Asia NOW returns to the Monnaie de Paris from 22 to 26 October, with a VIP preview on Tuesday October 21. For its eleventh edition, the fair brings together around 70 galleries, presenting solo or duo exhibitions by artists from 28 territories across Asia, from Central Asia to the Asia-Pacific region, including West, South, Southeast and East Asia.

Returning galleries include Esther Schipper (Berlin, Paris, New York City, Seoul), Sabrina Amrani (Madrid), NIKA Project Space (Dubai, Paris), carlier | gebauer (Berlin), Kaikai Kiki (Tokyo), O Art Space (Lahore), Yeo Workshop (Singapore), Gallery SIDE 2 (Tokyo,) TANG Contemporary Art (Beijing, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Seoul, Singapore). The fair welcomes new participants including GALLERY 2 (Seoul/ Jeju Island), Arario Gallery (Seoul), Baik Art (Los Angeles/Seoul/Jakarta), KLEMM’S (Berlin), Capsule (Shanghai), Studio Gallery (Shanghai), Regeneration Art Gallery (Tashkent), and Stems Gallery (Brussels, Paris).

This 2025 edition introduces The Third Space, a new section embracing hybridity, collaboration between galleries, and the generative potential that arises when perspectives intersect. Sahil Arora, founder of Method Art Space (Mumbai), collaborates with Rajiv Menon Contemporary Gallery (Los Angeles, USA), Tao Art Gallery (Mumbai, Art Manzil (Toronto/Nomadic) on “We Were Always Neighbors” an exhibition bringing together emerging artists from across the South Asian subcontinent—India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka—into a common space of artistic and cultural kinship; HATCH Gallery (Paris) presents Iranian artist Laila Tara H, featuring two kaftan-shaped works in fabric and paper, paired with a sound piece that transforms the installation into a place of memory, inheritance, and delicate resonance; and Third Born (México D. F) with a presentation of Jungwon Jay Hur.

CURATORIAL THEME 
GROW 

Under the evocative title “Grow,” this year’s curatorial theme invites audiences to witness how perceptions take root and transform understanding of the world. 

The theme moves beyond the boundaries that have long defined East and West, and to consider how geography, culture, and history nurture the ways we see ourselves and others. 

In a global context where the lines between regions and identities are increasingly fluid, ASIA NOW becomes a fertile ground for dialogue, discovery, and connection, showcasing artists whose works reflect the dynamic realities of Asia and, more precisely, the “Global Majority.”

Aligned with this approach,The fair resonates with Leela Gandhi’s research on “affective communities,” revealing the subtle collaborations and shared stories that allow new forms of connection and understanding to emerge. Friendships, small acts of solidarity, shared feeling, and alliances that cross cultural, social, and personal boundaries become fertile ground for nurturing ethical engagement. By embracing diverse perspectives and highlighting the interplay between tradition and innovation, ASIA NOW reflects on how these affective communities serve as seeds for growth. Through art and collaboration, they foster new forms of understanding, empathy, and collective flourishing—demonstrating what becomes possible when we open ourselves to the meeting of many horizons. 

The Asia NOW curatorial platform is supported by Sisley.

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This year, Asia NOW places West Asia and South Asia at the heart of its programming, highlighting artists, galleries, and curators from across these regions. 

For this edition, Asia NOW foregrounds multiple voices, embracing the richness that emerges when diverse perspectives take root together. A chorus of curators and institutions will shape the public program across La Monnaie de Paris. 

Among them: John Tain curator of the Lahore Biennale, Natasha Ginwala Artistic Director of COLOMBOSCOPE, Curator of Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry and Hajra Haider Karrar Guest Curator of COLOMBOSCOPE Festival 2026; Anissa Touati, Researcher at Brown University, USA, Curator of the Biennale BCK in Greece ; Arnaud Morand, Independent Curator; Head of Arts Afalula; Eunice Tsang, founder of Current Plans and associate curator at M+ museum; Sahil Arora, founder of Method Art Space, India; Zohreh Deldadeh, researcher and curator, Poush resident 2024 and Victoire de Pourtales, Curator, Co-Founder 91530 Le Marais, Art & Farming.  

Ahaad Alamoudi, presented by Arts & Ideas - an initiative by the Saudi Visual Arts Commission.

Adding a performative dimension to the fair, Saudi artist Ahaad Alamoudi will present a recurring activation titled “Ghosts of Today and Tomorrow”. Engaging with sound and light as vectors of memory and transmission, Alamoudi’s work explores perception, heritage, and the temporal friction between the contemporary and the ancestral, punctuating the fair with moments of sensorial disruption and reflection. 

The Saudi Visual Arts Commission will present a discursive platform reflecting on experimental models of artistic practice and programming across West and East Asia. Their approach will consider the intersections of public and private, institutional and informal, commercial and nonprofit— a critical look at how ecosystems of art are being reshaped by new kinds of infrastructure, exchange, and cultural logic.

Han Mengyun presented by AFALULA (Saudi Arabia) 

“Under the Aegis of the Moon,” a commissioned project by Chinese artist Han Mengyun and curated by Arnaud Morand, will be presented by the French Agency for AlUla Development (AFALULA). This performative installation weaves together poetry and video to evoke the quiet majesty of the moon. Structured around a sequence of poems that unfold in tandem with the lunar rise, the work pays homage to the night as a space of reflection, intuition, and revelation. It foregrounds the sincerity of poetic expression as something that demands presence, vulnerability, and aliveness. This poetic proposition is deeply rooted in the artist’s experience during a research residency in AlUla, where landscape, silence, and time coalesced as sources of creative clarity. 

Mohammed Al Faraj (Arabie Saoudite) will transform the entrance of the Monnaie enveloping each column in prints of palm trees echoing the landscape of his native Al Hasa. 

Pascal Hachem (Lebanon) - presents Threaded Whole, a performance centered on the idea of “growing memory,” revisiting the notion of community and exploring how memory is shaped through absence, rupture, and everyday objects. 

Hachem presents The Cut Line, a performance centered on the idea of “growing memory.” Revisiting the notion of community, the work explores how memory is shaped through absence, rupture, and the everyday object. The installation-performance voices different memories and lives. It goes beyond a simple cut, embodying a dormant gesture of the reality we are part of. Yet by pushing the limits, it reveals how obvious what we are watching truly is. We are part of a whole—our identities and actions intertwined with the world around us. 

Of Mountains and Seas presented by THE LAHORE BIENNALE FOUNDATION (Pakistan) 

Curated by John Tain 

Lahore Biennale Foundation presents a selection of works from Of Mountains and Seas, the third edition of its biennial, curated by John Tain. The project brings together artists from Pakistan and beyond to highlight the leading role the country—alongside others across the continent, most vulnerable to the climate crisis—can play in helping societies adapt through the wealth of local and indigenous knowledge. 

On view in the Monnaie de Paris are works by Hamra Abbas, Feroza Hakim, Mella Jaarsma, Imran Qureshi, Fazal Rizvi, and a performance by Abuzar Madhu, which present a vision of ecological awareness from Asian perspectives. 

Powered by the French Embassy to Pakistan, with in-kind support from Pakistan International Airlines.

Reenactments of Lost Rhythms presented by COLOMBOSCOPE (Sri Lanka) 

Curated by Natasha Ginwala Artistic Director of COLOMBOSCOPE and Hajra Haider Karrar Guest Curator of COLOMBOSCOPE Festival 2026. 

Reenactments of Lost Rhythms is a constellation of activations that hold narratives of being and becoming. Anchoring traditions and infrastructures while attending to ruptures, the series unfolds through dialogue, performance, screening, and a sonic-visual interlude that draws upon embodied knowledges to articulate new languages of resistance and alliance building. Deeply resonant with the thematic directions of the ninth edition of Colomboscope, the program brings together artistic positions previously nurtured by the festival alongside new ones anchored in the upcoming edition. 

The program presented by Colomboscope (Contemporary arts festival and creative platform for interdisciplinary dialogue within the cultural landscape of Colombo) features a presentation and conversation with Hajra Haider Karrar and Basir Mahmood, a performance by Chathuri Nissansala, a screening by Subas Tamang, and a sonic interlude by Rahema Zaheer. 

SCREENING PROGRAM - The 2025 edition also launches Cinema NOW, a new screening program that brings film and moving image into dialogue with the fair. The program includes a selection of films by NOWNESS, a focus on Iran curated by researcher Zohreh Deldadeh; a selection by Shwetal Patel, founder of the Kochi Biennale, from the Jaipur Centre for Artists' Cinema / Artist's Cinema, and a curated program by Eunice Tsang, founder of Current Plans and associate curator at M+ museum .

RAK ART FOUNDATION PRIZE

The RAK ART FOUNDATION Prize will be awarded to two artists participating in Asia NOW 2025, this prize offers a one-month residency at The Art Station in Bahrain awarded by the RAK Art Foundation of Bahrain. Selected artists will collaborate with local artisans to develop new work aligned with the Foundation’s values of heritage, continuity, and craft. The residency includes travel, accommodation, and a production fee, with an exhibition at the Foundation to follow. The 2025 jury includes patron Benedicta Badia (France); Emre Baykal, Director of Arter Foundation (Turkey); Sara Raza, Director of the Museum of Modern Art, Tashkent (Uzbekistan/USA); Salma Tuqan, Director of Nottingham Contemporary (UK/Palestine); and curator Anissa Touati (France/Morocco), affiliated with Brown and Harvard. Residency: between December 2025 and December 2026 Jury deliberation & winner announcement: October 23–24, 2025 Award Ceremony: Friday, October 24.