Singapore Biennale 2025: Must-see art at Tanjong Pagar Distripark

SINGAPORE – Singapore Biennale 2025 brings art outdoors, but on rainy days – or especially hot ones – head for the Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark to look at art that references the venue’s maritime history.

, here are four must-see family-friendly artworks. This is the sole Singapore Biennale cluster that charges an admission fee, so make plans for a single two-hour trip to see everything. And you can use your Culture Pass credits here.

Every Friday, containers of goods filled with popular Indonesian snacks come from Batam to Tanjong Pagar Distripark before being distributed to the retailers at Lucky Plaza and Geylang Serai. Indian collaborative studio Camp created a 20-foot shipping container from existing boxes – spot Indomie, for example – but also fabricated boxes that contain cheeky names of fake snacks and political poetry.

Miniature figurines of gesticulating and suited men line a table in Indonesian art collective Hyphen’s re-enactment of the 1963 handover of West Irian (today Western New Guinea) from Dutch to Indonesian control. Absent from the diorama are the women, workers and Papuans – who, till this day, seek independence in an ongoing conflict.

These dioramas – which also unfold across other sites – are meant to challenge the cycle of 51 dioramas at the Museum Sejarah Nasional under the National Monument (Monas) in Jakarta which narrate the history of Indonesia, questioning who gets to be included in national narratives.

Inspired by watchtowers built in Singapore, Chinese artist Cui Jie paints a surreal landscape of rapid modernisation in cities. Melding organic and architectural forms, the canvas – which has the soft qualities of textile – is a mesmerising work to contemplate in front of.

With

and

in 2025, Singaporean artist Ming Wong’s 50 photographs of abandoned or repurposed cinemas across Singapore and Malaysia are especially poignant. But while they look authentic and immediately nostalgic, the artist has in fact digitally composited the photos to give the buildings a hyperreal look.

Book It/Singapore Biennale 2025, Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark
Where: 01-02 Singapore Art Museum at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, 39 Keppel Road
When: 10am to 7pm daily
Admission: Singaporeans (adults, $15; concession, $10), foreign residents (adults, $25; concession, $20); free for children aged six and below, Singaporean and Singapore-based students and teachers, persons with disabilities and accompanying caregivers
Info:

Singapore BiennaleVisual artsSingapore artistsExhibitionsSingapore