The China Pavilion exhibitionDream Streamofthe 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Veneziais 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 seriestheChina 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 Liangzhu 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 World2027 Shen GuoCosmic Peach Blossom Spring：2027 Shen Guo
The Media Scenography DepartmentReview MeetingReflecting on the Creation of2027 Shen Guoand Deepening Narrative Engineering Thinking
On July 6, 2026, the project review meeting for 2027 Shen Guo, the China Pavilion exhibition project for the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, was held in the classroom of the Media Scenography Department at Xiangshan Campus, China Academy of Art. Professor Mou Sen, together with the project team, conducted a comprehensive review of the entire creative process, systematically examined the project's development, summarized practical experience and key takeaways, and engaged in in-depth discussions on topics including narrative engineering, the integration of art and technology, and the realization of large-scale artistic installations.
During the meeting, Professor Mou guided the students through a thorough project review. He emphasized that reflection should never remain superficial; instead, students should cultivate the habit of documenting their work and engaging in deep critical thinking so as to accumulate authentic and concrete practical experience. Using 2027 Shen Guo as a case study, he explained the core principle of engineering thinking—constraints.
The first constraint lies in the project's thematic content: it represents the China's cultural identity and national image. The second constraint is tradition, requiring the work to embody the cultural heritage of Chinese civilization. The third constraint requirement is technology. 2027 Shen Guo further extends these connections to astronomy, the Moon, the universe, and outer space.
Professor Mou further stressed that the creation of large-scale artistic installations is a complete systems engineering project. Beyond artistic creation itself, it also involves the practical implementation of packaging, transportation, assembly and disassembly, wiring, and numerous other aspects required for realizing works of extraordinary scale.
"Every problem encountered during construction is, in essence, a design problem. The scope of art is relatively limited, whereas design possesses unlimited possibilities for extension."
This perspective offered students valuable guidance for future large-scale interdisciplinary and cross-media creative practices.
Following the faculty presentation, all students who participated in the project shared their personal experiences and reflections on the creative process.
Student Zhang Meng noted that the continuous revision of the design proposal posed one of the greatest challenges throughout the project. During its development, she systematically learned the complete workflow of miniature model production—from concept to final realization—and came to deeply appreciate the vital role of teamwork in large-scale collaborative creation.
Wang Lei，member of MSG team who focused on the valuable experience gained during the overseas exhibition installation. He explained that the project taught him to approach artistic creation from the broader perspective of engineering implementation. Every stage of the production process follows a rigorous sequence, and only by understanding its underlying logic can a team efficiently complete the installation and achieve the intended exhibition outcome.
Student Yao Xinran reflected that artistic creativity requires bold experimentation, and that the effectiveness of creative ideas can only be truly verified through hands-on practice.
Student Duan Bowen summarized three key lessons from the project:First, creators should be willing to experiment with materials; Second, maintaining an efficient working rhythm is essential; Third, timely and effective communication among team members is crucial for successful collaboration.
The review meeting systematically examined the experience gained throughout the creation of 2027 Shen Guo, from proposal iterations and model production to its successful installation overseas. By participating in a major real-world artistic project, students confronted practical challenges firsthand, truly realizing the educational philosophy of "learning through creation”. The project continues to explore innovative synergies among art, technology, and scientific advancement, fostering interdisciplinary innovation through their integration.
Interview
Q1：From the perspective of the creator, could you introduce the content of2027 Shen Guofor us and explain its core artistic concept?
Mou Sen:
The China Pavilion of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia （hereafter La Biennale di Venezia），the curatorial framework takes Shen Kuo and Dream Stream Essays as its point of departure, integrating China's traditional cultural lineage, ancient scientific thought, the Liangzhu civilization, and the cultural heritage of Hangzhou. This framework responds precisely to the exhibition's aspiration to bridge tradition and modernity. Within this context, the Media Scenography Department drew upon the distinctive strengths of its discipline to explore its own artistic approach to the curatorial proposition.
While conducting research, I discovered that the International Astronomical Union had previously identified an asteroid with the permanent designation 2027, which was later officially named 2027 Shen Guo. Having an asteroid permanently named after a scientist represents one of the highest honors in the scientific community. China also has Zu Chongzhi Star, while internationally there are Leonardo da Vinci Star, Newton Star, and others. This discovery became the key to the narrative structure of my creation.
The work unfolds through three perspectives of retrospection. The first looks back from the twenty-first century to Shen Kuo's Northern Song Dynasty in the tenth century. The second looks back at Earth from the perspective of a celestial body in the universe. The third looks back at China from the global perspective embodied. Through the concept of 2027 Shen Guo, these three retrospective viewpoints and three layers of dreams are interwoven, bringing together the Chinese cultural tradition with both ancient and contemporary histories of science and technology. The work ultimately takes the form of a three-dimensional installation that synthesizes the aesthetics of the Chinese handscroll, Cubism, and Constructivism.
This was my overall conceptual approach to the project. Subsequently, Ma Yuanchi, Xin Ge，Zhao Da and Mei Yuezi, together with the graduate teaching team, carried the concept forward into realization. They completed the full narrative transformation process and artwork coordination—translating the core concept into visual language, constructing digital models, and ultimately producing the physical three-dimensional installation. The entire process was both intricate and highly meticulous.
Miniature models occupy a central position within the pedagogical system of the Media Scenography Department. They are also one of our most recognizable artistic media and an area in which we have engaged in long-term research and practice. Therefore, from the very beginning of the project, it was decided that the work would be realized in the form of a model installation.
The installation was presented in the upper circular gallery of the Arsenale exhibition hall at the Venice Biennale. This space, with its ring-shaped structure resembling the form of flowing water, naturally complements the visual language of a Chinese handscroll. The proportions of the work are both rigorously controlled and highly distinctive. Its overall height and depth are each 33 centimeters. The installation consists of two scrolls, an upper and a lower section, each measuring 10 meters in length, for a total length of 20 meters. Installed along the curved wall of the exhibition space, it breaks away from the conventional presentation of a flat handscroll. As a physical miniature installation, the work employs the language of three-dimensional spatial construction. In terms of composition, it follows the traditional narrative structure of Chinese landscape handscrolls, carefully orchestrating the rhythm of beginning, development, transition, and conclusion, as well as the balance between density and openness. The visual progression is meticulously organized from every viewing angle.
The scientific component of the work was led by Professor Ma Yuanchi. Through an in-depth study of Dream Stream Essays, the team extracted its core scientific concepts and organized them into thirteen thematic chapters—six in the upper scroll and seven in the lower scroll—including sections devoted to Moon Gazing, Light Confluence, Double Sluice, Ore Unveiled, Ice Breached, Strata, Earth Probe, Sea Gaze, Magnetic Sense, Movable Type, Core Calculus, The Supernova, Star Pluching.Together, these chapters establish the scientific narrative at the heart of the work.
In terms of artistic language, we drew inspiration from both Cubism and Constructivism. The work balances representational detail with abstract expression, demanding an exceptionally high degree of precision in both form and visual correspondence.
The work incorporates imagery of celestial bodies, the Earth, the universe, and the Moon. The material qualities could neither appear overly polished nor excessively muted. The forms of mountains, vegetation, and geological landscapes provided the ideal balance for achieving the desired visual atmosphere. President Yu Xuhong offered clear guidance regarding the color palette, and we ultimately introduced elements of peach blossoms to harmonize the overall visual mood. After viewing the completed work, Professor Xu Jiang summarized it in five Chinese characters: "The Peach Blossom Spring in Space". It also alludes to Tao Yuanming's classic The Peach Blossom Spring. His interpretation deeply moved me.
Within the upper and lower scrolls, we created three figurative scenes corresponding to three dreams capes, echoing the overarching theme of the China Pavilion, "Mengxi" (Dream Stream). The English title, Dream Stream, carries exceptionally rich connotations. "Dream" encompasses aspirations, imagination, and hope, while "Stream" refers not only to a flowing creek but also to the contemporary concept of streaming media, opening broad possibilities for interpretation. For us, this provided an ideal creative proposition. At the same time, the hand scroll itself inherently possesses qualities of continuity and flow, perfectly corresponding to the imagery of "stream" as an ever-unfolding current, making the concept remarkably compatible with the installation.
The first scene is inspired by Ma Yuan's Viewing the Moon. An elderly scholar in traditional robes sits alone in the mountains gazing at the moon. This figure is conceived as Shen Kuo and serves as the narrative beginning of the entire work.
The central section introduces Caspar David Friedrich's Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. The figure standing on a rocky summit with his back turned toward the viewer is interpreted as Joseph Needham, referencing the renowned "Needham Question."
The final scene draws inspiration from Gustave Doré's illustrations for The Divine Comedy. The figure standing upon a cliff and gazing toward the stars represents Wang Jian. Much of the lower scroll revolves around aerospace development and China's constellation engineering initiatives.
Together, these three figures establish a complete temporal and spatial narrative loop, carrying the central conceptual proposition of the entire work.
Q2：Could the faculty members share your thoughts on the creative team? How did it feel for the MSG team and the students to participate together in the La Biennale di Venezia? Were there any particularly memorable moments during the project?
Mou Sen：
The team of the Media Scenography Department is abbreviated as MSG, which corresponds to the English name of our department. Over the years, we have adopted a standardized, engineering-oriented model of artistic production, with clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
My role on the project is Creator. General Design was undertaken by Ma Yuanchi and Xin Ge. Chen Sifan, Zhang Shiwen and Cheng Lingfeng served as Design Assistants. Zhao Da and Wang Lei acted as Production Directors, while Mei Yuezi worked as Coordinator, forming a complete workflow that covered every stage of the creative process.
The project itself was enormous in scale. Once the design had been finalized, it still required a tremendous amount of labor to bring it into reality. When the project began, the second-year students of the School of Inter media Art had just completed their disciplinary specialization selection and had not yet formally taken any courses in the Media Scenography Department. In other words, they were essentially newcomers to this field.
On March 9, the first day of the semester, we held a project mobilization speech and formed teams according to the production requirements, working collaboratively throughout the process.
The entire team consisted of about 30 members, including both teacher and students. Despite the limited conditions, everyone completed their tasks to a high standard, taking on the challenge like new recruits on their first mission. I was very proud of the team’s overall work.
Ma Yuanchi：
What makes our creation compelling is that a team jointly accomplished a demanding commissioned work under constrained conditions. Throughout this journey, countless moments of creative improvisation unfolded on site — and this is what fascinates me most.
Zhao Da：
None of us had ever undertaken a project of this scale, complexity, and time pressure before. For everyone involved, it was an entirely new experience. We encountered numerous challenges throughout the process, but the entire team—including the second-year students—remained united around the same goal and worked together with remarkable determination.
One unforgettable moment occurred on the evening of March 30. In Building 20, where we had constructed a simulated exhibition site, we installed the complete model into the curved exhibition wall for the very first time. Seeing the entire 20 meters handscroll installation assembled in its entirety immediately gave us a sense of confidence that the project would succeed.
That evening, however, we also encountered an unexpected problem. One of the astronomical design sections did not produce the desired visual effect, so we made immediate adjustments. President Yu Xuhong remained with us that night, and we held a meeting that continued until very late, ultimately finalizing a series of revisions that significantly enhanced the overall artistic character of the work.
The second unforgettable moment took place in Venice. On the evening of April 28, all sections of the installation finally arrived safely at the exhibition hall after transportation. President Yu was on-site on the evening of May 2. Together, we tested and assembled each modular section one by one, checked the appearance of the complete installation, and simultaneously carried out numerous adjustments and repairs. Those two nights remain especially vivid in my memory.
Chen Sifan：
One moment that left a particularly deep impression on me came immediately after the project mobilization meeting, when we visited the simulated La Biennale di Venezia mock installation site together. Everyone was filled with excitement.
Another unforgettable moment was when we assembled all of the modular sections for the first time and prepared to illuminate the work. Seeing the complete installation was truly breathtaking. Being able to participate in such a project gave me an immense sense of accomplishment.
Zhang Shiwen：
I was genuinely impressed by the second-year students. They were entrusted with an enormous responsibility under urgent circumstances. Without even having a complete set of finalized renderings, they enthusiastically completed all of the painting and finishing work within just one week. Their dedication was deeply moving.
Wang Lei：
Before production began, we had only seen the final digital renderings. For a miniature installation of such an extraordinary scale, none of us truly knew what the completed physical work would ultimately look like. We had only a general expectation rather than a concrete feeling.
Throughout the production process, countless detailed problems continuously emerged. We responded to each one immediately and solved them as they arose. Through repeated revisions and meticulous refinements, everyone worked together tirelessly. When we finally saw the completed installation realized in physical form, the sense of achievement was overwhelming. At that moment, we truly felt that every bit of hard work had been worthwhile.
Another detail that left a particularly deep impression on me occurred during the installation in Venice. Although our work arrived later than expected, none of the artists or teams within the China Pavilion worked in isolation. After completing adjustments to their own installations, everyone voluntarily helped other artists with their exhibition installations as well. Together, we worked to perfect the overall presentation of the entire exhibition hall. That spirit of solidarity and collaboration remains one of my strongest memories from the project.
Q3：Could the members of the creative team introduce the process of developing, refining, and revising the work throughout its creation?
Ma Yuanchi：
The most significant revisions concerned the artistic style of the work. At the very beginning, the overall narrative envisioned by Professor Mou Sen divided the work into three chapters. In its final form, however, it evolved into two scrolls. The upper scroll consists of six narrative nodes, while the lower scroll contains seven, resulting in a total structure of thirteen interconnected sections.
Zhao Da：
The final presentation of underwent multiple rounds of conceptual and design iterations.
During the early stages of the project, the team had not yet established the final form of the miniature installation. Before the Chinese New Year, we experimented with several different creative concepts. In preparation for a presentation in Beijing, we produced the first physical prototype under a very tight schedule on January 7. This initial version centered on the perspective of looking back at Earth from outer space. The review requires incorporating the oriental aesthetic characteristics of blue-green landscape painting.
Subsequently, we developed an entirely different proposal. This version employed transparent acrylic as its primary material, combined with technological installation elements and set against an ink landscape painting backdrop. Throughout the Chinese New Year holiday, we continued refining this direction, placing greater emphasis on the poetic spirit of traditional Chinese landscape painting. However, because too many uncertainties remained, this version was ultimately abandoned.
After the holiday, in early March, under the overall direction of Professor Mou Sen, the team established a clear creative direction by returning to the miniature installation system that the Media Scenography Department has cultivated for many years. The creative process was essentially restarted. To better accommodate production requirements and installation conditions, the handscroll was adjusted to a total length of 20 meters.
Following the project mobilization meeting on March 9, faculty members and students fully devoted themselves to production. Work began with constructing the foundational landscape and topographical forms, after which the scientific narratives drawn from Dream Stream Essays and imagery inspired by contemporary aerospace technology were gradually integrated into the installation. Throughout production, every detail was continuously discussed, refined, and improved. The student team also contributed creative ideas and optimizations throughout the making process.
At the end of March, the team completed the first full-scale installation test in a mock installation site in Building 20 of CAA. Based on on-site feedback and expert guidance, the overall artistic character of the work was further refined, particularly by softening its previously desolate visual atmosphere.
On April 12, the installation passed its final testing, was officially packed, and shipped to Venice.
Overall, the project underwent three fundamental transformations: from the initial prototype depicting Earth viewed from outer space, to the acrylic proposal incorporating ink landscape painting, and finally to the miniature installation that returned to the Department's established artistic medium. After these three major revisions, the work was ultimately realized to a high standard.
Chen Sifan：
At the beginning, we envisioned the project as leaning more toward the language of installation art, so both the modeling and the overall design were very different from the final version.The exhibition space consisted of two curved walls with different angles, making the modeling process significantly more complex because each wall required a different technical approach.Later, when the concept shifted toward a landscape handscroll integrated with scientific and technological elements, the level of difficulty increased even further. To achieve the desired presentation, the digital models had to be divided into multiple sections several times, and during physical production they were repeatedly deconstructed and reconstructed.
Q4：Could the faculty members and students describe the major challenges encountered during the production process and explain how they were resolved?
Ma Yuanchi：
The primary task in narrative design was selecting, transforming, and refining the original content of Dream Stream Essays.The greatest challenge lay in choosing the scientific themes. Dream Stream Essays covers an extraordinarily broad range of subjects, including politics, unusual anecdotes, natural observations, and many other topics across numerous chapters. Identifying those scientific moments that could resonate meaningfully with contemporary society was by no means an easy task.
Chen Sifan：
After the design evolved toward a landscape composition, we originally intended to organize the work according to the compositional principles of traditional Chinese landscape handscroll paintings. There was no existing historical painting that could simply be referenced or reproduced at such a scale.Within an extremely tight production schedule, the entire topographical structure—with its layered mountains, valleys, and changing elevations—had to be designed independently by the team through repeated exploration and refinement. This required an enormous investment of design effort.
The installation itself has a depth of only 30 centimeters, leaving extremely limited spatial capacity. At the same time, sufficient room also had to be reserved for light boxes and lighting adjustments. As a result, the mountain forms had to be made exceptionally thin, while every technological installation element required corresponding redesign and transformation to fit within the available space and still achieve the intended visual effect.
During the creative process, we also introduced cosmic imagery—including planets and celestial bodies—to enrich the work's interstellar narrative dimension. Integrating these new elements into the overall composition presented another significant design challenge.In addition, because the installation could not be assembled in its entirety for unified lighting tests, every lighting effect had to be adjusted repeatedly, one position at a time. To avoid a monotonous visual experience, we deliberately differentiated the color palette and atmospheric qualities of each individual section, carefully controlling the overall visual rhythm and layering so that the 20 meters handscroll would possess both narrative continuity and visual variation.
Zhang Shiwen：
The celestial chart was ultimately presented as a backlit light box positioned behind the model. However, because the installation itself offered very little depth, only a minimal amount of space could be allocated to the light box.Since the distance between the light source and the image surface was too short, the texture of the light box's internal grid became highly visible, preventing the lighting effect from achieving the desired quality. In the end, We decided to eliminate the lightboxes and adopt a black treatment for the background.
In addition, I was responsible for designing the smaller installations within the first 10 meters section of the work. Rather than directly reproducing contemporary technological objects, we transformed them through structural reinterpretation and Cubist formal language.This approach presented considerable challenges during the early stages of three-dimensional modeling. Each object had to be meticulously broken down into individual components and then reassembled, making the production process both highly detailed and extremely labor-intensive.
Wang Lei：
The greatest challenge was coordinating every aspect of the project—including personnel, scheduling, materials, and countless production details. Every stage required careful verification and close coordination.
During transportation, we also encountered unexpected material-related problems. Some of the model repair materials that we had prepared in advance could not be transported internationally. As a result, after arriving in Venice, we had to visit local art supply stores to purchase replacement materials on short notice and then find ways to integrate them seamlessly into the model during the repair process.
Q5：The work takes the form of a panoramic handscroll. When installed in the curved exhibition space of the China Pavilion in Venice, how was it adapted to the architecture of the venue? What kind of viewing experience did you hope visitors would have?
Mou Sen：
The success of the spatial adaptation owes a great deal to President Yu Xuhong’s overall planning and coordination. Well in advance of the exhibition, he arranged for the construction of a mock installation site of the China Pavilion of La Biennale di Venezia inside Building 20 of the China Academy of Art. This was an original and highly innovative strategy that allowed us to rehearse the installation before shipping the work overseas.
Within this reconstructed exhibition space, we completed a full-scale trial installation, precisely verifying the curvature of the walls, the dimensions of the work, and the relationship between the installation and the architectural space. Issues involving dimensions, assembly, and curvature were identified and resolved in China before transportation. Prior to the air shipment, Zhao Da's team carried out a complete spatial rehearsal and installation test, greatly reducing the risks associated with transportation and on-site installation.
After the work arrived in Venice, only a few minor adjustments were required, and the installation proceeded smoothly according to plan.
As for the audience's viewing experience, I have always believed that once a work is completed and presented to the public, the right to interpret it belongs entirely to its viewers. As creators, we do not seek to impose a standard interpretation. Whether audiences appreciate the work or hold different opinions, we welcome them all. Every genuine response is both valid and meaningful.
At present, I have not yet had the opportunity to collect comprehensive feedback from international audiences. However, Professor Xu Jiang's description of the work as "The Peach Blossom Spring of Space" was an interpretation I had never anticipated during the creative process. Such a unique insight from a viewer is more valuable to me than any compliment. When I first arrived at the exhibition, my primary concern was evaluating the work from the perspective of engineering execution and installation quality. As for aesthetic and conceptual interpretations, we remain completely open and welcome diverse readings from every viewer.
Q6：What kind of Eastern perspective or philosophical reflection did you hope to express through this work?
Mou Sen：
I have always been a holist.
Whether examining the history of science, the history of civilization, or the relationship between China and the rest of the world, I reject fragmented and disconnected interpretations. For this reason, I titled my narrative framework "Confronting the Whole."
As I mentioned earlier, the three retrospective perspectives all serve a single purpose: to construct a complete and indivisible narrative that resists fragmented readings of history and civilization.
Within my teaching system, there is a classic reference case. When George Lucas directed Star Wars, he instructed the art department to imagine what the spacecraft in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey would look like two hundred years later. The essential creative strategy was the layering of time.
We adopted a similar creative logic by intertwining different temporalities, history and contemporary reality, science and civilization, allowing them to merge into a unified whole. Pursuing this comprehensive mode of expression is the central concept of the work.
Q7：The La Biennale di Venezia welcomes audiences from around the world. While designing this work, did you consciously consider issues of cross-cultural dialogue? How does this project respond to the contemporary global discourse of art?
Mou Sen：
I did not intentionally design the work for the purpose of cross-cultural communication.
For many years, I have visted in both documenta and the La Biennale di Venezia , and I am familiar with the discourse of international contemporary art. I have no interest in deliberately following fashionable formulas or conforming to so-called political correctness.
I believe this work naturally possesses the capacity for cross-cultural dialogue. What we pursued throughout the project was still a complete, holistic mode of Eastern narrative. Choosing not to deliberately accommodate prevailing trends is itself a form of response.
Contemporary global art is currently undergoing profound transformation. Many creative formulas have become increasingly standardized. Template-driven practices—whether emphasizing cross-cultural narratives, feminism, or various forms of identity and diversity discourse—have become increasingly common, and many formal artistic languages have already been thoroughly explored.
Within such a context, I believe that the most important criterion for evaluating a work of art is its own intrinsic strength: its weight, depth, breadth, and intellectual or spiritual elevation.
For me, there is ultimately only one essential criterion for judging contemporary art: whether it possesses the power to astonish. This is a concept deeply rooted in the history of art. It refers to the immediate emotional impact a work has at first sight—the ability to strike directly at the viewer's inner consciousness. That experience cannot be fully explained through logic alone.
