{"id":275818,"date":"2026-05-01T16:10:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T21:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/compte-rendu\/shanghai-biennale-does-the-flower-hear-the-bee\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T08:48:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T13:48:06","slug":"shanghai-biennale-does-the-flower-hear-the-bee","status":"publish","type":"compte-rendu","link":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/reviews\/shanghai-biennale-does-the-flower-hear-the-bee\/","title":{"rendered":"Shanghai Biennale<\/br>Does the flower hear the bee<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Immersed in Allora & Calzadilla\u2019s sprawling installations Penumbra<\/em> (2025) and Phantom Forest<\/em> (2025), visitors were taken aback by both their visual presence and their poetic resonance echoing through the entrance of the exhibition in the form of scattered petals. Right there and then, the notion of sensing and feeling across multiple life forms adopted by the 15th Shanghai Biennale, Does the flower hear the bee<\/em>, registered with amplitude before setting foot in the show. <\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Led by Canadian curatorial force Kitty Scott, alongside co-curators Daisy Desrosiers, Xue Tan, Long Yitang, and Zhang Yingying, this edition took on an ambitious feat with its lineup of sixty-six international artists, and it delivered boldly and powerfully. Set across three floors of the museum, the exhibition was an exploration of the senses, from Tan Jing\u2019s newly commissioned sculptural and olfactory installation Second Skin<\/em> (2025), to Tania Candiani\u2019s sound sculpture Prologue II. Resonant Blossoms<\/em> (2025), to Christine Sun Kim\u2019s large-scale painting intervention Heavy Relevance <\/em>(2025). The multiplicity of media included, along with the diverse national representation, commanded a permeating context of emotional in-betweenness, escalating hybridity, and lingering absence. An interweaving of sentimental and cultural reflections ensued, offering imaginative space for perpetual contemplation and deciphering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"Jennifer
Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla<\/strong>
Penumbra; Phantom Forest<\/em>, installation view, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, 2025.
Photo: courtesy of the artists; Lisson Gallery; Galerie Chantal Crousel; Kurimanzutto; & Power Station of Art, Shanghai
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Entering the second floor of the exhibition, visitors found themselves at the foot of Haegue Yang\u2019s towering installation, Accommodating the Epic Dispersion\u200a\u2014\u200aOn Non-Cathartic Volume of Dispersion<\/em> (2012). Consisting of painted Venetian blinds assembled in crescendo\u200a\u2014\u200asometimes showing geometric gridlines and other times suggesting Asian folding fans\u200a\u2014\u200athe impressive work contributed wittingly to transnational dialogue by hinting toward notions of loss and confusion through its alternating shadowy effect, oscillating between transparency and obscurity. Its grandiosity offered a poignant contrast to Chen Ruofan\u2019s quietly striking piece Dust<\/em> (2025), in which fine yarn is enlaced with concentrated sawdust debris in a cloud-like shape to reflect opaque air conditions witnessed in factories. At once visceral and stifling, the sculpture emanated subtle nuances of fear and metaphoric bliss, inciting dialogues of vulnerability and confrontation, even as viewers basked in its muted elegance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"Haegue
Haegue Yang
<\/strong>Accommodating the Epic Dispersion\u2014On Non-Cathartic Volume of Dispersion<\/em>, 2012, installation view, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, 2025.
Photo: courtesy of the artist & Power Station of Art, Shanghai <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
With the likes of Brian Jungen, Abbas Akkavan, Shuvinai Ashoona, and Lotus L. Kang, to name a few, the Shanghai Biennale delivered no shortage of works by leading Canadian figures. With such laudable efforts put forward, Canadian art is making a fierce re-entry into the Asian art world, which continues to mutate and take on new meanings of its own in a transnational global art system. As suggested by Scott\u2019s curatorial direction, world knowledge, both ancestral and modern, is called to the task to achieve crossovers in interpretation and translation via new modes of communicating and understanding. In the face of uncertainty and bewilderment, we are reminded once more that art transcends borders and nationalities in a quest to comprehend the present moment and the volatile future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\"Lotus
Lotus L. Kang
<\/strong>Azaleas II<\/em>, installation view, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, 2025.
Photo: courtesy of the artist; Commonwealth and Council; 52 Walker; Esther Schipper; Franz Kaka; & Power Station of Art, Shanghai<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Power Station of Art,<\/strong> Shanghai<\/br>November 8, 2025\u200a\u2013\u200aMarch 31, 2026<\/br>","protected":false},"author":6506,"featured_media":275811,"template":"","categories":[884],"numeros":[8014],"disciplines":[],"statuts":[],"checklist":[],"auteurs":[1689],"artistes":[8122,8123,5775,8108,5774,8068,8124,8044],"thematiques":[],"type_compte-rendu":[],"class_list":["post-275818","compte-rendu","type-compte-rendu","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","numeros-117-crip","auteurs-tianmo-zhang-en","artistes-chen-ruofan","artistes-christine-sun-kim","artistes-guillermo-calzadilla-en","artistes-haegue-yang-en","artistes-jennifer-allora-en","artistes-lotus-l-kang-en","artistes-tan-jing","artistes-tania-candiani-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu\/275818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/compte-rendu"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/compte-rendu"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275818"},{"taxonomy":"numeros","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/numeros?post=275818"},{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=275818"},{"taxonomy":"statuts","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/statuts?post=275818"},{"taxonomy":"checklist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/checklist?post=275818"},{"taxonomy":"auteurs","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/auteurs?post=275818"},{"taxonomy":"artistes","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artistes?post=275818"},{"taxonomy":"thematiques","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/thematiques?post=275818"},{"taxonomy":"type_compte-rendu","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esse.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type_compte-rendu?post=275818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}