Evolutionary Space
The Evolutionary Space exhibition is an annual series that took place from October 2023 to June 2024, with exhibitions held sequentially in Shanghai, Chiang Mai, London, Berlin, Tianjin. This exhibition platform brought together over 40 leading digital artists and served as a new attempt at a globally distributed digital art exhibition. It created a bridge between media communities, artists, and the market, fostering cross-regional and cross-disciplinary exchanges among audiences, scholars, and creators, and driving innovation and collaboration in the field of digital art.
About LOCATION
In the digital age, our senses merge with the digital interface, creating an Evolutionary Space where physical surroundings, loT, pan-reality tech, and our bodies converge, highlighting the profound connection between humans and their environment. Coined by Marshall McLuhan, "the medium is the message" unveils how communication mediums shape society and human perception. In parallel, the post-pandemic era witnesses the emergence of digital nomads, signifying a transformation in work, creation, and social interaction. This shift, fueled by urban detachment and rapid digital advancements, prompts young people to embrace a decentralized lifestyle.
The Evolutionary Space Exhibition, in collaboration with the global community of 706 Youth Space, co-hosts an event across multiple distributed urban sites, aiming to establish simultaneous connections between communities through multi-sensual digital mediums, ushering in a revolutionary form of spatial art exhibition. Featuring innovative youth artists and architects, whose work redefine space beyond physical and sensual boundaries, using mediums including immersive multimedia, Al algorithms, generative design, Al diffusion models, VR/AR, and virtual interaction to reimagine and evolve the concept.
What's more, during curatorial practice, each exhibition sparks new dialogues, new thoughts, and new ideas with artists, gallery owners, and team members. A resonance between the exhibition and its location is created. The exhibition transforms the space, and each space, in turn, transforms the exhibition.
Exhibition Duration
2024.6.1-2024.6.2
2024.6.8-2024.6.9
(11:00am -7:00pm)
Address
52 Muriel St,London N19QU (Opening Private View)
Slash Art Gallery Boat next to the Word On the Water,
The London Bookbarge Regent's Canal
(Exhibition)
Opening Performance
2024.5.31 (7:30-9:30pm)
LONDON: Finding Solace
“Finding Solace” is the latest one of Evolutionary Space exhibition series. This exhibition is hosted and sponsored by Slash Arts which supports emerging artists (@slash.arts). This boat gallery provides a unique domestic space that serves as a contemporary sanctuary.
Positioned on the tranquil waters of Regent's Canal, this floating sanctuary invites visitors to immerse themselves in an experience that offers a respite from the turmoil of the digital age. It invites viewers to critically engage with the intertwined currents of the physical and virtual worlds. It stimulates questioning, reflection, and potentially, discovery of solace in the thought-provoking space that the exhibition constructs.
The exhibition curates the interior space of the ship as a home, aiming to find tranquility in an era flooded with digital media by using the canal as a base and the ship as an island. It explores how we can respond to each environment to create differences rather than assimilation. As Hans Ulrich Obrist mentioned in Ways of Curating, the ideal of achieving change through dialogue with others without losing or deceiving self-awareness is precisely what curating helps us accomplish. This time, I also encouraged artists to co-create for the first time in my curatorial practice, leading to the creation of the work Tide. Inspired by the site's context and the theme of the opening performance, the artists developed a modern interactive digital artwork imbued with Chinese philosophical meaning.
Opening performance: Petrichor
Petrichor is a contemporary dance work that examines our relationship with the environment and nature through the lens of Zen philosophy.
It emerges from the relentless tension within modern society, a society burdened with the daunting task of finding solace amidst a noisy, crisis-ridden world exacerbated by the conflict between our physical reality and the digital spaces we occupy. This struggle mirrors the futile endeavour depicted in the notable Chinese idiom“, Fishing for the moon in the water”. The performance explores the intricate interconnections and relationships within our world and attempts to unearth a sense of serenity through breathing, feeling, living, thinking, observing, and listening. It is a critical response to our collective struggle, urging us to confront and address the discord that permeates our existence.
Dancer: Jiayi Fan @itsallaboutyvonne
Visual Artist: PK @pppunko
Sound Artist: Anqi @Angeldeng_
Screenwriter:Yuting Chen@yuting.chenn, Jowin Foo @jowinfoo
Producer: Peggy Yu @peggiieyue
Evolutionary Space series
About YDG
Formed in 2023, Youth Digital Group is a platform that gathers cutting-edge digital youth to help expand the international influence of artist groups by organizing cross-city digital art exhibitions and events. It provides digital content creators with opportunities to showcase their work globally.
The Youth Digital Group series is divided into art exhibitions and event salons, promoting cross-regional and cross-disciplinary exchanges among audiences, scholars, and creators in the form of annual global touring exhibitions and weekly art salons.
As the chief curator, Yuting organized and executed a multi-city global exhibition tour in Shanghai, Berlin and London, that received widespread acclaim and media coverage.