The Asia-Europe Cultural Festival (AECFest) is a public arts festival that celebrates the artistic diversity of Asia and Europe by promoting dialogue and exchange amongst artists from the two regions. Presented by the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) since 2018, the Festival features a rich array of programmes—including performances, exhibitions, and roundtables—that showcase the most compelling contemporary art forms and practices. The 7th edition of the Festival will be held in Shanghai, China, from 3 September to 9 October 2025, in collaboration with prestigious Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre (SDAC), and its ACT Shanghai International Contemporary Theatre Festival. 

Renowned for its innovative productions and dedication to fostering the performing arts, SDAC is at the heart of Shanghai’s cultural landscape. Through its annual ACT Festival, it brings together cutting-edge, multidisciplinary performances from across the globe. This year’s partnership is a testament to our shared commitment to celebrate artistic diversity and promote dialogue amongst artists from Asia and Europe. 

Taking place across the Drama Salon and Arts Theatre of SDAC, and the Cervantes Institute in Shanghai, the 2025 edition presents a curated programme of bold choreographic works, experimental theatre, and a unique film screening that explore the artistic connections and shared cultural landscapes between Asia and Europe. 

The Festival opens on 3 and 4 September at the Drama Salon, SDAC, with That’s All Folks!, conceived by Damiano Ottavio Bigi and Alessandra Paoletti of the FRITZ Company (Italy). Inspired by the metaphor of a black hole’s event horizon, the piece delves into the physical and emotional vertigo of being drawn into the unknown—a realm where fixed perspectives dissolve and boundaries blur. Developed in collaboration with an international group of artists from Italy, France, Germany, Greece, Korea, and beyond, the work envisions four characters suspended in a liminal, ephemeral space—a grey zone beyond time and place—where they confront unconscious memories and navigate themes of identity, farewell, and connection. Both playful and thought-provoking, the performance offers an ever-evolving live experience that is easy to watch yet rich with meaning. 

On 6 and 7 September, also at the Drama Salon, renowned French choreographer Jérôme Bel will present his newest piece in collaboration with Chinese artist Xiao Ke. Turning the spotlight on himself, Bel reflects on three decades of artistic practice, tracing the personal and political forces that have shaped his approach to contemporary dance. This intimate, minimalist work blends autobiography, critical reflection, and performance. Reimagined with and for Xiao Ke, a prominent figure in China’s independent performance scene, the piece becomes a dialogue between two artists, two cultures, and two creative trajectories. 

On 10 September, the Cervantes Institute in Shanghai will host a special film screening of China 354, a documentary-style project by Spanish filmmaker Luis Castro. Filmed over the course of a year in 2019, the work compiles 354 one-minute video fragments capturing Castro’s daily encounters across China. The resulting visual diary is an intimate and unfiltered portrait of contemporary Chinese society—interrogating notions of nationhood, tradition, family, identity, and the urban-rural divide. 

The following weekend, on 13 and 14 September, the Arts Theatre at SDAC will stage Foe of an Arrow Wound, a research theatre piece by Beijing-based Paper Tiger Theatre Studio, led by influential Chinese director Tian Gebing. This production was developed in close collaboration with the Humboldt Forum in Berlin and its programme director Jan Linders. It draws inspiration from an 18th-century Chinese scroll painting housed at the East Asian Museum, Staatliche Kunst Museum, Berlin, which depicts a historic moment in Qing dynasty China and reflects the complex cultural exchanges between East and West. Through a mix of movement, text, sound, and multimedia, the performance explores themes of language, trauma, and cultural memory, inviting the audience to engage with history’s layered legacies from both Chinese and European perspectives. 

Finally, from 7 to 9 October, the Drama Salon will transform into an immersive space for Ocean Cage, an experimental performance by Chinese multimedia artist Tianzhuo Chen. Known for his provocative, ritualistic style, Chen creates an immersive, hallucinatory space where movement, installation, and music blend to explore perception, belief, and the subconscious. Collaborating with Indonesian dancer and choreographer Siko Setyanto, the piece reflects on life in Lamalera, a remote fishing village on Lembata Island, where traditional fishing and whaling remain vital. Combining installation, film, and dance, Setyanto leads the performance alongside musicians Kadapat and Nova Ruth, creating a fusion of tradition and ecology, spirituality and technology, progress and interspecies harmony. Chen’s multidisciplinary work reflects on life’s absurdity and existence beyond the immediate moment.  

This year’s festival embodies a curatorial vision centered on exploring the fluid and complex intersections of identity, memory, and cultural exchange between Asia and Europe. 

Discover the programme on the new AECFest website and book you tickets now!