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Conversations | Hong Kong, Basel, and the architecture of cultural exchange

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Betty Ng, Founder and Director, COLLECTIVE, Hong Kong Angelika Li, Cofounder and Director, PF25 cultural projects, Basel Moderator: Angelle Siyang-Le, Director, Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong
What does it take to build a cultural ecosystem? How is it defined – and how can it be nurtured? Betty Ng, the founder and director of international architecture practice COLLECTIVE, and curator Angelika Li, the cofounder and director of Basel-based nonprofit organization&nbsp;PF25 cultural projects, reflect on the fast-evolving art landscape of Hong Kong, shedding light on its lesser-known aspects and reverberations across the region and globally. From their distinct vantage points – as an architect designing spaces and a curator activating them – they explore how physical environments and cultural narratives shape one another, and how art and architecture together can foster dialogue, understanding, and a sense of place between Hong Kong, Basel, and beyond.
Betty Ng&nbsp;is the founder of architecture studio COLLECTIVE; a registered architect in the Netherland; a RIBA chartered in the UK; and an AIA member in the US. Ng holds a MArch degree from Harvard University and a BArch from Cornell University. Ng is active in academia as an adjunct associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) for the master’s program. Prior to setting up COLLECTIVE, Ng was design director at OMA Rotterdam with Rem Koolhaas. Betty has also practiced at Herzog & de Meuron in Basel, and Massimiliano Fuksas in Rome.
Angelika Li is cofounder of PF25 cultural projects, a platform cultivating exchange through site-specific, community-rooted collaborations bridging Hong Kong, Basel, and beyond. Her curatorial research on diaspora, identities, displacement, and their transformative potentials is integral to the ongoing project ‘Homeland in Transit’ (since 2019). She has recently worked with artists including Angela Su, Dorothee Sauter, Ellen Pau, Hedy Leung, Isaac Chong Wai, Julia Steiner, Leung Chi Wo, May Fung, Oscar Chan Yik Long, and Tashi Brauen, and developed programs with Kunstmuseum Basel, Kunsttage Basel, Radio X, and Helsinki International Artist Programme.
In her role as Director, Art Basel Hong Kong, Angelle Siyang-Le leads the direction of Art Basel’s flagship event in Asia and will drive the Hong Kong show’s future development. Prior to her appointment as the director in November 2022, Siyang-Le oversaw the business development of Art Basel in Greater China, as well as show strategy and gallery relations for the Hong Kong show. In 2020, Siyang-Le led the first Spotlight event by Art Basel in Hong Kong, re-establishing an in-person platform for the art community to exchange ideas during the pandemic. Siyang-Le joined Art Basel in 2012 from The Farook Collection, a private collection in the United Arab Emirates, where she served as the collection representative. Concurrently, she managed the not-for-profit art space, Traffic, and the artist studio, Satellite, in Dubai where she focused her support on galleries, artists, and young art professionals. During her time in the Middle East, she also worked as a curator and writer, as well as cofounding the Mobile Art Gallery, an initiative that aims to bring emerging art to a broader audience. Born in Mainland China, Siyang-Le grew up between China and the United Kingdom. She holds an MA in Modern and Contemporary Art from Christie’s Education and a BSc in Urban Planning, Design, and Management from The Bartlett, University College London.

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