Visual Arts FOCUS French Encounters Art Basel Hong Kong Invited Asian and French participants participants’ biographies #1 Conversation between French artist Laurent Grasso and Donatien Grau Laurent Grasso, French artist Laurent Grasso lives and works in Paris (France) and New York (USA). Graduated from the Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts of Paris, Laurent Grasso was laureate of the Marcel Duchamp Prize (2008) and a member of the French Academy in Rome - Villa Médicis (2004-2005). Laurent Grasso has recently participated to an exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay (“Artificialis’’, 2021), overseas, he took part to the Centre Pompidou x West Bund Museum Project (2021) and to the opening of the Jeonnam Museum of Art in Korea (2021). He also presented his work on the occasion of many personal exhibitions conceived in immersive or labyrinthine measures such as Fondation Hermès, Tokyo (“Soleil Noir“, 2015); Kunsthaus Baselland, Muttenz, Switzerland (“Disasters and Miracles”, 2013) and Contemporary Art museum of Montreal (“Uraniborg”, 2013). Laurent Grasso also took part in numerous collective exhibitions and international art contemporary biennale such as the Biennale of Sydney (Australia, 2018), EVA International (Ireland, 2018), the Kochi Biennale (India, 2014), and the Gwangju Biennale (South Korea, 2012). Alongside, Laurent Grasso was invited to make installations in the public space such as Revolving History (2018) on the bay windows of the Couvent des Jacobins in Rennes and Solar Wind (2016), permanent artwork placed on the Calcia silo’s wall in the suburbs of the 13th arrondissement of Paris. His work is the object of several important monographs : Paramuseum (Silvana Editoriale/Palais Fesch, 2016), Soleil Double (Dilecta/Perrotin, 2015), Uraniborg (Flammarion/Jeu de Paume, 2012), The Black-Body Radiation (les presses du réel, 2009). He is represented by Perrotin (Paris) and Sean Kelly gallery (New York). Donatien Grau, artistic counselor at Museé d’Orsay Donatien Grau currently serves as head of contemporary programs at the musée d’Orsay, Paris. He holds doctoral degrees in French and comparative literature from the Sorbonne, in philological and historical sciences from the École des Hautes Études, Paris, and a DPhil from Oxford University. He served as advisor to Azzedine Alaïa for the couturier’s not-for-profit exhibition space, the Galerie (2014-2017) and curated the inaugural exhibition of the reopening of the Getty Villa, Malibu, Plato in L. A. (2018). He is an editor-at-large of Purple Fashion Magazine and of The Brooklyn Rail. He has published widely on the arts and culture of the Roman Empire, on 19th and 20th literary and art history, as well as on contemporary art and culture. Recent publications include: The Transitory Museum, with Emanuele Coccia (Polity, 2018); Ways of Re-Thinking Literature, with Tom Bishop (Routledge, 2018); After the Crisis, Contemporary States of Photography, with Christoph Wiesner (diaphanes, 2019); © Paolo Roversi Taking Time, with Azzedine Alaïa (Rizzoli, 2020); Living Museums (Hatje Cantz, 2020); Under Discussion. The Encyclopedic Museum (Getty, 2021). He also holds the position of chairman of the Association Pierre Guyotat. #2 Conversation between Aidan Li, Angel Leung and Théodora Barat Angel Leung, Programs Manager at Videotage Angel Leung is a multidisciplinary art curator, programmer, and writer. Currently the Programmes Manager of Videotage, she has organised a variety of programs: "Artificial Landscape" at SOGO Hong Kong (2019), Both Sides Now V & VI (2019, 2020) with videoclub, and "Bit Street Hong Kong" at New Art Fest (2020). She curated "Sensory/Motor" at Night of Ideas (2020) and co-curated “Digital Birth - Zooming in on NFT” at Art Basel Hong Kong (2021). Leung initiated the Hong Kong-France collaborative residency program “Micromégas" in 2021 and 2022. She also worked at Broadway Cinematheque in Hong Kong and organised film festivals, including the Hong Kong Asian Film Festival (2017) and Agnes Varda Retrospective of Le French May (2018). Leung finished her Master’s degree in Screen Art at Université de Strasbourg in 2016 and received her Bachelor’s degree in Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong in 2009. She is also a researcher and writer on moving images. She co-edited the book David Lynch (Kubrick, 2017) and writes at Stand News (HK) and Agora Digital (UK). Theodora Barat, French artist Théodora Barat studied at the Beaux Arts de Nantes before joining the Fresnoy - Studio National des Arts Contemporains. She is currently developing a research and creation thesis within the RADIAN doctoral programme. She has been awarded the Audi Talents Prize (2016), the FACE / Étant Donnés grant, the AIC (2020) and the Institute for Photography's research and creation support programme (2021). Her work combines sculpture, film, installation, video and photography. It has been presented at K11 - Musea (Hong Kong), Cneai, Emily Harvey Foundation and Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (New York), Nuit Blanche, Friche de la Belle de Mai, Mains d'Œuvres, Glassbox, CAC Vilnius (Lithuania), as well as in video programming at the Palais de Tokyo and in numerous international festivals. #3 Conversation between Sylvie Boulanger, Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel et Kingsley Ng Sylvie Boulanger, Director of the CNEAI= (National Center for Image Art Publishing) Sylvie Boulanger is an exhibition curator, researcher and editor. She directs the CNEAI (Centre National Edition Art Image). She is in charge of the FMRA, MULTIPLE and YONA FRIEDMAN collections, and currently developing the residency programmes for the Bouroullec Floating House. She co-founded the M.A.D (MULTIPLE ART DAYS www.multipleartdays.com) exhibition. She is the former deputy director of the French Ministry of Culture exhibition department and founder of the Art Public Contemporain production agency. She has edited over 100 publications and curated over 150 solo and group exhibitions of emerging and international artists including Alighiero Boetti, Daniel Buren, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Yona Friedman, Jef Geys, Wade Guyton, Cameron Jamie, Alison Knowles, François Morellet, Matt Mullican, Yoshitomo Nara, Seth Price, Allen Ruppersberg, Claude Rutault, Tatiana Trouvé, Kyochi Tsuzuki, etc. She publishes and lectures on media art and artistic practices related to transmission, environment, and social issues in general. In this regard, she is involved in research groups and committees such as the ARTEC Consortium, the UFR A.P.E University Paris8 Council, the LabEx ICCA Paris13, the E.D.I.T.H ESADHaR Laboratory and the journal Multitudes. She was trained in aesthetic philosophy, political science and literature: I.E.P/Science-Po Paris, Master of Research in Philosophy-Aesthetics Paris I, Lettres Modernes Paris 4. Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel, Director Lafayette Anticipations Foundation, Paris Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel is director of Lafayette Anticipations, the Galeries Lafayette Foundation. In 2020 she was the general curator of the Riga Biennial, "and suddenly it all blossoms", and director of the feature film based on the exhibition. From 2011 to 2019, she was curator at the Palais de Tokyo where she curated, among others, the cartes blanches to Tomas Saraceno, ON AIR (2018-2019) and to Tino Seghal (2016). She has also curated the exhibitions of Marguerite Humeau, FOXP2 (2016), Ed Atkins, Bastards (2014), Helen Marten, Evian Disease (2013), or David Douard, Mo'swallow (2014), as well as the group exhibition Le bord des mondes (2015). She regularly Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel collaborates with international institutions, with the projects 72 ©Chloé Magdelaine Lafayette Anticipations hours of truce: exploring immediate signs (2013) and Bright intervals (2014) at MoMA PS1 (New-York), FOXP2 (2016) at Nottingham Contemporary, Landscape (2014) with the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam) or Des présents inachevés within the Biennale de Lyon (with Oliver Beer, Julian Charrière, Jeremy Shaw and Benoît Pype, 2013). In 2017, she was co-curator of the exhibition Voyage d'Hiver at the Château de Versailles. She regularly publishes in French and international journals and catalogues, and participates in numerous seminars and juries in France and abroad (FIAC, French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale etc). She has a degree in Art History, History and Political Science from the University of Paris I - La Sorbonne. Kingsley Ng, artist based in Hong Kong. Kingsley Ng is an interdisciplinary artist and designer with a focus on conceptual and site-specific projects. He believes that art helps us to mediate our environment, whether as a viewer or participator. Past projects include Twenty-Five Minutes Older, a commission by Art Basel last year which takes the audience on a moving tram, and After the Deluge, presented earlier this year in an underground storm-water tank the size of 40 Olympic-sized swimming pools. His works have been featured in notable exhibitions and international venues. Examples include the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Rome Italy, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Guangzhou Triennial in China, Land Art Biennial in Mongolia, Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial in Japan, IRCAM – Centre Pompidou in France, Lille Europe Pavilion in © Photo courtesy of Shanghai Expo, InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre in Canada, ArtAsiaPacific the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and Art Basel Hong Kong. Kingsley has received postgraduate training at Le Fresnoy – National Studio of Contemporary Arts in France and with an MSc Sustainable Design degree from the University of Edinburgh