Dream Time

UCCA’s first exhibition of 2024—Dream Time will be open to the public from January 27 to April 28, 2024. A group show featuring fifteen artists and collectives from around the world, Dream Time explores the complexity of dreams—both as reveries and aspirations—with themes of will, hope, memory, and imagination. Turning UCCA’s Central, New and West Galleries into a dreamscape, the exhibition aims to evoke sensory and intellectual channels, thereby leading viewers to rethink their contemporary lives.

Discussions of dreams are inherently connected to the primal world. The dreamer drifts between thoughts and fantasies in that liminal space, weaving one story after another between an imagined past and a hopeful future. As if in a private theater, dreams play out the scenes from our spiritual world following psychological schemas, evoking our deepest desires and fears, linking individual and collective memories. Along with the rapid development of image technology and the profound impact of media on human brain activity, our inner world drowns in the infinite information accessible at our fingertips, incrementally and effortlessly capturing our span of attention. The time required to form coherent thoughts and consciousness is no longer available, and our innate ability to imagine gets suspended. If we consider dreams to be some primitive thought activity, this activity is now corroded by attention deficits. While chasing after ever-updating information, the here and now become neglected, and reality and illusion start to merge, compromising the ability to sleep and dream. In a problematic world encapsulated by modern technology, how can individuals hold on to their imaginations and reclaim the power of their dreams?

Dream Time explores the complexity of dreams with themes of will, hope, memory and imagination. Topics include the struggles and dispersed identities of immigrants, gender equality, representation of ethnic minorities, coexistence in a post-colonial world, modernization of traditional cultures, and the future of ecology and technology. In this exhibition, we witness the shared visions of artists that spring from the diversity of the world, and the creative powers enforced by practical constraints, such as generation, identity, and cultural background. Fifteen artists and artist collectives use painting, sculpture, photography, film, installations, and performances to explore the meaning of dreams, subjectivity, and empowerment. Participating artists include Aslı Çavuşoğlu & İnci Eviner, Doreen Chan, Aleksandra Domanović, Feng Zhixuan, Tirdad Hashemi & Soufia Erfanian, Sky Hopinka, Christine Sun Kim, Ma Qiusha, Itziar Okariz, Peng Zuqiang, Sin Wai Kin, Chin Tsao, Evelyn Taocheng Wang, Yuyan Wang, and Guanyu Xu. This exhibition is curated by Yan Fang, UCCA curator.  

UCCA thanks Instituto Cervantes de Pekin for exhibition support and Stey for exclusive accommodation support. Exclusive wall solutions support is provided by Dulux, and Genelec contributed exclusive audio equipment and technical support. UCCA also thanks the members of UCCA Foundation Council, International Circle, and Young Associates, as well as Lead Partner Aranya, Lead Art Book Partner DIOR, Presenting Partners Bloomberg, and Yinyi Biotech, and Supporting Partners Barco, Dulux, Genelec, and Stey.