Xu Bing: Word Palygrounds
Duration: May 29 , 2026 — April 30, 2027
ExhibitionTitle: Xu Bing: Word Palygrounds
Location: Shenzhen International Art Gallery, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
Exhibited Works: Book from the Sky, Book from the Ground, Square Word Calligraphy, The Character of Characters, Background Story, Landscript, Forest Project, and Phoenix.
Xu Bing: Word Palygrounds is structured around the artist’s long-term investigation into linguistic systems and cognitive structures. Centered on the generative mechanisms of "graphemes" and "lexemes," the exhibition offers a systematic exploration of the distinctly Chinese modes of thinking and language embedded in his practice. Through a critical and imaginative reinterpretation of the Chinese writing system—its pictographic nature, principles of character formation, double entendre, polysemy, and inherent poetic qualities—the exhibition reveals how language, when translated into visual form, gives rise to new structures of knowledge and modes of perception.
The exhibition brings together a selection of Xu Bing’s major works, including Book from the Sky, Book from the Ground, Square Word Calligraphy, The Character of Characters, Background Story, Landscript, Forest Project, and Phoenix. Employing a multi-media and scenographic approach, the exhibition constructs an immersive and participatory cognitive field, inviting audiences to reconsider the complex relationships between text, image, and the world through processes of interaction and perception.
Xu Bing: The Real Unreal Landscape
Exhibition view of the Background Story: Bamboo Grove at the Suzhou Museum
Exhibition view of the Background Story-3 (front view)
Detail of the Background Story-3
Exhibition view of the Background Story-3 (back view)
Background Story: for I. M. Pei
Exhibition view of the Suzhou Landscript
Background Story Interactive Area
Duration: July 22, 2026 — October 22, 2026
ExhibitionTitle: Xu Bing: The Real Unreal Landscape
Location: Suzhou Museum, Suzhou, China
Exhibited Works: Background Story, Square Word Calligraphy, Suzhou Landscript
Pulse of Life·Chengdu Biennale
Exhibition view of The Seven-character Poetry Collection of Small Enterprises
The Seven-character Poetry Collection of Small Enterprises
Exhibition view of Xu Bing Space Art Residency Program
Exhibition view of Xu Bing Space Art Residency Program
Exhibition view of Square Word Calligraphy: Art for the People
Duration: February 8, 2026 — August 30, 2026
ExhibitionTitle: Xu Bing: Pulse of Life·Chengdu Biennale
Location: Chengdu Art Museum, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Exhibited Works: The Seven-character Poetry Collection of Small Enterprises, Xu Bing Space Art Residency Program, Square Word Calligraphy: Art for the People