SYMPTOMATICA | HORIZON
798 Art, Science and Technology Biennale 2025
Art is the echo of an approaching future,
where today becomes the symptoms of tomorrow.
The evolution of art goes beyond a simple stylistic shift, revealing a creative process propelled by dynamic inevitability. It manifests emergent characteristics at the intersection of chance and necessity, where the deep time of art is constantly catalyzed by innovations that expand our perception of concepts, materials, technology, society and even our senses. Through their ceaseless interplay, material and immaterial, intrinsic and extrinsic elements, along with intelligence and extelligence - the external technical memory of culture - have broadened the horizons of art. The undulating horizon of this worlding world uncovers symptoms that traverse the stratified temporality of art, bringing forth new potentials in non-linear time.
SYMPTOMATICA | HORIZON, presented as a part of the 798 Art, Science and Technology Biennale 2025, captures the changes of this era through the lens of 19 international artists. Their works creatively and innovatively converge art, science, and technology as a symptom of this transition. The exhibition space becomes a site of encounter with phenomena arising from the interplay of matter, machines, artifacts, and life, offering diverse perspectives on our complex yet interconnected world.
Matters emerge as active agents—swelling foam morphs continuously, deformed glass reveals its intrinsic material properties, and pollutants undergo subtle transformations over time. Vital processes awaken sensory perceptions, as trees emit fragrant organic compounds into the air, and the symbiotic relationship between soil microorganisms and roots resonates as sonified data. Symptomatic machines are choreographed in varied ways, ranging from the impulsive gestures of pneumatic pumps sculpting space with nonlinear motions to the orderly rhythm of light bulbs, each concealing a camera, swinging on pendulums. Imperceptible phenomena transform into visible forms—geomagnetic storms materialize as dynamic sculptural forms, while a laser beam ripples across waves, evoking the luminous event horizon of a spinning black hole.
All transcend their role as mere artistic objects, becoming subjects that generate meaning rather than passively mediating it. This phenomenon reveals the symptomatic horizon of contemporary art, where the boundaries between the material and the immaterial blur, suggesting new possibilities for the relationship between art, science, and technology.
The exhibition presents the contemporaneity of these fields while exploring the complex processes that form their interconnectedness. It also suggests the expansion of art beyond visual reproduction into a multi-layered, experiential realm. Visitors will encounter a shift in perception, moving from 'seeing' to 'sensing, diagnosing, and experiencing' artworks. SYMPTOMATICA | HORIZON exists as an experiment that captures the defining symptoms of our time on this expanded horizon of art, where the symptomatic present foreshadows unexplored artistic territories.
《征候｜视界》
798艺术、科学与科技双年展 2025
艺术是临近未来的回响，
今日则成为明日的征兆。
艺术的演变绝非仅仅局限于风格上的简单更迭，它深刻揭示了创造过程中一种不可避免的现象。这一现象在偶然与必然的交织中，呈现出“涌现”的独特属性——个体的相互作用汇聚为整体，催生出难以预见的新特性。从跨越漫长历史维度的“深时”视角出发，这一进程持续受到创新的催化，不断拓宽着我们对于概念、材料、技术、社会乃至感官认知的边界。在物质与非物质、内在与外在，以及内在智能（个体的认知与感知能力）与外在智能（文化与技术的外部存储和延展）之间交织的复杂网络中，艺术的视野被前所未有地拓展。在这个仍在动态生成中的广阔世界里，那起伏跌宕的地平线不仅映射出艺术跨越多重时间层次的迹象，更在非线性的时间维度中孕育出全新可能。
以《征候｜视界》为题的798艺术、科学与技术双年展，借助19位国际艺术家新颖而独特的视角，捕捉了这个时代的变革。这些艺术家的作品将艺术、科学与技术巧妙融合，成为这一变革趋势的直观体现。展览空间成为一个交汇之地，通过物质、机器、人造物与生命的相互作用，展现出各种现象，并提供了多样化的方式去洞察我们身处的这个复杂而互联的世界。
物质作为能动的主体悄然浮现——膨胀的泡沫持续变换形态，扭曲的玻璃彰显出其内在的材料特性，污染物则在时间的流逝下发生微妙的转化。生命力的舒展过程唤醒了我们的感官世界：树木将芬芳的有机化合物释放到空气中，土壤微生物与树根之间的共生关系通过声音数据传递共鸣。症状机械以各种方式起舞——从气动泵以不规则动态塑造空间时展现的冲动姿态，到隐藏摄像头的灯泡摇摆时产生的有序节奏。难以察觉的现象被转化为可视的形态——地磁风暴化为动态雕塑，激光束在波浪中跃动，宛如旋转黑洞周围发光的事件视界。
这些作品超越了单纯作为艺术展品的传统角色，转而成为积极创造意义的主体，而非仅仅被动地传达信息。这一现象揭示了当代艺术中具有征兆性的视界，在这里，物质与非物质的界限变得日益模糊，预示着艺术、科学与技术之间正在探索着全新关系的可能性。
展览呈现了这些领域的当代特性，并探讨了构成其相互关联的复杂过程。同时，展览暗示着艺术正超越常规的视觉再现，迈向一个多层次、体验式的领域。参观者将经历从“观看”艺术作品到“感知、诊断与体验”艺术作品的感知转变。《征候｜视界》是一场实验，它在延展的艺术视域中捕捉了我们这个时代的征象，并通过充满症状的当下，预示着艺术世界中尚未被探索的区域。