GROUP EXHIBITION

The exhibition starts with works and manuscripts by three pioneering artists born in the 1940s—Liang Shaoji, Li Shan, and Lynn Hershman Leeson. Their long-term explorations have expanded the symbiotic relationships between humans and their environments, spanning species and systems. In the underground hall of the space, a new generation of artists continues their dialogue with the life sciences. On a micro level, they re-examine the materiality and agency of life itself, turning the exhibition space into a petri dish of experimentation. The uncontrollable nature of these experiments paradoxically fosters conditions for co-creation, disrupting and renewing the cognitive structures of the ecosystem through random interventions. On a macro level, human and non-human agents form an open system—a network where life, climate, terrain, systems, and technology continuously negotiate with, respond to, and reshape one another. The result is an ever-evolving ecological web, alive with tension and transformation.

Microcosmic scenes and stellar universe intertwine and move synchronically, which reveals the structural commonalities of life across different scales. Bacterial communities expand like cities—organic infrastructures whose traces mark the histories of evolution and symbiosis. At the same time, they mirror unresolved tensions and contradictions embedded in contemporary bioethical discourse.

About the curator

Tutu Zhu is a curator, writer, and cultural scholar. She graduated from the Curating and Criticism program at Central Saint Martins, UK, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Art Philosophy at Fudan University. Zhu is also a member of the Shanghai Writers’ Association. She has curated numerous contemporary art exhibitions, including Jinan International Biennale, The Age of Human Intelligence, Metaphor and Gaze, Future Exodus, Flexibility Carries, The Interface of Janus, and Returning to the Sea. She was nominated for the Artist Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles in 2021, and she received the Curator of the Year Award from Harper’s BAZAAR in 2024. As an author and translator, Zhu has published several bestselling works. She currently serves as the Cultural and Artistic Advisor to Ruijin Hospital.