He Art Space Opens in Beijing with Yuval Avital's 'Assenza'

He Art Space, a new 1,000-square-meter contemporary art center in Beijing founded by curator Ran Tang, opened on April 9, 2025, with the exhibition 'Assenza' by Yuval Avital (Jerusalem, 1977). The show, on view until June 30, 2025, resulted from a one-month residency in Beijing that allowed the Italian-Israeli artist to explore local customs and traditions, producing over 120 works including sound sculptures, paintings, photographs, installations, and videos. The exhibition examines the relationship between light and shadow, presence and absence, with paintings partly made using traditional local fabrics and rice paper evoking inner landscapes and symbolic figures. The concept of 'absence' is framed through the Chinese term '不在场', which suggests intentional withdrawal and generative emptiness rooted in Daoist and Chan (Zen) traditions, contrasting with Western notions of lack or loss. A public installation at the Beijing ME Center features large suspended banners in ramie, a natural fabric produced in China for over 5,000 years, hand-dyed and painted with Chinese ink, transforming absence into a visible, tangible presence.