Urban Artist Archive: Chi Qun

On August 13, 2026, START Museum launches the inaugural edition of its new long-term research project, “Urban Artist Archive.” As part of the museum’s ongoing commitment to archival research, the project brings together and presents primary-source materials—including texts, photographs, audio and video recordings, and manuscripts—to enable systematic archival investigation and in-depth research.

The project opens with artist Chi Qun as its first “compiler.” Her research encompasses more than 250 international modern and contemporary artists and is organized into thirteen thematic sections, including “Contemporary Art Theory Since 1985,” “Ways of Seeing,” “The Reality of the Artist,” “Body, Image, and Art History,” “Defining Life,” and “On Form.” Alongside her longstanding practice in abstract easel painting, Chi regards short-form art videos as another integral dimension of her artistic practice. Through accessible yet incisive narratives, she introduces the public to different ways of approaching and interpreting international contemporary artists and their works. In doing so, she undertakes a form of compilation and narration of contemporary art—an endeavor that the artist herself considers a complete practice of socially engaged art.

The “Urban Artist Archive” project makes flexible use of START Museum’s diverse spaces, including the Art Train, the riverside promenade, and Xingqi Plaza, and is open to the public free of charge. Through this approach, the project explores possibilities for artistic intervention in the contemporary city and for responding to the conditions of our time. It proposes an autonomous and egalitarian mode of “seeing” through which the public can enter into dialogue with artists and art, while creating a distinctive form of public education.