Does the flower hear the bee？: 15th Shanghai Biennale

The 15th Shanghai Biennale is curated by Chief Curator Kitty Scott, Co-curators Daisy Desrosiers and Xue Tan, as well as Curators Long Yitang and Zhang Yingying, both selected from PSA’s Emerging Curators Project.

Like the flower that “hears” the bee’s wings, the 15th Shanghai Biennale aims to operate at the intersection of differing models of intelligence, both human and nonhuman. It is based on the belief that recent art provides us with a privileged space for such investigations, offering an embodied and interconnected sphere in which communities may form stronger bonds with “the more-than-human world.”

We live in a moment of great uncertainty and global emergency that has given rise to a widespread sense of disorientation. Our world is transforming at a pace that eludes our capacity for comprehension, leaving us feeling bewildered and uncertain. If a return to the past is impossible, art offers us potential pathways out of despair and malaise, helping us to find emergent forms-of-life and new modes of sensorial communication amid this instability.

Conceived in dialogue with the ideas of artists, curators, intellectuals, musicians, poets, scientists, and writers, Does the flower hear the bee? recognizes that much depends on our capacity to sense the world around us and attune ourselves to its diverse array of intelligences. Its hopeful vision rests on art’s ability to orient us towards an unknown future.

67 Participating Artists and Collectives from Around the World

This edition of the Biennale will feature over 250 works by 67 individual artists and collectives from around the world, including 16 from China. Over 30 works are commissioned or new. 

Participating artists (listed in alphabetical order by last name):

Kim Adams, Abbas Akhavan, Allora & Calzadilla, Francis Alÿs, Ryoko Aoki, Carmen Argote, Shuvinai Ashoona, Alvaro Barrington, Lêna Bùi, Tania Candiani, Maxime Cavajani, Carolina Caycedo, Chen Ruofan, Cheng Xinhao, Sara Cwynar, Dan Er, Rohini Devasher, Miguel Fernández de Castro, Cristina Flores Pescorán, Theaster Gates, Abraham González Pacheco, Brett Graham, Hao Liang, d harding, Ho Tzu Nyen, Ngahina Hohaia, Hu Xiaoyuan, Huang Yongping, Ulala Imai, Aki Inomata, Brian Jungen, Lotus L. Kang, Amar Kanwar, Christine Sun Kim, Ragnar Kjartansson, Jaffa Lam, Lina Lapelytė, Liu Shuai, Sharon Lockhart, Liz Magor, Gordon Matta-Clark, Ari Benjamin Meyers, Audie Murray, Kosen Ohtsubo, Christian Kōun Alborz Oldham, Lisa Oppenheim, Plant South Salesroom, Qiu Shihua, R. H. Quaytman, Walid Raad, Shao Chun, Shao Fan, Heji Shin, Tan Jing, Shannon Te Ao, Luke Willis Thompson, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Gözde Mimiko Türkkan, Hajra Waheed, Evelyn Taocheng Wang, Xu Tiantian, Ami Yamasaki, Haegue Yang, Masaomi Yasunaga, Cansu Yıldıran, Gozo Yoshimasu, Zhou Tao 

* Maxime Cavajani and Theaster Gates participate in the Biennale’s City Project at the Jia Yuan Hai Art Museum. The works of Rirkrit Tiravanija, Chen Ruofan, and Zhou Tao are on display at both the Power Station of Art and the Biennale’s City Project at the Jia Yuan Hai Art Museum. Liu Shuai participates in the Biennale’s City Project at the Jia Yuan Hai Art Museum and VILLA tbh, Shanghai.