Hong Kong Signs Agreement to Keep Hosting Art Basel Fair For 5 Years

We’re halfway through Hong Kong’s Mega 8 event, the city’s new name for its months-long series of major arts, culture and sports events, but the undoubted highlight is this week’s Art Basel Hong Kong. The expo has become a must-attend event for locals and a major attraction for international tourists, with attendance expected to reach 80,400 in 2024, compared with 86,500 last year.

It’s no surprise, then, that the city signed a new deal with Art Basel to ensure it remains the region’s sole host for the next five years. Rosanne Rosanna, director of the Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, announced the agreement on Wednesday, calling on Art Basel to expand the scale and influence of the fair.

According to Radio Hong Kong, she said: “We will actively cooperate with Art Basel with top cultural performances and large-scale events in Hong Kong, so that collectors and art connoisseurs present can experience Hong Kong’s unique cultural atmosphere and charm.”

Ms Law confirmed the show would continue to be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, but said satellite events or large-scale installations might be held at Kai Tak Sports Park. Kai Tak Sports Park is a new sports and entertainment venue with a capacity of over 50,000 people, officially opening in 2025 and featuring a series of performances by Coldplay.

Luo emphasized that Art Basel’s collaboration with the city will extend far beyond the March Fair, pointing to public art education and art market research as new areas of collaboration.

“We’re going to have more opportunities. Not necessarily just during the show in March,” she said. “We can also cooperate with Art Basel in other periods to bring more art activities to collectors and artists, as well as to our art-loving friends in Hong Kong, and most importantly, to bring more art activities to students and children.”

Also on Wednesday, the city announced a new collaboration with Art Basel called Digital Art @Central, which will bring DeeKay’s digital works to the Central District. The project, which features 100 different characters representing Hong Kong residents, will be projected onto the facade of the Hong Kong Club every night on March 29.

“Beyond its skyline and landmarks, I wanted to portray the city as a vibrant, moving place, shaped by its people, its rhythms and its cultural energy,” DeeKay Kwon, whose work draws inspiration from retro video games, said in a statement.