Kongkee’s “Dragon's Delusion" to be featured at the Istanbul Biennial 2025 from 20 September to 23 November 2025.
gdm is excited to announce Kongkee's participation in the 18th Istanbul Biennial, curated by Christine Tohmé. Entitled The Three-Legged Cat, the biennial will materialize over the course of three years, from 2025 to 2027, unfolding through a series of exhibitions, public programs, performances and screenings. Drawing upon the metaphor of a three-legged cat, whose grace belies the untold horror of losing its limb, the biennial centers itself on themes of self-preservation and futurity. In the face of precarity and recurring crises, how do we create spaces of respite? What futures can we envision in a dual movement of repair and forward imagination?
Kongkee's critically acclaimed animation "Dragon's Delusion" imagines a universe in which the Warring States politician, poet, and philosopher Qu Yuan is reincarnated in the body of an android. Qu Yuan's soul is taken on a journey from the Warring States period over 2,000 years ago to a cyberpunk future, brim with cyborgs, popstars, ancient enemies, and surprising romantic reunions. "Dragon's Delusion" questions whether we can ever truly know ourselves and master our desires, as even in the future, Qu Yuan returns again and again to the places and people of his past.
Learn more --
Kongkee "Dragon's Delusion | The 18th Istanbul Biennial
