Ho Tzu Nyen's 'Time & the Tiger' is a Hunt for Living Histories
Groundbreaking video works that probe the myths, narratives and creatures of our past.
Next month, Mudam Luxembourg will lift the veil on Time & the Tiger, a solo exhibition by Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen. For over two decades, Ho has relentlessly pushed the boundaries of moving images through his films, installations and virtual reality artworks. His practice is animated by a deep interrogation of history in East and Southeast Asia: how it’s written, shared, and shaped by myths and narratives.
At the heart of the exhibition is the tiger, a symbol with deep ties to notions of time and resistance. Having roamed Asia for two million years, the animal, once prevalent in Southeast Asian cultures, nearly became extinct under colonial rule, yet continued to resurface across various cultural forms. For Ho, this elusive creature embodies resilience and transformation, weaving through history as both metaphor and reality.
The show gathers five major video pieces, including renowned works such as One or Several Tigers (2017) and a new presentation of Hotel Aporia (2019) alongside the newly commissioned T for Time (2024,) which is described by the artist as “a collection of temporalities that are different in scales and in natures.” This algorithm-driven projection weaves stories from European and Asian contexts, offering a contemplative exploration of nonlinear time — full of loops, spirals and unexpected turns.
With Time & the Tiger, Ho paints a searing portrait of a world in flux, bound together only by the threads of history: “Sometimes I think that the true medium I work with is time itself. After all, one could say that moving images like films and videos are just attempts to give shape to time.”
The exhibition will be on view in Luxembourg from February 14 through August 24, 2025.
Mudam – The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg
3 Park Dräi Eechelen,
1499 Clausen, Luxembourg
