Pan Daijing
b. 1991, ChinaPan Daijing (born Guiyang, China, 1991) is a Berlin-based artist, composer, and performer known for immersive performance installations that push at the boundaries of contemporary art, experimental music, and opera. Working across sound, moving image, choreography, and sculpture, she has developed a distinctive live practice that engages international museums, galleries, and experimental music venues.
Early life and background
Pan Daijing was born and raised in Guiyang, in southwest China, before moving to Beijing as a teenager to study at university. A self-taught artist and composer, she began working with noise, improvisation, and performance outside traditional music education and later relocated to Berlin, where she has lived since the mid-2010s.
Her experience of migration, illness, and time spent between cities underpins an art practice that treats sound as a vehicle for memory, psychological intensity, and storytelling. This trajectory has positioned Daijing as a key figure in global contemporary art and experimental music networks, active between European institutions, Asian biennials, and international festivals.
Pan Daijing Artworks
Pan Daijing creates performance-based artworks, large-scale installations, and sound works that merge opera, choreography, architecture, and moving image into enveloping environments. Her compositions are developed through extensive improvisation with analogue synthesisers, human voice, and field recordings, often deconstructing instruments to explore psychoacoustics and the physical and emotional limits of listening.
Opera, performance, and ‘living’ environments
Works such as Tissues (2019), developed for Tate Modern’s Tanks, exemplify Daijing’s approach to opera as a spatial and sculptural form. Combining an ensemble of singers, actors, and dancers with electronic sound and filmic staging, Tissues creates an atmosphere of melancholia and psychological turbulence that unfolds like a journey inside a single, fragmented protagonist.
Her performance-based projects often evolve into ‘living environments’ or durational installations that pressurise the boundary between live art, music, and architecture. These works employ choreographed light, reflective surfaces, and moving images alongside sound to construct spaces where audiences are enveloped rather than positioned as external observers.
Installation, moving image, and sound
Exhibitions such as Sudden Places at the Walker Art Center bring together multichannel video installations and sound to explore memory, embodiment, and duration. Works including the four-channel installation Faint (2023—24) and the video The Hour Between Dog and Wolf (2021—24) hinge on subtle gestures and fragmented movement, producing a heightened psychological tension without relying on conventional narrative.
For the 13th Shanghai Biennale, Daijing’s commission Done Duet (2021) transformed the industrial architecture of the Power Station of Art into a quasi-organic spine, with liquid and sound seeming to course through the building like a nervous system. Across these projects, Daijing treats sound and structure as co-dependent elements, using echo, delay, and spatialised audio to collapse distinctions between object, body, and environment.
Select Public Commissions
- Tissues and The Absent Hour, performance and expanded installation, Tate Modern, London, 2019
- Done Duet, large-scale commission, 13th Shanghai Biennale, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, 2020—2021
- Performance projects including Half A Name (Act III), LAS Art Foundation, Berlin, 2025
Select Awards and Accolades
- Art Basel Artist of the Year / Art Basel Awards medallist, recognised for cross-disciplinary work in performance, installation, and sound, 2024
- International residencies and fellowships, including programmes focused on composition and performance-based installation, 2020s
To be kept up to date with news relating to Pan Daijing, follow her on Ocula.
Pan Daijing Exhibitions
Pan Daijing has been the subject of solo exhibitions and major performance projects at museums and art centres, while also contributing to influential group exhibitions and music festivals worldwide.
Select solo exhibitions
- Sudden Places, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 16 January–6 July 2025
- Solo exhibition, Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2023–2024
- Pan Daijing: Dead Time Blue (installation and performance), presented in the context of projects at Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong, 2021–2022
- Performance and installation cycle including Tissues and The Absent Hour, Tate Modern, London, 30 September–6 October 2019
Select group exhibitions and performances
- 13th Shanghai Biennale, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, 2020–2021
- Biennale of Moving Images, Geneva, 2018
- Performances at Barbican, London; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; and international festivals including Sonar and Unsound, 2010s—2020s
To be kept up to date with upcoming exhibitions featuring Pan Daijing, follow her on Ocula.
Website and Instagram
Pan Daijing’s website can be found at pandaijing.com, and Pan Daijing’s Instagram can be accessed via her official site.
Pan Daijing FAQs
Who is Pan Daijing?
Pan Daijing is a Chinese-born, Berlin-based contemporary artist, composer, and performer known for immersive performance installations that merge sound, opera, choreography, moving image, and sculpture. You can follow Pan Daijing on Ocula to learn more about her work, find out about art for sale, contact her gallery, and keep up to date with upcoming exhibitions.
What is Pan Daijing known for in contemporary art and music?
Pan Daijing is known for experimental operatic performances and large-scale installations such as Tissues at Tate Modern and Sudden Places at the Walker Art Center, which treat sound as a psychological and architectural material. Her works connect contemporary art, performance, and experimental music, positioning her as a key figure across museum programmes, biennials, and international festivals.
What is the Chanel Next Prize and why is it important for Pan Daijing?
In 2026 Pan Daijing was named a winner of the Chanel Next Prize, a biennial award that grants €100,000 and a two-year international mentoring and networking programme to ten pioneering contemporary artists. The Chanel Culture Fund recognised Pan Daijing for her boundary-pushing work in sound, performance, and installation, underlining her influence within global contemporary art and experimental music.
Has Pan Daijing won any major art prizes or awards?
Alongside being a recipient of the 2026 Chanel Next Prize, Pan Daijing has been recognised by platforms such as the Art Basel Awards, which highlight her cross-disciplinary work in performance, sound, and installation. These honours confirm Pan Daijing’s status as a leading contemporary artist whose practice is closely followed by museums, biennials, and collectors worldwide.
Where can I see work by Pan Daijing?
Pan Daijing’s artworks and performances have been presented at institutions including the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Haus der Kunst in Munich, Tai Kwun Contemporary in Hong Kong, Tate Modern in London, and the Power Station of Art at the Shanghai Biennale. You can follow Pan Daijing on Ocula to receive alerts on upcoming exhibitions by the artist.
How does Pan Daijing describe her artistic practice?
Pan Daijing has described herself as a self-taught outsider who uses noise, voice, and performance to confront emotional extremes and to communicate directly beyond conventional music structures. She often speaks about sound as a way to process personal history and social tension, emphasising improvisation, risk, and intensity in her practice.
Are there any lesser known and interesting facts about Pan Daijing?
A lesser known aspect of Pan Daijing’s work is the way she draws on periods of illness and psychological crisis, particularly during her years in Shanghai, as a structural and emotional engine for her music and installation projects. You can follow Pan Daijing on Ocula to receive alerts on news about the artist.
Where does Pan Daijing live and work?
Pan Daijing lives and works in Berlin, maintaining a studio and performance practice that is closely linked to institutions and venues across Europe, Asia, and North America. Her international projects often involve extended stays in cities such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, London, and Minneapolis for large-scale commissions and exhibitions.
How is Pan Daijing’s name pronounced?
Pan Daijing’s name is commonly pronounced “Pan Dye-jing”: “Pan” as in “pan,” “Dai” like “dye,” and “jing” like “jing” in “jingling,” with each syllable kept short and even. This pronunciation is widely used in English-language interviews, museum presentations, and festival announcements about the artist.
What are Pan Daijing’s most important artworks and exhibitions?
Key projects by Pan Daijing include the operatic performance Tissues and the related work The Absent Hour at Tate Modern, the exhibition Sudden Places at the Walker Art Center, and large-scale commissions such as Done Duet for the 13th Shanghai Biennale. Pan Daijing’s work has also featured at institutions such as Haus der Kunst, Tai Kwun Contemporary, and in major performance programmes at venues like Berghain, Barbican Centre, and Palais de Tokyo.
Where can I listen to Pan Daijing’s music and sound works?
Pan Daijing’s music and sound pieces, including albums and live recordings, are available via independent labels, streaming platforms, and documentation from institutions that have commissioned her performances. You can use Ocula as a starting point to identify which museums and galleries have presented Pan Daijing’s sound and performance works, and then explore their archives and partner platforms for recordings.
Where can I buy Pan Daijing’s work?
Pan Daijing is represented by leading contemporary art galleries and collaborates with major institutions and festivals worldwide. You can explore Ocula to find out which Ocula galleries represent the artist and enquire directly about buying art by Pan Daijing, and follow her and her gallery to keep up to date; you can also get in touch with Ocula’s art advisory team to find out more about buying or selling work by Pan Daijing.
Ocula | 2026
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