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Performance as Exhibition
The Malaysian Edition
Penang and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
22 November - 31 December 2025
In Situ: Performance as Exhibition, The Malaysian Edition presents participatory performances and installations in Penang and Kuala Lumpur, where body, presence, and environment serve as the medium of exhibition, and audiences become co-creators. Organised by Belarmino & Partners with support from the Danish Arts Foundation and the New Carlsberg Foundation, with contributions from the Beckett Foundation, and in collaboration with the George Town Literary Festival and the Penang Art District, this edition invites audiences to actively shape how performance unfolds within a specific place and with people.
Curated by Vanini Belarmino, it features Danish artists Christian Falsnaes, Hesselholdt & Mejlvang, and Molly Haslund. The third chapter continues In Situ’s exploration of performance as exhibition following its Singapore and Philippines editions (2024). Each work emerges from the dialogue between artist, audience, and site, reimagining how performance can be encountered beyond the gallery.
Across heritage landmarks, cultural spaces, and urban landscapes, including Bon Ton Locale, Cheah Kongsi, ChinaHouse, CO-EX, Hin Bus Depot, Ilham Gallery, and the Penang Institute – the programme presents site-specific performances, participatory works, workshops, artist conversations, exhibitions, and installations. In Malaysia, public participation contributes to co-created outcomes such as sculptural installations, photographic works, and textile exhibitions, leaving tangible traces of shared process.
Through these collaborations, In Situ explores how presence, participation, and co-creation bring exhibitions to life as shared, living experiences.

CHRISTIAN FALSNAES
FRONT
Performance: Sun, 30 Nov · 6:30 p.m. · Cheang Kongsi
Exhibition: 1– 31 Dec · Penang Institute
Audiences become collaborators in this participatory performance at Cheah Kongsi, collectively building, dismantling, parading, and reconstructing a large-scale wooden structure. Under Falsnaes’ direction, these acts of creation and destruction unfold as a shared ritual, exploring social roles and power dynamics. The performance is part of the closing programme of the George Town Literary Festival, and the resulting sculptural installation will be exhibited at the Penang Institute.
Be a Beautiful Force Together
HESSELHOLDT & MEJLVANG
Workshop: Sat & Sun, 22 & 23 Nov · 2:00-6:00 p.m. CO-EX
Performance: Sat, 29 Nov · 5:00-5:30 p.m. Hin Bus Depot
Exhibition: 1–31 Dec China House
Locals are invited to contribute their personal textiles at a CO-EX workshop, each carrying its own memories and stories. These textiles are transformed into large-scale banners for a participatory performance at Hin Bus Depot and an exhibition at ChinaHouse. Through movement, music, and collective action, the work celebrates diversity, communal identity, and the creative energy that emerges when people come together to co-create.
Teenagers Eating Ice Cream Cones
Performances: | Sun 30 Nov · 11 a.m. & 2:00 p.m. Hin Bus Depot, Penang
Sat, 6 Dec · 3:00 p.m. Ilham Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
Exhibitions: 30 Nov–31 Dec ·Hin Bus Depot, Penang
6–31 Dec · Ilham Gallery, Kuala Lumpur
In this intimate, choreographed encounter, teenagers gather silently at Hin Bus Depot in Penang and Ilham Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, sharing ice cream together. By presenting the work in two distinct cultural sites, the performance offers different perspectives on what can be considered a museum or cultural space. Through subtle gestures and fleeting movements, Haslund explores notions of belonging, exclusion, and social hierarchies within public spaces, highlighting the delicate dynamics of communal interaction.
MOLLY HASLUND
Conversation with Christian Falsnaes,
Hesselholdt & Meljvang and Vanini Belarmino.
Moderated by Gareth Richards
Fri, 28 Nov, 7:00-8:30 p.m., COEX
As part of In Situ: Performance as Exhibition, artists Christian Falsnaes and Hesselholdt & Mejlvang join curator Vanini Belarmino in conversation about performance practice and public participation. Moderated by Gareth Richards, the discussion explores how their works invite audiences to become active collaborators, shaping the exhibition through shared action and dialogue.



A participatory art project that examines portraiture as an encounter, a merging of photographic processes through face scanning, drawing, mural-making, and public engagement. Conceived by the artist collective Triangulum, the work invites people to sit for a face scan, a contemporary portrait captured manually via a document scanner, then printed and marked by the artists’ hands with playful, intuitive gestures.







































