Untitled, oil on canvas by Lao artist Marisa Darasavath. Provided to China Daily

The biennale occupies a number of Singapore's most active art spaces, including the organizing museum and its annex building SAM at 8Q, National Museum of Singapore, Peranakan Museum, Fort Canning Park, National Library Building, Singapore Management University and Waterloo Centre as well as Our Museum@Taman Jurong.

The selected works include all kinds of media, each addressing the theme If the World Changed via an issue such as spirituality, nature, ancestries and futures, or the self and the other.

At SAM, the installation work Payatas by Philippine artist Oscar Villamiel occupies a whole dark space. Audiences are warned about allergies and uncomfortable feelings before entering. The work, however, attracts a lot of attention and wows the audience.

The dark room is arranged like a garden. Thousands of doll heads excavated from the Manila landfill of Payatas are poled on bamboo rods. Within a zinc shed the walls are fully covered by doll bodies.

Payatas, the city's mountainous garbage dump, is also home to an estimated 200,000 people. Many of the inhabitants, including children, scavenge for anything that can be recycled, repaired and sold.

"The installation is a visceral assault on the viewer. It evokes a slum, but the unmistakable sense of discomfort is prompted less by dirt than by the legion of dolls," comments co-curator Claro Ramirez, who is also from the Philippines. "But Villamiel unearths unexpected beauty among its horrors. It's a strong testimony of human spirit and very touching."