Connecting people through art 

We are thrilled to announce that Beijing based artist Hao Jingban has been chosen as the winner of the Han Nefkens Foundation, Mori Art Museum, M+ Hong Kong and Singapore Art Museum – Moving Image Commission 2023.

The Moving Image Commission 2023 Jury: “We are delighted that Hao Jingban has been selected for the second joint commission by the three Asia-based museums. During the selection process, from learning of the outstanding nominations to reaching a point of agreement with the three museums, it was clear that although we are all located in Asia, we all come from different contexts.

Hao's experimental proposal that offers a powerful examination of modern Chinese history allows for a much-needed space for individual and collective reflection on death and mourning within the context of our recent shared history of Covid-19. It allows us to consider the impact of this crisis and other back-to-back crises we are experiencing, and this is imperative.

Hao's previous body of work demonstrates that she will find a sensitive way to address such a timely topic, along with her unique visual language. We are enthusiastic about supporting the creation of works that unite us through humanity and a respect for life and we look forward to working with her.”

Hao Jingban: “It's truly an honour to receive this grant. I really appreciate the timely support for the new project I am just about to start. This grant allows me to spend more time on the field research stage and I could take a comparatively more relaxed and long-term approach to the subject that I am interested in. It is indeed a privilege. My sincere thanks to all the people that make this happen.”

Han Nefkens: “I’m thrilled that we will be working with Hao Jingban. She’s a great storyteller who executes her work in a highly professional and aesthetic manner, interweaving complex historical narratives and social movements into structures of experimental and essay videos. In her very own and often poetic way she creates multi-levelled stories. I’m very much looking forward to see how she will give form to the challenges of her proposal.”

Hao Jingban will receive 100,000 USD for the production of a screen-based video artwork. An edition of the work will be donated to and exhibited in each museum and the Han Nefkens Foundation will also have a long-term loan of the produced artwork for presentation at art institutions worldwide with whom the Foundation collaborates with.

Hao Jingban was selected by a final jury chaired by Han Nefkens and composed of the directors of each museum (Kataoka Mami, Director, Mori Art Museum; Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director, M+ and Eugene Tan, Director, Singapore Art Museum) in the presence of Hilde Teerlinck, General Director Han Nefkens Foundation and Alessandra Biscaro, Coordinator Han Nefkens Foundation. This unique collaboration aims to strengthen the relations among the institutions, developing a project that is first and foremost sustainable.

The Han Nefkens Foundation, Mori Art Museum, M+ Hong Kong and Singapore Art Museum – Moving Image Commission 2023 aims to be a tool for increasing contemporary artistic production within the field of moving images. It is directed at artists of Asian origin, nationality or living in Asia who have established a solid trajectory but have not been given a major opportunity to exhibit in world-recognised institutions. The Commission is organised by the Han Nefkens Foundation in collaboration with Singapore Art Museum, M+ Hong Kong and the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo.

The artists on the shortlist, prior to the final selection were Ismailova Saodat (1981, Uzbekistan), Tesprateep Pathompon “MONT” (1978, Thailand), Araki Yu (1985, Japan) and Hao Jingban (1985, China).

The artists were scouted by nine curators working across Asia: Hsu Fang-Tze, Kim Hyunjin, Li Qi, Pansanga Mary, Rajendran Anushka, Takahashi Mizuki, Wu Dar Kuen, Yi Soojung and You Mi.

Hao Jingban

Hao Jingban (b. 1985, Shanxi Province, China) is an artist living and working in Beijing. Against a sea of ever-changing images and rapid development, Hao is adept at finding new spaces to discover narratives and images from the past and present. She often sustains a long period of research on a subject or theme over a number of years, and slowly from this process constructs and interweaves different narratives and perspectives to create a cycle of interconnected works. Using a mixture of historical investigation, archival research, field studies, and oral accounts, her interests focus on the language of images that have impact on a collective consciousness and the questions of how individual subjectivities can be articulated from within the structures.

Hao’s solo exhibitions include “Hao Jingban: Opus One” (Matadero Madrid, Madrid, Spain, 2020);“Silent Speech” (OCAT Xi’an, Xi’an, China, 2019); Hao Jingban: Beijing Ballroom (Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Massachusetts, US,2018); “New Directions: Hao Jingban” (Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China, 2016); and “Over-Romanticism” (Taikang Space, Beijing, China, 2016). Her works have been exhibited in institutions and biennales, including The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (South Brisbane, Australia, 2022); One Escape at a Time:11th Seoul Mediocrity Biennale (Seoul, Korea,  2021); Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai, 2019); Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2017 & 2019); “FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art”(Cleveland, 2018); Rendez-vous, Biennale de Lyon, Young International Creation (Lyon, France, 2017); 11th Shanghai Biennale (Shanghai, 2016); Kuandu Museum of Fine Art (Taipei, 2016); Museum of Contemporary Art (Hiroshima, 2016) and Jewish Museum (New York, 2014).

Prizes and awards include the Huayu Youth Award Grand Jury Prize (2016), the Young Artist of the Year award at the 11th Award of Art China (2017), the International Critics’ Prize at the 63rd Internationale Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (2017), and the Han Nefkens Foundation – ArcoMadrid Video Art Award (2019), Co-winner of SeMA-HANA Media Art Award, 11th Seoul Mediacity Biennale: One Escape at a Time, Seoul (2021). In 2020, she was based in Berlin for the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin residency programme.