Curatored by Xiaowen Chen, Naiyi Wang

On 28th October, the first Beijing Art & Technology Biennale (abbr. BATB) kicked off at 798 CUBE. Taking “Synthetic Ecology” as the title, the Biennale features three exhibition chapters of “Radical Nature”, “Entangled Life” and “Interwoven Evolution”, presenting the tension between nature and technology, discussing the condition of post-human era, and forecasting the possibility of the evolution of life in the future. By doing so, the exhibition intends to escape from the scope of anthropocentrism so as to respond to the increasingly obvious crisis in this era, such as resource exhaustion, global warming, climate crisis, the limits to growth, etc. Therefore, “Synthetic Ecology” is searching for a new consensus and possibility in the era of accelerationism with continuous development of technology and expansion of self-awareness.

This year, the Biennale has invited 50 well-known artists, scientists and ecologists, including Suzanne Anker, Susan Schuppli, Patricia Piccinini, Liang Shaoji, Xiang Jin, Rimini Protokoll, among others. Meanwhile, the project Climate Clock, which aroused heated discussions in the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, was introduced to China for the first time. These important creators in the intersection of art and technology respond and reflect on the practical situation confronted by human beings in different ways, making the overall exhibition in a fusion state featuring multi-media and interdisciplinarity.

Intriguingly, the Biennale echoes to the exhibition space as well. As a renovation project based in the 798 Art District, 798 CUBE was designed by Zhu Pei. The Bauhaus style of architectures featured by 798 Art District were taken as the initial inspiration of the overall design concept. By retaining the original old industrial plants as many as possible, the design team applied innovative architectural concept on the old basis, attracting the audience to experience the aesthetic texture of “sewing” the art museum and its history, and to explore how could the art museum interact and complement with surrounding industrial buildings.