BACK WITH A BANG

Three years of lockdown, uncertainty and pandemic later, Art Basel Hong Kong is returning full-scale this month, with high hopes that it'll be bigger, bolder and better than ever.

- STEPHANIE IP

There's a palpable sense of excitement in the air. In early January, Hong Kong began to see, with a glimmer of hope, the return to normalcy after three years of pandemic restrictions. People could travel with ease again. And, more importantly, visitors were welcome again - and it's this latter point that the team at Art Basel are most thrilled about as the annual art fair is set to return, guns blazing, on March 23-25.

There's a new energy at Art Basel Hong Kong, too, with a shift at the top - Angelle Siyang-Le, who's spent the last 10 years as head of development in Greater China, took on a new role as director of Art Basel Hong Kong in November, as Adeline Ooi sets her sights on spearheading Art Basel's other initiatives regionwide as director Asia.

"It's a fantastic opportunity," Siyang-Le tells me, "for Art Basel to inject a refreshed vigour to the show with my experiences in the art world and to reinforce Hong Kong's position as the cultural hub of Asia, fulfilling the potential that Art Basel Hong Kong can offer to the region's art scene."

With each COVID wave that crashed over our heads, sinking countless local businesses in its wake, it almost seemed a miracle that Art Basel Hong Kong managed to stay afloat and hold both its 2021 and 2022 editions the fair was cancelled only in 2020, in the early months of the pandemic.

"The art world has been constantly changing and we've prepared ourselves to be nimble and agile when it comes to our planning," says Siyang-Le. "Travel restrictions prevented us from receiving our international friends to the Hong Kong shows, but we realised it's important to have both digital and physical components, as they allow you to connect with the broadest possible audiences."