Co-curated by ALIEN Art Centre and Ox Warehouse in Macau, DITTO opens a dialogue between cities through moving images. Dedicated to experimental contemporary art, Ox Warehouse has long supported exhibitions and collaborations across regions. This exhibition presents video works by Macau artist Felix Vong.
Now based in Lisbon, Vong uses appropriation, humour and satire to challenge familiar perceptions of everyday life and art. His practice spans painting, installation, performance and photography. As artist Gavin Turk once said, “My art is always other people’s art, but I’d also say that the inevitability of contemporary art is that it’s always a self-portrait as well.” This relationship between borrowing from others and reflecting oneself lies at the heart of DITTO.
The exhibition takes its title from Ditto, the Pokémon character that can transform into its opponent and use their moves in battle. This ability to respond to others through imitation and transformation offers a way into Vong’s practice.
Taking two iconic artworks as their starting points, the seemingly unrelated videos Sometimes doing something small leads to nothing (after Francis Alÿs) and Burger explore the relationship between appropriation and self-expression. When an artist borrows from another’s work, how does their own presence emerge? DITTO is both a self-portrait and a journey of rediscovery.
Sometimes doing something small leads to nothing (after Francis Alÿs)
Felix Vong pushed a piece of ice around Lisbon, Portugal for an hour. it was done to symbolize the frustration that everyday residents of the city endured in an effort to improve their living conditions. it was also made to show that sometimes the only thing one needs to enjoy their city in a new and unique way is something as simple as a piece of ice.
Burger
Inspired by a scene from the Danish documentary filmmaker Jørgen Leth’s work 66 Scenes from America, which depicts Andy Warhol eating a fast-food hamburger. Through one piece centred on walking and another on eating, Felix Vong reproduces everyday, classic art imagery, prompting the audience to reconsider what contemporary art and the artist’s own identity truly are.
｜Artist Biography｜
Felix Vong deals, in his work, with communication and demonstration. Fascinated by the power of media hype, he sees fashion, advertising, and mass media as ways of exporting power through mass consumption and commodification. The texts and images he creates reflect layers of multifaceted questions that are often overlooked due to different kinds of stereotypes. Inventive and iconoclastic, Felix Vong playfully critiques art and art criticism, as well as other types of issues that are made to look trivial and ridiculous. His technique to tell it like it is, and to put it on show is intended to test his viewers. However, he always takes a sensuous and direct approach. Felix Vong has been exhibiting regularly since 2021, and his work is part of several private collections in Portugal, France, Italy, and Macau.
｜Artwork Information｜
Sometimes doing something small leads to nothing (after Francis Alÿs)
Year: 2026
Medium: Single-channel video
Duration: 2 min. 44 sec.
Burger
Year: 2026
Medium: Single-channel video
Duration: 6 min. 25 sec.
｜Selected Exhibitions and Screenings｜
2026 EXiM 2025: Time & Movement, experimental moving image exhibition, Cardinal Newman Art Centre, Macau
2025 Leisure Centre, solo exhibition, Ocupa, Porto, Portugal
2024 NATARAZ, solo exhibition, Zaratan – Arte Contemporânea, Lisbon, Portugal
2023 The First Contemporary Art Museum of Macau, solo exhibition, Taipa Village Art Space, Macau
2023 Gémeos Falsos, group exhibition, Appleton, Lisbon, Portugal
2023 Pedra Papel ou Tesoura, group exhibition, Alfaia, Loulé, Portugal
2023 Adjuntamento Cultural Olisiponense, group exhibition, Junta de Freguesia do Lumiar, Lisbon, Portugal
