UCCA Beijing's 'Meditations in an Emergency' Exhibition Explores Fragility in Post-Pandemic World

UCCA Beijing launched its first 2020 exhibition 'Meditations in an Emergency' in May, presenting works that examine life after COVID-19 through five thematic sections. The show features Musquiqui Chihying's three-channel video 'The Alp' (2014), which depicts insomnia through a bed elevated five meters, alongside a physical bed installation in the gallery. Li Liao's video 'To Be a Better Man' (2019) ironically portrays self-improvement through core exercises and English recitation, overlaying six-pack abs with text. Robert Renhui Zhao's 'Last Cat on Christmas Island' (2016) uses digital prints to document invasive species management paradoxes on Christmas Island. Hsu Chia-Wei's four-channel installation 'Black and White – Malayan Tapir' (2018) explores species naming through political and colonial histories. Wolfgang Tillmans created 'Time/Mirrored Installation Beijing' (2020) specifically for the exhibition, featuring 34 laser prints with historical juxtapositions like Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech and Donald Trump's presidency. Other participating artists include Pierre Huyghe, Mika Rottenberg, Zhang Hui, Zhang Peili, and Yang Fudong. The exhibition's sections—'The Fragile Everyday,' 'Vital Signs,' 'Beyond Animality,' 'Othered Movements,' and 'Out of Focus'—question normality and biological life. Running until August 30, 2020, the show invites meditation on pandemic-induced shifts in value and interaction.