Zheng Li and Jianghong Chen: The Animal Farm Simulator

Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing unveils The Animal Farm Simulator, one of the Hyundai Blue Prize Art + Tech 2023 awarded exhibitions curated by Zheng Li and Jianghong Chen.

As an annual prize for emerging curators in China, the Hyundai Blue Prize Art + Tech has adopted “Decentralized Reworlding” as its theme for 2023, encouraging curators to investigate the complexity of the social system and rethinking the current boundaries of our social norms and human territories, in terms of envisioning the possibilities of reshaping the world. Zheng Li and Jianghong Chen’s The Animal Farm Simulator and Xiao Zong’s Metamorphic Ecosphere were selected for the Hyundai Blue Prize Art + Tech 2023.

The first exhibition The Animal Farm Simulator, presented at the Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, simulates an experimental field of the future where humans and other species coexist and collaborate. Zheng Li and Jianghong Chen boldly imagine the Earth leaving “Anthropocene” and entering the Age of “Animism (the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence),” speculatively embracing a decentralized world. The perspective of reshaping in The Animal Farm Simulator is not a subversive change, but an optimization and improvement beyond “Anthropocentrism”.

The exhibition features a modular ecosystem called “animal farm simulator”, which operates on four units: “The Workshop”, “The Lab”, “The Arena” and “The Co-op”. “The Workshop” is oriented to the production and manufacturing of basic survival needs. “The Lab” utilizes genetic engineering to lead future species exploration. “The Arena” promotes communication through multi-media and sketches out a pluralistic future, thus activating a new perspective for people to understand the world. “The Co-op” establishes decentralized cooperative production and management with the intention of motivating care and sustainability.

“Under the theme of the Hyundai Blue Prize Art + Tech 2023, ‘Decentralized Reworlding,’ The Animal Farm Simulator envisions our future of coexistence from the perspectives of art, technology, and the humanities,” said Hyundai Motor’s Art Director, DooEun Choi. “The exhibition will be a creative and critical platform for the necessary re-worlding required to foster our decentralized way of life and bold reflection across all disciplines.”

The Animal Farm Simulator presents twelve domestic and international projects, including speculative design, video, installation, and other mediums, closely integrated with the curatorial expression and physical field. Through experimentation, genetic trace, and media communication, the exhibition re-examines the feasibility of biodiversity coexistence under the thread of technology. The exhibition will be open to the public with a variety of events through October 8, 2023.

Participating artists: alterR, atelier mobile, CRUDE_CASTIN (Dian Liu & Jianing Xu), Elio Caccavale, Extrapolation Factory, Shan Li, Di Liu, Yu-Chun Lo & Kuang-Yi Ku & Zong-Yuan Tien, Nonhuman Nonsense Studio, Paul Gong, Paula Ulargui Escalona, Chaofan Xu & Qingqi Ren.

About the curators
Zheng Li, graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) with a Master’s Degree in Design Criticism and Curatorial Studies, a visiting scholar at ENSAD in Paris and an independent curator. She is a practitioner of innovation education for children, a fashion designer, and a member of Beijing Youth Art Development Promotion Association.

Jianghong Chen, graduated from Northumbria University with a Master’s degree in Design Management. She is a creative planner, a design researcher. Her research interests include urban revitalization, experience design, ecologically sustainable design, and design for social innovation.

Launched by Hyundai Motor Company and Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing in 2017, The Hyundai Blue Prize has explored “Social Mobility” (2018), “Future Humanity” (2019), “Social Intelligence” (2020), “Resonant Cities” (2021), “Disruptive Future” (2022), and “Decentralized Re-Worlding” (2023). Hyundai Blue Prize Art + Tech has recognized and supported emerging curators in China, fostering innovative and critical exploration of major contemporary issues.

Hyundai Motorstudios are brand experience spaces that reflect the company’s artistic spirit and experimental approach to art, design, and technology. This is where “motor”, a word used in the automobile industry, and “studio”, a word used to describe a space for contemplation and creation, meet in a manner accessible to the public.