Shanghai Bund Art Center Space 185 is pleased to announce the opening of the  exhibition “2024: A Journey From the Centre of the Earth” on 10th of July, 2024. The exhibition brings together 13 global artists and group whose works examine the condition of the Earth and humans from a non-anthropocentric perspective. The exhibition is curated by independent curator Wang Kaimei and will run until 20th, October.

In 1864, French novelist Jules Verne published Journey to the Center of the Earth. In this downward journey, that starts from a volcano in Iceland and targets the center of the Earth, the history of the Earth unfolds like a series in flashbacks. The protagonists are brought into lost paleontological periods one after another, experiencing the volatile temperature changes of the Earth from inside. Brimming with the power of science and imagination, Verne, the “father of science fiction”,  evolved 4.6 billion years of Earth’s history into an adventure with human presence. 

Verne lived in a time when technological achievements encouraged the Europeans to continuously explore and exploit the globe. A century later, we have entered the Anthroposcene, an era where our over-exploitation of the Earth has directly contributed to ecological crisis and climate changes. Verne was a visionary writer and pioneer in predicting future through sci-fi. Today our lives are already closely entangled with sci-fi visions:  augmented reality, artificial intelligence, brain-computer interface… It’s high time to think again what makes us human, and if we are good enough to be the ancestors of our future generations.

Inspired by Verne’s book, this exhibition is a reverse journey from the center of the Earth. Our journey starts in a non-human landscape from the geological deep time with works by Wang Jianwei, and elevates to the magnificent mountains of Iceland, our tribute to Verne with Jiang Pengyi’s large format photographs shot in Iceland.  We step into the Norwegian woods inhabited by trolls and elves created by Norwegian artist duo Ingrid Torvund and Jonas Mailand. In the same mythical way, Chinese artist Chen Zhe’s works imagine the connection between human skull and the star atlas. 

From mysticism to transhumanism, Ou Jin generates visual illusions using computer code.Shang Liang depicts the perfect post-human body. Yang Xi’s sculptures are symbiosis of the biological and the mechanical.  As we ascend from the centre of the Earth,  layers of the earth’s  resources remind us of our strong connections with nature from the start of our civilization to our current digital world. Duan Yifan works with lacquer. Wang Xingyun’s paintings comply layers of  natural materials. Xia Han’s computer game tells the story of the last warrior defending planet earth. Chilean artist Nicole L’Huillier’s works collaborate with AI and machine learning to imagine the solar eclipses that never happened. 

At the end of  Verne’s novel, the protagonists return to the surface of the earth accelerated by the power of a volcanic eruption. In our 2024’s journey, the power of art will bring us back to our body and mind. Swedish artist Lovisa Ringborg’s  images delve into dreams and subconsciousness; the late Guo Fengyi’s artistic expression of life energy resonate between metaphysical experiences and cosmos orders.

From the center of the Earth to the surface, from mythology to science,  we sail towards the celestial unknown and to even deeper sea of the human mind, the journey brings history into conjunction with the future, as Walter Benjamin’s notion of Angelus Novus. While walking through the exhibition, we encourage our visitors to meditate over our planet’s ancient past and reimagine our common future.

(Text by Curator Wang Kaimei)