The Porous Instant brings the artistic practices of Cecilia Ho and Robert Cahen into dialogue. Using moving images, photographs, weavings and installations, the project explores the transformation that occurs between two presences, two temporalities and two sensory worlds.
FEATURED PROJECT
The Porous Instant
Experiencing the In-Between — Robert Cahen / Cécilia Ho
Project type
Exhibition
Status
Current
Year
2027
Location
To be defined
Geographic Reach
International
The Porous Instant brings the artistic practices of Cecilia Ho and Robert Cahen into dialogue. Using moving images, photographs, weavings and installations, the project explores the transformation that occurs between two presences, two temporalities and two sensory worlds.
Opening Statement
Porous Instant brings together artists and ideas that explore how places shape memory, identity, and human experience. Through diverse contemporary practices, the event invites audiences to pause, connect, and consider the changing relationship between people, culture, and place.
Where moving image meets matter, time becomes porous, memory shifts, and each work transforms our perception of the other.
CURATORIAL PERSPECTIVES
Living in the In-Between
Porous Instant does not simply juxtapose two artistic trajectories. The exhibition constructs a shared space in which Robert Cahen’s moving images and Cécilia Ho’s materials, fibres, photographs and installations meet, shift and transform.
In Robert Cahen’s work, images appear, slow down, tremble and then fade away; time and the uncertainty of perception become palpable. In Cécilia Ho’s work, images, threads and gestures circulate between personal memory, cultural transmission and collective experience. Their works do not engage in dialogue because they resemble one another, but because they circulate a trace, a breath, a presence or a transformation.
Between their practices lies an active space: the ‘In-Between’. Neither empty nor neutral, it allows one image to extend into another, movement to encounter matter, and a singular memory to open up to multiple narratives. The ‘Porous Moment’ refers to the moment when this relationship becomes perceptible to the visitor.
Project Context / Opportunity
Born in Macao out of a real-life artistic encounter, the project has a curatorial plan, a provisional body of work, an outreach programme and a preliminary technical specification. The next step is to work with an initial institution to adapt the exhibition to its architecture, finalise the works, draw up the timetable and consolidate the production budget.
Project Objectives
- Produce a challenging yet accessible exhibition.
- Enable visitors to experience the ‘In-between’ through the exhibition route.
- Bring together creation, transmission and intercultural dialogue.
- Build an adaptable model capable of being presented across multiple institutional contexts.
Event Central Curatorial Question
How can we make tangible the transformations that occur between two presences, two temporalities, two materials and two cultures, without diminishing their differences?
FUQIAO Role
Curator, Representative, Producer, Developer, International Coordinator
FUQIAO Methodology
- To dentify what resonates between the works rather than seeking formal similarities.
- To develop the exhibition design, texts and outreach programmes based on these resonances.
- To adapt the project to the host venue without diluting its core principles.
Strategic Connection
The project embodies FUQIAO’s mission: to foster artistic collaborations between Europe and Asia, to bridge distinct artistic practices, and to transform a curatorial dialogue into exhibitions, public engagement, research and international exchange.
Intercultural Dimension
Target Audiences
The intercultural dimension stems from the project’s origins in Macao, the artists’ backgrounds and the relationships between image, calligraphy, material, concrete music, breath, memory and languages. It cannot be reduced to a simple East–West dichotomy
Artists, Curators, Institutions, Communities, Researchers, Public
Expected Outcomes
- Strengthen connections between artists, curators, institutions, and audiences.
- Foster meaningful intercultural dialogue through contemporary art.
- Develop new opportunities for artistic collaboration and exchange.
- Expand public engagement with diverse cultural perspectives.
- Generate new research, ideas, and curatorial conversations.
- Create lasting relationships that support future cultural projects.
Current Needs
- Curatorial development — further research and refinement of the project framework.
- Artist engagement — identify and connect with relevant artists and creative practitioners.
- Institutional partnerships — establish relationships with cultural organizations and exhibition partners.
- Production support — coordinate spaces, technical requirements, installation, and documentation.
- Funding & resources — identify suitable funding, sponsorship, and collaboration opportunities.
- Audience development — build communication and engagement strategies for diverse audiences.
Artist & Artworks
featured Artists
Matter · breath · transmission
Cecilia HO
A transdisciplinary artist working between Europe and Asia, Cécilia Ho works with ink, photography, paper, weaving, installation, light and writing. In *L’Instant Poreux*, she gathers and transforms into material form the traces, breaths and temporalities that images leave open.
existing works, recent creations and proposals developed for the project
Time · movement · appearance
Robert CAHEN
A leading figure in the international history of video art, Robert Cahen uses moving images, sound, slow motion, suspension and erasure to make the passage of time and the fragility of presence perceptible. In “Porous Instant”, his works open up the intervals to which Cécilia Ho’s materials respond.
Historical and recent works forming the anchor points of the exhibition route
featured Artwork
Entrelacs - Basho X Jia Dao
A woven and textual response; languages, cultures and memories in dialogue.
Year
2026
Medium
medium and dimensions to be confirmed.
Dimension
55X80
Cécilia HO
Luminous Symbiosis
A light-based proposal from the ‘Multiples’ series; transparency, image and the living.
Year
2026
Medium
Authorised project visual; status and technical details to be confirmed.
Dimension
NA
Cécilia HO
The Embrace
One of the extensions of the “Multiples” series; body and relationship.
L’Etreinte
Year
2003
Medium
NA
Dimension
NA
Robert CAHEN
Traverses
Year
2015
Medium
NA
Dimension
28mn
Robert CAHEN
Our Program
Mediation activities
Talk
• Proposed
Visit to the In-Between
A general, leisurely or themed tour structured around a key word and the differences between one space and another.
- Artists, students, cultural professionals, and the general public
- In-person workshop · 2 hours
- Exhibition Gallery
Workshop
• Proposed
Create a ‘Bridge Map
Choose two artworks, identify a ‘bridge word’, observe what connects them and articulate this relationship.
- General public, artists, curators
- Public talk · 90 minutes
- Exhibition Gallery
Workshop
• Proposed
Conversations & performances
Invite artists, writers, musicians, researchers or curators to explore a source work or a connecting word.
- General public and professionals
- 90 minutes
- Exhibition Gallery
Workshop
• Proposed
Digital extensions
Explore a digital interpretation, a personalised journey or a resonance engine based on content approved by the artists, FUQIAO and the institution.
- Professionals
Project Details
Location & Information
Explore the venues and locations connected to this project.
Touring Available Yes
Touring Information
- Touring Format: The tour is envisaged in a full, condensed or transnational format. Each stage is subject to curatorial, spatial, technical and budgetary adaptation agreed with the venue.
- Geographic Scope: Europe, Asia and transnational collaborations; other territories possible depending on the relevance of the context.
Project Start Date
September 28, 2026
Project End Date
NA
Project Status
Production-ready
Project Information
- The Porous Instant is conceived as an exhibition adaptable to different architectural settings, programmes and cultural contexts. FUQIAO is seeking an initial institution with which to finalise the selection of works, the exhibition design, the timetable, the budget and the outreach programme, followed by partners capable of supporting its production and touring between Europe and Asia.
- The partnership does not involve adopting a fixed format. It begins with a dialogue with the venue: its spaces, its audiences, its facilities, its curatorial priorities and its networks. The Seuil / Entre / Multiples structure and the Carte-Pont provide a coherent framework that can be refined, developed or brought to life through a residency, research, meetings and local collaborations.
- Museums, art centres, foundations, art colleges, curators, producers, technical partners, publishers, cultural networks and corporate sponsors may be involved at different stages. Responsibilities, contributions, credits, rights and any consideration are set out in an agreement tailored to each collaboration.
dossier available
Dossier & File
The institutional dossier comprises the curatorial summary, the exhibition itinerary, the outreach programme, the indicative body of work, the provisional technical specifications and the biographies. The production details are finalised with the interested partner.
External Links
Official Event Website
https://fuqiao.art/the-porous-instant/
Discover the Project
Explore Porous Instant
Discover the artists, artworks, curatorial ideas, and cultural conversations shaping this project.
Available For : Artist, Curator, Institution, Partner / Sponsor