I: Life Networks Ordered by Ants

The first event, held on April 20, 2025, featured evolutionary biology professor ZHANG Guojie from Zhejiang University, LIU Shuai, an artist, and LU Qiaoying, assistant professor of philosophy at Peking University and 2020-2021 Berggruen Fellow. The discussion used “ant” as an entry point to explore topics such as “The Superorganism: Ants,” “Red Fire Ants, Nostalgia, and Narrative of Trauma,” “Selflessness and the Superorganism,” “Ant’s Perspective vs. Human Perspective,” “Empathy in Science and Art,” “Invasive Species as Theme and Mirror.”

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

Held on May 10, 2025, the second discussion featured Peking University’s anthropology professor LAI Lili, a 2023-2024 Berggruen Fellow, and artist GUO Cheng. Through data gathered in fieldwork, Lai adopted an anthropological approach to explore the complex relationships among nature, the body, and broadly defined technology in medical practices such as rural healthcare, ethnic minority medicine, and assisted reproduction. Guo useed his exhibition Bug as a narrative thread, treating “bugs” both as natural organisms and as technological glitches, responding through installation art to the tensions between the body, infrastructure, and ecosystems.Key topics covered in the discussions included: “The Interaction of Nature, Body, and Technology,” “The Close Interweaving of Ecological Environment, Everyday Technology, and Infrastructure,” and “Further Disciplining of the Body as a Testing Ground for Technology.”

III: Machines, Dreams, and Journeying Through Time

On May 18, 2025, the third event of the series featured science fiction writer, 2022-2023 Berggruen Fellow Baoshu, and artist CAO Shu. Drawing upon sci-fi works including his own, Baoshu examined various temporal experiences, including time loops, parallel universes, and immortality. Cao Shu, referencing his image-based installation works, introduced the notion of the “duplicate” to investigate the entanglements among cybernetic legacies, AI-generated imagery, and embodied memory.

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 multi-sensory universe of biology, technology, philosophy, and art, in a bold yet nuanced reflection of the human experience against the background of systems in flux.