An art exhibition celebrates its 10^th anniversary this March, featuring a designated space for video works and performances.

The exhibition, Art Central, first opened its doors in 2015 at the Victoria Harbourfront, welcoming visitors to experience art in video and performance. For the 2025 edition, curator Aaditya Sathish joins the team and talks about the newest addition, Central Cinema.

With 15 video works showcased in this dedicated theatre, he welcomes visitors to experience the productions firsthand. One of the works by a local artist Kary Kwok, titled “You Don’t Know Me, But…”(1998), challenges normative perceptions. In a 30-second film of Kary regurgitating white liquid onto the camera, Aaditya describes the act as an “experimental gesture”.

Another video by Raqs Media Collective, titled “The Bicyclist Who Fell Into a Time-cone”, explores the interplay between fact and fiction, as well as world and time. Similarly, Riar Rizaldi’s “Mirage – Eigenstate” delves into the boundaries of fiction and reality. “It’s shot in an American-style sci-fic format,” Aaditya says. “It brings together quantum communications, but also Sufi mysticism.”

Following the programme theme, “On the Shores of…”, Aaditya sees the work of these artists as constantly shifting and in flux. “It’s the exact kind of shoreline, it’s never stable,” he explains. “I was thinking about the ways how different artists reflect on time, on the boundaries, on the way in which we understand history.”

To Aaditya, video art is not a recent trend. It is a medium which fascinated artists for a long time. In the programmes he has curated, he wants to highlight how artists have worked with moving images from an early point in history. As a curator,  he maintains close relationships with the artists. Building these connections takes time, but it’s important to have a deep understanding of the artists and their practices. 

Apart from Central Cinema, Aaditya curated the lecture-performances at the exhibition, which take place in a special area called Central Theatre. Singaporean artist Charmaine Poh presents a playful show titled “in the shadow of the cosmic”, which discusses digital representations of the East Asian femme body. Charmaine draws inspiration from her own background for this performance. “She used to be a child star in Singapore,” Aaditya says. “What’s quite interesting is what she is reflecting on. There was a way in which her image was being circulated online. Like people are going to have opinions about you.”

For Aaditya, one of the challenges in curating was presenting theatrical pieces like Charmaine’s lecture in an art fair setting. “Some of this has to do with questions of lighting. You might not have the same kind of lighting that a black box theater would have,” he explains. “You then kind of work with that and navigate it, so that it can become more presentable.”

Raised in Hong Kong, Aaditya relocated back to the city for five years. At Art Central, he is thrilled to present art to a broad audience. At the end of the day, art interfaces with the public. He hopes that people would find something unexpectedly charming and joyous from the exhibition.

Watch the video now for more details.

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