II. Natural Code, Body Grammar, and the Allegory of Technology

Traversing the systematic nature of “natural codes”, the structural logic of “bodily grammar”, and the narrative potential of “technological allegory”, the two speakers will transcend disciplinary boundaries to jointly explore key questions:

• Could technology become a new “grammar” for reconfiguring natural order and bodily perception?
• Can the relationship between humans and nonhumans move beyond instrumental logic toward a more open-ended narrative of symbiosis?

LAI Lili, anthropologist and former Berggruen Fellow, will examine how the entanglement of technology and the concept of body reshapes and redefines human perception. From the fluidity of the posthuman body to the ethical tensions surrounding material things, she will uncover the intricate interplay between technological practice and lived experience in everyday life.

Artist Guo Cheng, through his sculptural and installation works, will dissect the ways infrastructure, digital identity, and algorithmic power co-encode both nature and human society. His practice transforms these abstract entanglements into sensorial and perceptible experiences.

Framed from a decentralized perspective, the dialogue invites the audience into a speculative exploration of technological democracy, ecological perception, and future subjectivities.

The event will be moderated by Wang Youyou, Public Practice Curator at UCCA.

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The parallel dialogue series " Symbiosis and Temporal Flow", jointly initiated by UCCA Center for Contemporary Art and the Berggruen Research Center at Peking University, aims to explore the resonance and collaboration between researchers from diverse scientific disciplines, philosophical thinkers, and contemporary artists. The series engages with topics such as "altruistic mechanisms" and "self-awareness", encouraging exchanges from multiple perspectives and examining how diachronic intertextual mechanisms can be formed within authentic and continuous experiences of time.

The three conversations in this series will invite scholars from fields such as biology, medical anthropology, and science fiction writing, to engage in dialogue with artists who have experience in cross-media practices.

The series is initiated and orgnized by Berggruen China’s LI Xiaojiao and LIU Yuanyuan, and UCCA’s WU Yiyao and WANG Youyou.

Speakers

About the UCCA

The UCCA Center for Contemporary Art is China’s premier museum of modern and contemporary art. Committed to the belief that art can deepen lives and transcend boundaries, UCCA presents a wide range of exhibitions, public programs, and educational initiatives across four architecturally and programmatically distinct locations. Owned by a group of committed patrons, it is funded by donations, sponsorship, ticketing, and proceeds from the commercial activities of UCCA Lab. UCCA has presented more than 200 exhibitions and welcomed more than ten million visitors since its founding in Beijing in 2007 as the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art.

The UCCA is currently presenting “Anicka Yi: There Exists Another Evolution, But In This One” between March 22, 2025, and June 15, 2025, the artist’s first solo exhibition in China and her most extensive presentation to date, featuring nearly 40 works. This exhibition offers a profound entry point into Anicka Yi’s multisensory universe of biology, technology, philosophy, and art, in a bold yet nuanced reflection of the human experience against the background of systems in flux.