Why Not Ask Again: Arguments, Counter-arguments, and Stories

Follow a thought, like you would the beginning of a word. Sun Yuan & Peng Yu
Like a small forest that you have to cross. Ivana Franke

An orbit—the arc that loops into itself when an object obeys its attraction to another without crashing into it—is a dance actualised in space. Any two bodies will settle into a regular pattern of reciprocal attraction. Things get really interesting when a third body enters the picture. Now you have a whole new geometry of unpredictability—this is a three-body problem. Raqs

A widely oscillating vibrato emanates from a record. Lantian Xie

Would you call this an invention, this fierce confrontation of torques? Or is it not an invention if it doesn’t have other uses? Sun Yuan & Peng Yu

Finding a signpost is going to be easy. But how can you know if what you’ve found really is the right one? Look around more. Ivana Franke

Our perception, or attentiveness, can have something to do with a mood or just a moment. Peter Piller

Maybe the shape of leaves will look familiar but the colour won’t match what you know. Yes, that’s it, go on. Ivana Franke

Wait, remove your shoes first; enhance the sensations produced by walking. Lee Mingwei

The problem is not the answer. We need to continue to give the suspect a problem so she may find her coordinates. Sun Yuan & Peng Yu

A seismograph suggests routes and destinations, even as it registers the restlessness of the world. A seismograph gives us points and lines of travel. The world in the exhibition is a crisscross of lines of journeys, with preferred, or confused, or jolted destinations. The amplitude and frequency of these tremors marks every act of walking, stopping, resting, looking. Raqs

The system is always in a delicate balance. Liao Fei

A continuous observation of events and objects becomes necessary. Vinu V.V.

When nothing is certain, all predictions can turn into new possibilities. Yang Zhenzhong

Each of us could be the-one-expressing-many. Vinu V.V.​

Let all experiences find their angles and reasons, let all narratives find resilience and flexibility. Tao Hui

A record plays sounds from millions of years ago—in symmetry to a future millions of years away. Robin Meier

Between the forces of gathering and dispersal lingers an imperceptible yet persistent force-field of dilation. The actuality of living is to find ourselves within its unpredictable moments. Raqs

Dressing up as if charting point zero – Bianca Baldi
– hitting at historical hinges – SUPERFLEX
– let us go to the contested fictional space elaborated upon through projection and fantasy. Bianca Baldi
Some ghosts do not go. There is such a thing as a future of the past. Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi

[These fragments, this flow between artist and artist, here braided with Raqs, has been created by Shveta Sarda, editor of BLUEPRINT, the guidebook for the 11th Shanghai Biennale. The full version of this text will be in the guidebook. She pulls these undercurrents by reading through artist statements, essays on and by the artists, interviews of artists found online, reported oral conversations, exchanges between the artists and the curators, and curatorial annotations. The ebb and flow of these words, the arguments and counter-arguments that get formed, are a way to delve into the connections and currents that traverse Why Not Ask Again.]

Chief Curator: Raqs Media Collective

Curatorial Collegiate: Sabih Ahmed, Liu Tian, Chen Yun, and Tess Maunder

Infra-curatorial projects: Ugochukwu-Smooth C. Nzewi, Sabih Ahmed, Didem Yazıcı, Mouna Mekouar, Liu Tian, Srajana Kaikini, and Ivan Isaev

Exhibition Architects: Rupali Gupte and Prasad Shetty

51 Personae Coordinator: Chen Yun, with Dinghaiqiao Mutual Aid Society

Theory Opera Coordinator: Liu Tian, with Yao Mengxi