The China Pavilion exhibition Dream Stream of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia is on view at the Arsenale in Venice, Italy, from 8 May to 22 November 2026 (local time). Echoing the Biennale's overarching theme, "In Minor Keys," the exhibition adopts Dream Stream as its thematic framework. Centered on the creative transformation and innovative development of China's rich traditional cultural heritage, the exhibition explores art-science integration as its primary mode of expression. Through diverse artistic approaches, it responds to the theme of Dream Stream and creates a cross-cultural artistic landscape.
The Art Museum of China Academy of Art will launch the special interview series on the China Pavilion of La Biennale di Venezia. Structured around the curatorial vision, the series is divided into some sections: Forging Ancient and Contemporary, Connecting China and the World, Intertextual Dialogue, and Moments of Highlight. Beyond these thematic sections, the series also focus on the latest creative practices of emerging artists.The series seeks to explore the artists' creative processes, personal reflections, and artistic inquiries underlying their participation in the Biennale. It will progressively present the exhibition's exploration of artistic innovation, as well as the enduring contemporary vitality of Chinese cultural traditions.
Connecting China and the World
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Free and Easy Wandering
Wang Dongling
"Free and Easy Wandering：Man Roaming Between Heaven and Earth."
Free and Easy Wandering
Man Roaming Between Heaven and Earth
Wang Dongling once remarked: "Shen Kuo, the scientist of the Northern‑Song Dynasty, dreamed of a place of breathtaking beauty: mountainsides carpeted in blossoms, with a clear, expansive stream flowing below. Years later, he chanced upon a garden estate in Runzhou and was astonished to find it exactly matched the land he had wandered in his dream. He thus named it 'Dream Stream' (Mengxi). Zhuangzi Free and Easy Wandering contains the line: 'It beats its wings against the water for three thousand li, then soars aloft riding whirling winds for ninety thousand li.' Such a realm perfectly captures the liberating, untrammeled sojourn of a dream."
Wang Dongling's monumental calligraphy Free and Easy Wandering draws inspiration from the cosmic vision of freedom in Zhuangzi · Xiao Yao You. The full text contains over 500 characters, and its dimensions are tailored to the wall: 6.5 metres in height and 16 metres in width. He first memorised the text thoroughly. When writing, he completed the work in one continuous burst, without pause or revision, infusing his state of mind, momentum and rhythm fully into the brush and ink. Breaking the conventional layout of fixed line and character spacing in traditional calligraphy, the work adopts unrestrained, expansive brushwork with fluid openings and closings to embody humanity's "wandering" within the world. It was ultimately presented at The China Pavilion exhibition Dream Stream of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.
The visitors were struck by the work's overwhelming power. They could directly perceive the unique artistic intensity of Chinese calligraphy, enabling the aesthetics of Eastern brush‑and‑ink art to transcend linguistic barriers on one of the world's premier art stages.
In the preparatory phase, Wang Dongling produced nine drafts, both in pen and Chinese brush. These drafts served two purposes: to develop compositional layout and spatial arrangement, and to further consolidate textual recall. He chose the Lichun(4 February 2026) in the Chinese lunar calendar for his first full‑scale execution, a solar term marking the start of the year and symbolising renewal and hope. Two days later, he created another calligraphy work of the same scale. The second piece is freer and more unrestrained than the first. Writing with overlapping and interweaving strokes while strictly adhering to the brushwork rules of traditional cursive calligraphy. This creative approach subverts viewers' visual habits of appreciating traditional calligraphy and unlocks a new aesthetic experience of calligraphy. The superimposition of characters dismantles the "barrier of textual meaning", enabling audiences from diverse cultural backgrounds to appreciate the rhythm and beauty of calligraphic lines, as well as the undulating dynamism and tension of spatial white space.
Wang Dongling has consistently prioritised the refinement of manual craft and possesses profound insight into qi (vital energy) within calligraphy. He holds that Yan Zhenqing's JiZhiWenGao conveys the artist's most authentic emotion and integrity, radiating an overwhelming sense of qi for viewers to experience.
Within public perception, calligraphy stands as one of China's most time‑honoured traditional arts. Having devoted more than sixty years to calligraphy and practising copying masterworks almost daily, Wang Dongling refuses to remain confined to tradition or merely replicate ancient precedents. He acknowledges that copying ancient masters and perpetuating classical forms constitutes the foundation of calligraphic inheritance, yet it cannot be the ultimate destination for contemporary calligraphy. Should contemporary calligraphy indulge excessively in ancient modes and become complacent, it will fail to develop an artistic language suited to the present era, losing its vitality and falling out of step with the times.
Rooted in the new‑era paradigm of "Heaven‑Earth‑Human‑Machine", the exhibition "Dream Stream" fosters multi‑dimensional dialogues between classical philosophical thought and cutting‑edge technology, the macrocosm of the universe and the microcosm of the human body, as well as traditional art and digital media. It transforms the ancient philosophy of "Harmony between Man and Nature" into tangible, experiential contemporary artistic reality.
The Center for Collaborative Innovation in Robotic Aesthetic Design and Human Factors Engineering at China Academy of Art has partnered with a leading robotics enterprise to simulate the brush movements of human calligraphers and write "Meng Xi" in real time as cultural and creative merchandise.
For this project, Wang Dongling travelled to Shenzhen so that his bodily movement data could be captured. The robots were then trained on this dataset to explore virtual‑reality applications and execute calligraphic tasks. As a satellite event of the exhibition, "Robot Calligraphy" produced the Chinese characters "Meng" (Dream) and "Xi" (Stream) live on‑site for visitors from across the globe. Audiences could take home this innovative artefact that merges China's outstanding cultural heritage with its latest contemporary technologies. Extending the poetic vision of Dream Stream beyond the gallery walls, the project unites traditional calligraphic art with artificial‑intelligence technology, bridging brush‑and‑ink aesthetics with the digital ecosystem.
At the symposium "Art in an Uncertain Era", Wang Dongling reflected on the pivotal contemporary questions: how traditional art engages with technological disruption and how it can go global. He offered a contemporary response rooted in Chinese calligraphy.
Wang Dongling remarked at the seminar: "Calligraphy is one of China's most ancient traditional arts, carrying the spirit and emotions of its creator. Small works simply cannot convey this. Free and Easy Wandering was executed in one unbroken flow over three hours. Even though Western viewers cannot read Chinese characters, the work still radiates a powerful aura for them." At the intersection of tradition and the future, he stages an experiment in brush and ink, inviting the world to witness the inheritance and innovation of Chinese calligraphy.
