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The Art World in Focus
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Xu Bing

XU BING

Xu Bing: You Inhuman Thing M+ From 5 October 2026 Hong Kong
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Press Release

The story of You Inhuman Thing is structured around verification tests, the common online systems that ask users to prove they are human. The work shows a frenetic sequence of video clips drawn from social media feeds, news broadcasts, films, satellite surveillance footage, wildlife documentaries, and video games. These tests ask us to decide whether the actions depicted in the clips are humane, ethical, or logical, subverting our assumptions about normal human behaviour.

The title You Inhuman Thing comes from a Chinese insult that describes someone as heartless or cold-blooded. Yet the work invites us to reconsider what it means to be human. As technology complicates seemingly simple value judgements, does our understanding of our own species remain valid?

Xu Bing explores themes of language, communication, and cultural misunderstanding in his work. You Inhuman Thing complements his new interactive web-based commission on the M+ website.

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About the Artist

Xu Bing was born in Chongqing, China in 1955. In 1977 he entered the printmaking department of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing (CAFA) where completed his Bachelor’s degree in 1981, staying on as an instructor and earning his MFA in 1987. In 1990, on the invitation of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he moved to the United States. Xu currently serves as the Vice President of CAFA.

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Also Exhibiting at M+

All Exhibitions
Myths and Monsters: The Art of Fantasy in Asia M+ 17 October 2026–4 April 2027 Hong Kong
Herzog & de Meuron: In Focus M+ From 12 September 2026 Hong Kong
Janet Cardiff: The Forty Part Motet M+ From 15 August 2026 Hong Kong
About the Gallery

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Address
West Kowloon Cultural District
38 Museum Drive
Kowloon
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Opening Hours
Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 6pm
Fridays, 10am – 10pm
Closed Mondays
(1)
Hong Kong West Kowloon Cultural District, 38 Museum Drive
M contemporary art institution in Hong Kong
M+
West Kowloon Cultural District, 38 Museum Drive, Kowloon, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
+852 2200 0217
http://www.mplus.org.hk

Opening hours
Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 6pm
Fridays, 10am – 10pm
Closed Mondays
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