The Second Yinchuan Biennale: Starting from the Desert. Ecologies on the Edge

Curator: Marco Scotini
Curatorial team: Andris Brinkmanis, Paolo Caffoni, Zasha Colah, Lu Xinghua
Curatorial assistant: Yin Shuai

Starting from the Desert. Ecologies on the Edge: The Second Yinchuan Biennale curated by Marco Scotini is opening its doors to the public on June 9, with 37 newly commissioned works and more than 90 participating artists. 

Extending over the 15,000 square meters of museum space of MOCA Yinchuan, the surrounding Hui Nongqu Eco-park, and the International Artist Village of the River Origins, the exhibition articulates itself through four thematic sections: Nomadic Space and Rural Space, Labor-in-Nature and Nature-in-Labor, The Voice and The Book, Minorities and Multiplicity.

“What we call the desert,” as Marco Scotini affirms, “is a physical and theoretical space at the same time. Starting from the desert, therefore means to escape the State Science (the pattern of thinking of the stable, identical and constant) in order to learn a new Nomad Science (as the thought of pure fluidity, pure circulation, without any inhibition of movement). In a place, at least to all appearances, where life is impossible (and in which it must go beyond itself in order to subsist) Deleuze and Guattari laid the basis of something new at stake for life as such, a new dimension of Ecology with a view to emancipating all forms of life. So let’s start from the desert.”

Join us for the official opening of the The Second Yinchuan Biennale:

Public opening: June 9, 11am–10pm; June 10, 10am–6pm

Events program:

June 9

Nikhil Chopra, Fire Water (2018), performance, MOCA Yinchuan, 11am–5pm

Enkhbold Togmidshiirev, My Ger (2018), performance, MOCA Yinchuan and Hui Nongqu Eco-park, ongoing

Justin Ponmany, Anthroproscenium (2018), theatrical installation, Amphitheatre of the International Artist Village of the River Origins, 12pm and 6pm

Ho Rui An, In search of Asia the Unmiraculous, performative lecture, MOCA Yinchuan conference hall, 2:30pm

Li Binyuan (2018), performance,  Hui Nongqu Eco-park, 3:30pm

Official opening with Liu Wenjin (MOCA Director), Lu Peng (MOCA Artistic director) and curators, 4pm

Arahmaiani and Wukir, Memory of Nature,(2013-2018), performance, MOCA Yinchuan building, 5:30pm

Opening dinner party, 7:30pm

June 10

Lu Xinghua, Tong Weige, Marco Scotini, Book Launch of Nomadology in China, 10am

Newly commissioned works and performances: Ravi Agarwal, Vyacheslav Akhunov, Arahmaiani with Wukir Suryadi, Navjot Altaf with Rajkumar Korram and Shantibai Vishwakarma, Can Altay, Massimo Bartolini, Erick Beltrán, Sheba Chhachhi, Nikhil Chopra, Peter Fend, Mariam Ghani, Shiva Gor, Ho Rui An, Francesco Jodice, Kan Xuan, Muratbek Kasmalieva & Gulnara Djumaliev, Alimjan Jorobaev, Kimsooja, Li Juchuan, Li Binyuan, Liu Ding, Juan Pablo Macías, Mao Chenyu, Mao Tongqiang, Nils Norman, Prabhakar Pachpute, Justin Ponmany, Marjetica Potrč, Karan Shrestha, Song Dong, Alexander Ugay, Wang Wei, WUXU Group (Zheng Ningyuan, Wang Kai, Sun Yicong & Liu Jing), Xu Tan, Yang Kailin, Sawangwongse Yawnghwe, Zai Tang, Zheng Bo

Among the commissioned artworks for the biennale needs to be underlined a publication, Nomadology in China, edited by a Taiwanese philosopher Yang Kailin and Chinese philosopher Lu Xinghua, which brings together texts by 10 Chinese authors on the thematic issues related to art, social and literary fields

Exhibition guidebook:
In keeping with the concept proposed by the curator, the coordinated image and the exhibition publications are developed by Mousse Agency & Publishing. Two publications conceived for the Second Yinchuan Biennale will be presented: Starting from the Desert an exhibition guide during the opening, and a reader that will be published during the biennale.  

Press contact
Zhang Yun: ycmoca @ moca-yinchuan.com / T +86 951 8426106