ART SG FILM: By Artists, On Artists

Launched in 2023, the ART SG FILM program is a curation of film, video art and moving image artworks, submitted by ART SG participating galleries, with an emphasis on showcasing new film-making practices, experimental film, or art historically resonant works, particularly by artists and practitioners from around the Southeast Asia and Asia Pacific regions.

ART SG FILM is co-presented by ArtScience Museum, and is screened daily from 17 – 19 January 2025 at ArtScience Cinema, Level 4.

 

By Artists, On Artists

Curated by Bangkok Kunsthalle and Khao Yai Art Forest Founding Director, and Artistic Director of St Moritz Film Festival Stefano Rabolli Pansera

Art and cinema have long been intertwined, sharing a unique ability to probe the boundaries of perception, creativity, and expression. For the 2025 ART SG Film Program, we celebrate this synergy through the theme of Films by Artists, Films on Artists, presenting a curated selection of works that explore the fertile terrain where the visual and cinematic arts intersect.

This program invites audiences to delve into two complementary realms: the films made by artists—pushing the boundaries of cinematic form and storytelling—and films that document, interrogate, and illuminate the lives, works, and legacies of artists themselves.

Films by Artists
In this strand, we showcase the creative visions of contemporary and historical visual artists who have turned to filmmaking as a medium of exploration. These works often transcend conventional cinematic language, embracing experimental forms, conceptual narratives, and visual poetry. Whether drawing from their practices in painting, sculpture, or digital media, these artists transform the moving image into a dynamic canvas for their ideas, challenging the way we perceive both art and cinema.

Films on Artists
Conversely, this strand examines artists as subjects. From intimate portraits to sweeping historical surveys, these films offer rare insights into the processes, passions, and challenges that define artistic practice. They celebrate the complexity of creation while shedding light on the human stories behind iconic works of art. In exploring the triumphs and struggles of artists, these films also reveal the evolving role of art in society and culture.

Constructing Landscapes | 17 January 2025

Running Time: 225 min 35 sec

The section “Constructing Landscapes” explores the profound connections between art, nature, and the environments—both physical and conceptual—that artists create or inhabit. This program delves into the diverse ways artists engage with landscapes, whether by transforming natural materials, charting intimate journeys, or contemplating the expansive interplay of humanity and the environment. The works by Wolfgang Laib is a spiritual journey into natural landscapes. The evocative film by Monica de Miranda is a journey across both real and symbolic landscapes, reflecting on themes of migration, memory, and belonging. Matteo Zamagni explores the concept of horror vacui, the fear of emptiness, through a dazzling digital interpretation of landscapes in flux. The documentary by Ralph Goertz delves into the monumental photographic landscapes of Andreas Gursky, whose large-scale works redefine the relationship between humans and the environments they shape. The film of Not Vital captures the artist’s quest for beauty and meaning in the most unexpected places, reflecting his unique approach to art as a dialogue with the world. Sim Chi Yin and Tanatchai Bandasak focus on the concept of landscape that is always entangled in social, cultural and historical categories. These works collectively challenge our understanding of space, place, and identity, offering poetic and visionary interpretations of the notion of landscape which is always entangled in social, cultural and historical categories.

1. Wolfgang Laib | Thaddaeus Ropac

2. Monica de Miranda | Sabrina Amrani

3. Matteo Zamagni | Gazelli Art House

4. Andreas Gursky | Gagosian

5. Chi Yin Sim | FOST Gallery

6. Tanatchai Bandasak | BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY

7. NOT VITAL | Thaddaeus Ropac

Voices and Whispers | 18 January 2025

Running Time: 243 min 53 sec The section “Voices and Whispers” focuses on the intimate, transformative, and deeply personal journeys of artists as they navigate the intersections of life, society and history. This program presents films that delve into the rich narratives, unspoken subtleties, and resonant echoes of some of the most influential figures in contemporary and modern art. Through their stories and practices, we are invited into moments of vulnerability, reflection, and profound artistic revelation. Voices and Whispers amplifies the nuanced stories and creative voices of artists whose works transcend time and genre. From Rauschenberg’s cultural breakthrough to Twombly’s mythical poetics, and from Gates’s spiritual soundscapes to his reflections on nature, this section offers a deeply resonant exploration of how art speaks, whispers, and endures. These films invite us to listen closely—not just to the stories of the artists, but to the subtle and transformative ways their works continue to shape our understanding of art, history, and humanity.

8. Robert Rauschenberg | Thaddaeus Ropac

9. Cy Twombly | Gagosian | Director Andrea Bettinetti | Produced by Michele Bongiorno for Good Day Films

10. Theaster Gates | White Cube

11. Theaster Gates | White Cube

Ruins and Prophecies | 19 January 2025

Running Time: 174 min 14 sec

The section “Ruins and Prophecies” delves into the interplay between historical legacy and visionary imagination, exploring how artists face and cope with the radical transformation of society (consumerism, society of spectacle, technological advancement, etc.) and draw from the past to reshape the future. Through themes of decay, transformation, and foresight, this program examines the ways art reflects and redefines cultural epochs, offering a prophetic lens on both individual and collective experience. Ruins and Prophecies bridges the tangible and intangible, exploring how art transforms the remnants of the past into visions of possibility. Arte Povera’s embrace of raw materials and Nam June Paik’s avant-garde media experiments highlight the ways art interrogates the collapse of old systems while imagining new frameworks for understanding the world. Finally the works by Cai Dongdong and by Korakrit Arunanondchai interweaves the historic narrative with narratives of possible futures. Through these films, this section invites viewers to reflect on art as a medium of both critique and creation—grounded in the ruins of history, yet brimming with the potential of prophecy.

12. Korakrit Arunanondchai | BANGKOK CITYCITY GALLERY

13. Dongdong Cai | Galerie Urs Meile

14. Nam June Paik | Gagosian

15. Arte Povera | Gagosian | Director Andrea Bettinetti | Produced by Michele Bongiorno for Good Day Films

Stefano Rabolli Pansera, founding director of Khao Yai Art Forest and Bangkok Kunsthalle, and Artistic Director of St Moritz Film Festival is an architect and curator. After graduating with Honours at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London in 2005, he worked with Herzog de Meuron in Basel from 2005 to 2007 and he taught at the AA as Unit Master from 2007 to 2011. In 2013, he founded Beyond Entropy Ltd, a curatorial agency operating at the threshold of art, architecture and geopolitics and developing projects in Africa, Europe and the Mediterranean coastline. He curated several national pavilions at La Biennale di Venezia and, in 2013, he was the recipient of the Golden Lion for best national participation for the Angola Pavilion. In 2015, he designed Mangiabarche open-air gallery and directed the exhibition program for the MACC, a non-for-profit space in the South West of Sardinia. From 2017 until 2022, Stefano worked as director for Hauser & Wirth Gallery in London and opened the Hauser & Wirth Gallery in St. Moritz, while continuing working on several initiatives in Europe and Asia and developing institutional projects with Christoph Büchel and with the Panza Collection. In 2021 he founded of St. Moritz Art Film Festival, of which still he remains artistic director.

Read our interview with Stefano at ART SG Feature.

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