Phantom Day and Stranger Tales

Born in 1976 in Singapore, where he lives and works.

Steeped in numerous Eastern and Western cultural references ranging from art history to theatre and from cinema to music to philosophy, Ho Tzu Nyen’s works blend mythical narratives and historical facts to mobilise different understandings of history, its writing and its transmission. The central theme of his œuvre is a long-term investigation of the plurality of cultural identities in Southeast Asia, a region so multifaceted in terms of its languages, religions, cultures and influences that it is impossible to reduce it to a simple geographical area or some fundamental historical base. This observation as to the history of this region of the world is reflected in his pieces which weave together different regimes of knowledge, narratives and representations. From documentary research to fantasy, his work combines archival images, animation and film in installations that are often immersive and theatrical.

One-person exhibitions of his work have been held at the Hessel Museum of Art (2024), Art Sonje Center (2024), Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2024), Singapore Art Museum (2023), Hammer Museum (2022), Toyota Municipal Museum of Art (2021), Crow Museum of Asian Arts (2021), Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM](2021), Edith-Russ-Haus for Media Art (Oldenburg, 2019), Kunstverein in Hamburg (2018), Ming Contemporary Art Museum [McaM] (Shanghai, 2018); Asia Art Archive (2017), Guggenheim Bilbao (2015), Mori Art Museum, (2012), The Substation (Singapore, 2003). He represented the Singapore Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011).

Recent group exhibitions include Shéhérazade, at night, at Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2022), Rubaiyat Qatar, Mathaf, Qatar (2022); Nation, Narration, Narcosis: Collecting Entanglements and Embodied Histories, at Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin, Germany (2021) the Aichi Triennale (2019); 12th Gwangju Biennale (2018); 2 or 3 Tigers at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2017), the 10th Shanghai Biennale (2014); the 2nd Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2014). His theatrical works have been presented at festivals such as TPAM (Yokohama, Japan, 2021, 2019, 2018); The Holland Festival (Amsterdam, 2020, 2018); Wiener Festwochen (2020, 2014); Theater der Welt (2010); the KunstenFestivaldesArts (2006, 2008, 2018). His films have been presented at the Berlin (2015); Sundance (2012); Cannes (2009) and Venice (2009) film Festivals. Together with Taiwanese artist Hsu Chia-wei, he also co-curated ‘The Strangers from Beyond the Mountain and the Sea’, the 7th Asian Art Biennale, at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. Some of the film festivals that have presented his work include the 41^st Director’s Fortnight, Cannes International Film Festival (France, 2009), 66^th Venice International Film Festival (Italy, 2009), 39^th Rotterdam International Film Festival (The Netherlands, 2009), 14^th Pusan International Film Festival (South Korea, 2009), 44^th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, 64^th Locarno International Film Festival (Switzerland, 2011), 42^nd Rotterdam International Film Festival (The Netherlands, 2012), Sundance Film Festival (USA, 2012).

Ho Tzu Nyen was awarded a DAAD Scholarship in Berlin (2014 – 2015) and the Grand Prize of the Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize (2015).