong for his creation in this exhibition. He has also specially recorded and incorporated the unique night-time sounds of Hong Kong into the multimedia installations, inviting visitors to pause and appreciate the tenderness of transient moments amid the rush of city life.

A promising emerging artist, Angel Hui, is skilled at integrating traditional Chinese cultural elements with contemporary artistic language. She has invited embroiderers from Suzhou to craft millennia-old embroidery onto ordinary plastic bags in Hong Kong, thereby incorporating national Intangible Cultural Heritage into multimedia installations. She has also collaborated with traditional metalsmiths to create handcrafted iron window grilles in Hong Kong and Venetian styles, with shifting shadows casting onto the walls of an old Venetian house as natural light filters through.

The Hong Kong exhibition covers five installations across the courtyard and four gallery rooms, showcasing Ng's works, "Sometimes, There Are Clouds in Puddles", "Sky Well", "Laundry Nocturne", and Hui's "Drifting Sanctuary" and "I Would Like to Open a Window for You".

"Fermata: Hong Kong in Venice" is jointly presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department and the HKADC, and co-organised by the HKMoA and the HKADC. It will be held in Venice, Italy (Campo della Tana, Castello 2126, 30122) from May 9 to November 22. For details of the exhibition, please visit hk.art.museum/en/web/ma/exhibitions-and-events/fermata-hk-in-venice.html.

Financial Secretary Emphasizes Innovation, Inclusivity, and AI in CUHK EMBA Conference Speech

Speech by FS at CUHK EMBA Annual Conference

Following is the speech by the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, at the CUHK EMBA Annual Conference today (May 9):

Professor Dennis Lo (Vice-Chancellor and President, the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)), Professor Lin Zhou (Dean, CUHK Business School), Macy (Chairperson of Organizing Committee, Ms Macy Chan), Michael (Chairperson of Organizing Committee, Mr Michael Chan), CUHK EMBA alumni and students, business leaders, distinguished guests and friends,

Good evening.

Addressing a room full of Executive MBA students and graduates is both an honour and a privilege. There is a particular kind of ambition in this room — one that is not content with success alone, but driven to understand it more deeply, in the belief that better ideas lead to greater impact.

That kind of commitment — to learning, to growth, to asking harder questions — is precisely what today's conversation is about.

The theme of this conference, which focuses on innovation and agile leadership, could not be more timely. Most of us here have lived through the Internet age and the smartphone revolution, which made communication faster and more seamless than anyone had imagined.

Today, the rise of AI places us at a more fundamental tipping point. Technology is not merely changing the answers — it is redefining the questions themselves.

Consider what is already within reach. An AI assistant can learn your preferences, curate a personalised shortlist, and simply ask for your confirmation. We should even ask whether the smartphone and the search engine will remain our primary gateways to the digital world, or whether something altogether new is already taking shape.

To draw an analogy, the power of technology does not lie in drawing the old map with greater precision. It lies in revealing how much of that map remains uncharted — and in showing us that entirely new maps, with new co-ordinates, are being drawn.

This redefinition is unfolding across three dimensions simultaneously.

First, the redefinition of products. Products are no longer discrete, standalone objects. A smart car is a vehicle, but also a mobile platform for data. An insurance policy can be a contract, but equally a dynamic reflection of health data. Innovation today is born from cross-sector convergence and continuous evolution.

Second, the redefinition of services. Services are no longer delivered solely by enterprises. They emerge from collaborative networks of people and AI. But the more profound shift is in what customers now expect. In the past, good service meant reaching the right person quickly. Today, customers expect a solution that anticipates their needs before articulating them. This requires a new architecture of service delivery: human and machine, with AI handling the scale, the speed, and the personalisation that no human team alone could sustain.

Third, and most importantly, the redefinition of business models. In the past, we sought optimal solutions within established frameworks — when demand rose, we expanded capacity; when service needs grew, we opened more branches. Technology invites us to break out of those frameworks entirely. Intelligent manufacturing means that "economies of scale" is no longer the only answer; flexible supply chains have made customised, on-demand production the new normal.

These three redefinitions are opening a commercial frontier unlike anything we have seen before. But if the benefits of technology accrue only to a small circle, its power remains fundamentally constrained. This brings me to the second message I want to leave with you today: inclusivity.

Inclusivity is not charity. Yet it is the smartest business strategy available. The unmet needs of the broader public represent the largest and most underserved market opportunity in existence. When you make quality healthcare, education and financial services accessible and affordable to ordinary residents, you are not serving a group in need of handouts — you are unlocking a vast market that traditional business models have consistently overlooked.

Hong Kong has a distinctive role to play here. We can be a co-architect of standards, a hub for capital, and a bridge between innovation and real-world deployment — from clinical validation of smart healthcare, to green technology financing, to regulatory sandboxes for fintech. Our contribution draws not only on institutional strengths and international networks, but on our genuine commitment to broad-based participation.

Yet inclusive products and services are only the first step. The deeper dimension is empowerment.

History reminds us that the dividends of technological revolution need to be actively guided to reach the many. In the age of steam, and again in the Internet era, early gains concentrated among capital owners and top-tier talent. But today we have the opportunity to write a different story. AI, as an amplifier of human capability, is already enabling what was previously unimaginable: a solo entrepreneur, with the right tools and the right vision, can build a unicorn.

In other words, the unit of competitive advantage is shifting — from the size of your team to the skill with which you orchestrate your tools.

Our mission should be to make that shift available to everyone. To turn individual readiness into collective prosperity, and to ensure that the productivity gains of AI flow broadly across the society.

This is precisely why, in this year's Budget, I placed such emphasis on the "AI Training for All" initiative.

We are not trying to turn everyone into an engineer. We are ensuring that workers, managers, SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) owners, and ordinary residents become capable collaborators with AI: people who can access it, use it effectively, and put it to work as their assistant.

That may sound ambitious, but consider this: if AI can one day be as intuitive as the smartphone, then mass adoption is not difficult to imagine at all. Just as computers once migrated from specialist facilities into offices and homes, AI will find its way into everyone's daily work and life.

For business leaders, it may be tempting to think of AI as "digital employee" that can replace existing workers. But think of a different framing: equipping your workforce with powerful digital assistants can achieve productivity gains, while also freeing your people to do what humans do best — create, imagine and innovate.

Companies that take those extra steps, and think those extra moves ahead, will find that an empowered workforce is also a more innovative one.

All in all, the power of technology must ultimately be measured by its contribution to inclusive growth. And inclusive growth, in the end, depends on, yes, commercial acumen — but also empathy, compassion, and the conviction that a rising tide should lift all boats. I can see that those qualities live in this room.

I will close with this thought. Someone once joked that economists know the price of everything and the value of nothing. With AI, let us never fall into the same trap — in our race to price every efficiency gain, let us not lose sight of the deeper value we are trying to create: a society where the fruits of innovation are broadly shared, and where technology lifts not just the fortunate few, but everyone willing to reach for it.

So here is my ask: let us grow the pie together. And make sure we cut it well.

Thank you very much.

HKMoA Showcases Local Artists at Venice Biennale with 'Fermata: Hong Kong in Venice' Exhibition

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