[News from Institutions] Opening of HKDI Gallery’s 2025-2026 Flagship Exhibition
Pluriversal Futures – Ars Electronica Exhibition in Collaboration with Hong Kong Design Institute

Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI)’s first flagship exhibition in 2025-2026, the Pluriversal Futures – Ars Electronica Exhibition in Collaboration with Hong Kong Design Institute (“Pluriversal Futures”), jointly organised with Ars Electronica, the world’s leading platform of media art working at the intersection of art, technology and society, was open on the 28th November at the HKDI Gallery. The exhibition is free entry for all from now to 6 April, 2026. 

Dr Elita Lam, Principal of the Hong Kong Design Institute & Hong Kong Institute of Vocational Education (Lee Wai Lee) said: “It is our honour to co-present the Pluriversal Futures exhibition with the esteemed Ars Electronica. This is an extraordinary meeting of minds between East and West, united in our shared missions of cultivating a future where design and creativity intersect with tech and society. This exhibition, which features 6 brilliant artists from around the world, as well as the exemplary work by HKDI Higher Diploma students, seeks to start a visionary, imaginative and cross-cultural conversation on what it means to ‘create’ our future in the here and now.”  

On the exhibition premiere, HKDI organised a Master Lecture delivered by Laura WELZENBACH, alongside the artists Frode OLDEREID, Thomas KVAM, Gael BERTRAND and Gaetan LIBERTIAUX from the duo Superbe, as well as LAU Wai.

Pluriversal Futures features a curation of works by 6 international artists awarded in the Prix Ars Electronica in 2024 and 2025, alongside local student winners of the HKDI x Ars Electronica Student Talent Award 2025. The exhibition presents “pluriversal” imaginations of the future, entangling, interconnecting and intertwining diverse worldviews and realities, thereby inviting audiences to navigate uncertainty amidst rapid technological advancement.

Organised by Ars Electronica, the Prix Ars Electronica is the world’s longest-running media art competition, awarding artists with the prestigious Golden Nica and a prominent platform at the renowned Ars Electronica Festival. The competition’s mission is to inspire with forward-looking insight drawn from the intersection of art, technology, and society – an ethos that has encountered a new iteration through the Pluriversal Futures exhibition.  

Laura WELZENBACH, Co-Curator and Producer, Head of Arts Electronica Export, shared, "'Pluriversal Futures' is an invitation to unlearn the idea of a single, dominant future. Opening here in Hong Kong, a city that exists at the intersection of countless narratives, feels particularly potent. This exhibition is not about providing answers, but about opening a space for frank dialogue and essential questions about coexistence, technology, identity and humanism in the 21st century."
 

About Hong Kong Design Institute (https://hkdi.edu.hk/EN) 
Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI) is a member of VTC Group. HKDI was established in 2007 with the mission to be a leading provider of design education and lifelong learning, including architecture, interior and product design, communication design, digital media, and fashion and image design. With a view to providing professional designers for the creative industries, it promotes the “think and do” approach and encourages interdisciplinary synergy in its broad range of design programmes that cultivates students’ cultural sensitivities and sense of sustainability. HKDI maintains a strong network with industry and provides its students with essential practical experience. Overseas exchanges are actively arranged for students to broaden their international perspective. 

About HKDI Gallery (https://hkdi.edu.hk/en/hkdi_gallery/)
HKDI Gallery serves as a vibrant exhibition platform for the Hong Kong Design Institute, promoting cultural exchange between East and West in the realm of design. It actively engages with both local and international entities, including renowned museums, celebrated designers, and curators. Each year, HKDI Gallery presents a series of world-class exhibitions featuring a diverse range of disciplines such as graphic design, architecture, fashion, product design, and multimedia.

Notable past exhibitions include “Tonight with the Impressionists, Paris 1874 – An Immersive Expedition in Virtual Reality” (2025), “The Warm-beings: Guangzhou Design Triennial - Hong Kong Exhibition” (2025), “Ma Yansong: Landscapes in Motion” (2024), “Waste Age: What Can Design Do?” (2023), “Zaha Hadid Architects: Vertical Urbanism” (2022), and “Look: The Graphic Language of Henry Steiner” (2021).

Through these museum-quality exhibitions, HKDI Gallery transforms its venue into an educational hub, offering engaging programmes and interactive experiences. These initiatives allow design students, local design community, and general public to exchange design knowledge, explore the creations of design masters, and stay abreast of the latest design trends.

About Ars Electronica (https://ars.electronica.art/news/de/ )
Ars Electronica is a platform working at the intersection of art, technology and society through organising exhibitions, educational programmes, and research projects focused on the future of our societies. Founded in Linz as a festival in 1979, it has since expanded to include a laboratory, an award, and a museum dedicated to the study and promotion of media arts as well as digital culture.

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