Night Pieces: A Foreign Body Within

Apian is a Ministry of Bees responsible for the relationship between humans and all bee species. Apian works to maintain ties and foster new relations with bees. Mixing methods from anthropology and philosophy with the practice of art and beekeeping, Apian aims to build a refuge to encounter bees on a more egalitarian basis away from capitalist destructive practices. Apian also aims to be collaborative and has been a site for meeting around shared sensibilities, for example, with zoologists Randolf Menzel and Dorothea Brückner and the artists Laurent Güdel and Ellen Lapper.

Isabell Bullerschen lives and works in Zurich/CH. Isabell is interested in slimy organisms and the construction and blending of realities. Through installations and videos, she explores the potential that lies in the deconstruction and rewriting of narratives. She employs a metasurgical method in which her work serves as a scalpel to dissect anthropocentrism. The binary narrow-mindedness of human relationships of all kinds is cut open, and the insides are turned out. The pseudo-reality created by language means a moment of shock for her; communication by means of language is an illusion: construction through language leads to isolation. She relies on the knowledge gained from sensory experience that she puts in contrast to the empirical or argumentative approach of the supposedly objective science, which is able to overcome the state of shock and isolation.

The collectif_fact comprises Annelore Schneider and Claude Piguet. They live and work between London and Geneva. Their work, primarily video, reflects contemporary image economies, surroundings, production, and consumption. Their practice investigates the pervasive, alienating, and ecological impacts of images on our contemporary lives using speculative worlds and fiction production. 

Cao Shu lives and works in Hangzhou. His works are based on local practices, intricately weaving together the complex production mechanisms behind computer graphics technology, mythical metaphors, historical archives, and social issues. The artworks primarily focus on narrative 3D digital moving images, video games, and site-specific installations. In recent years, Cao Shu has received awards such as the 2022 OCAT × KADIST Emerging Media Artist Award, the 2021 Exposure Award from PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai, and the 2017 BISFF Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement.

Bingqing Dong is a digital and installation artist currently based in Shanghai. Her background major is ancient art study and researching consequent subconsciousness of human beings from goddess figures. Bingqing’s artworks explore the spirit and humanity from epic, myth, desire, and fetish. The nature of Bingqing’s creation is the spirit of individual romanticism and self-reflection. Ideas, technologies and academic knowledge are hidden below the visual cover, Bingqing has put her vigorous sensibility, awareness and imagination into constructing various worlds full of emotions.

Dorota Gawęda (PL/CH) and Eglė Kulbokaitė ( LT/CH) both graduated from the Royal College of Art in London (2012). They work across performance, video, painting, sculpture and installation — where language breaks down and one genre morphs into many. They founded the YOUNG GIRL READING GROUP (2013–2021). They are the recipients of the Allegro Artist Prize 2022; CERN Collide Residency 2022 and laureates of the Swiss Performance Art Award 2022.

Maria Guță and Lauren Huret are a visual art duo. They studied at ECAL and HEAD – Geneva. Their collaborative work as a duo draws from their shared experiences of growing up with evolving communication technologies, focusing on the effects of overexposure and ‚media bewitchment‘ on contemporary society. Maria Guță lives and works in Neuchâtel, CH. Lauren Huret lives and works in Geneva, CH.

Hu Rui (b.1990) works with video, installation, and computer simulation. His practice deals with issues related to time and temporality from a multitude of perspectives, such as causation, prediction, choice, and language. He received an MFA in Design Media Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles, a BFA in Film with a minor in computer science from New York University. He is the recipient of the Best Experimental Animation Award at the 60th Ann Arbor Film Festival.

Sandra Knecht (*1968) born in Zurich, lives and works in Buus/Canton of Baselland. In her artistic practice, Sandra explores this concept of Heimat under the aspect of the unfamiliar by way of a twofold exploration of her own family history and the concept of Heimat itself. Knecht undertakes her long-term research through various media such as installation, archive, photography, video, sound, performance, and the culinary arts. Her multifaceted oeuvre is informed by ten years of trans-disciplinary research into the concept of Heimat. In her work, the artist creates uniquely developed social sculptures, ranging from dinner parties and performance art to the conceptualisation and execution of artworks, exhibitions and book projects.

Born in 1990 in Jiujiang, Jiangxi, Zhao Qian currently lives and works in Shanghai. Zhao focuses on circulating animal imagery, game operating mechanisms, simulated behaviors, and the translational function of images. Zhao Qian has received the Houston Center for Photography Annual Photography Award (2019), was a finalist for the Art Sanya Award (2020), and was shortlisted for the Jimei Arles Discovery Award (2022).

Chen Min is a curator and researcher, with ten years of experience in France and a PhD from the China Academy of Art in 2022. While watching closely the influence of cultural communication and technological changes on the contemporary, she aims to intervene in the creative field influenced by new media art and video game culture from the perspective of media studies, and engage with different ‚worldbuilding‘ facts and fictions portrayed by the apparatus of media languages. She examines Surrealism in the context of the history of ideas and interdisciplinary studies, rethinking the discourses of aesthetics and politics, poetics, and creativity in a contemporary realm. Chen was awarded the Hyundai Blue Prize in 2019, and has curated exhibitions at Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival, Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, Hyundai Motorstudio Beijing, and so on.