FIRST TAKES: Pure Intentions - A Biennale You Don't Plan For, But One You'll Probably Walk Into Anyway
Singapore Biennale focuses on how art appears where life already is, and whether that creates real connection or just a momentary surprise is the big question we’re exploring in this First Take.
Let’s be real: the Singapore Biennale is rarely a calendar event.
Nobody gets a text saying, “Eh, want to go Biennale this weekend?”
Unless you’re deep in the arts scene, it’s just… not a typical weekend plan.
And yet, the Biennale has a habit of finding you. You’re hiking up Fort Canning for the view? Hello, surprise art installation. Getting ayam penyet at Lucky Plaza? There’s a video piece in the back of a remittance shop. Crossing to Far East Shopping Centre for a thrift find? You’ve just walked into a curated corridor of sound.
It sprawls into your path instead of waiting in a grand museum — and for many, that’s the point. In Venice, the Biennale is the main event. In Singapore, life continues. The MRT doesn't stop for art, and lunch queues don't part for it. Here, art has to slip into the gaps.
So, what’s the vibe for 2025?
"pure intention" isn't trying to be Venice. It’s posing quieter, more local questions: Can we notice what’s already here? Can we look at our own city again, without rushing? Can art live inside our everyday routes — not outside them?
The venues feel like Singapore-style “pavilions”: a hill layered with history, a mall holding migrant stories, a corridor that has heard decades of human noise. They’re not grand, but they’re real. They suggest that culture doesn't need a spotlight to exist; it just needs us to pay attention.
But is "finding" art the same as engaging with it?
There’s a quiet magic in stumbling upon a piece where you least expect it. It feels organic, unforced. But let's not forget: this "accidental" encounter is the result of a highly deliberate curatorial plan. The Biennale is gently guiding us, hoping we’ll pause our bubble tea run for a moment of reflection.
This is where the intention will be truly tested. Does placing art in a Lucky Plaza shop unit create a genuine connection with the migrant community that gathers there, or does it just create a poignant backdrop for the rest of us? The risk is that it becomes aesthetic tourism — art as another form of urban clutter for the already-initiated to "discover."
Our first take is this:
The 2025 Biennale’s promise is a compelling one: to meet us where we already are. Its success won’t be measured in visitor numbers, but in the quality of the interruptions it creates. Does it make us look twice at a place we thought we knew? Does it spark a conversation that continues after we’ve left the mall?
It may not be something you plan for, but if you do stumble in, the real question is what you’ll take with you when you walk back out.
We’ll be exploring these questions — visiting the venues, hearing the stories, and seeing if the intention holds — in our upcoming features. For now, this is our First Take.
Singapore Biennale 2025: Pure Intentions
31 October 2025 - 29 March 2026
All over Singapore with key sites at Tanjong Pagar District, Civic District, Fort Canning Hill, Orchard Shopping Belt, Tanglin Halt, Tanjong Pagar Rail Corridor
