The 14th Shanghai Biennale Cosmos Cinema

Visual documentation of the 14th Shanghai Biennale with newly commissioned essays reflecting on its themes.

Published to complement the 14th Shanghai Biennale, entitled Cosmos Cinema and curated by Anton Vidokle, this illustrated catalogue extends the exhibition’s proposal that the methodologies of filmmaking might offer one way of representing and reimagining our entanglement in time and space.

The book presents the work of artists from the early twentieth century to the present alongside a series of specially commissioned essays on subjects ranging from the history of Shanghai cinema to the possibility of communicating with nonhuman intelligence. Arranged according to the Nine Palaces of traditional Chinese cosmology, and reproduced here in a design that recreates the consciously cinematic experience of the exhibition, these works of art and their accompanying texts encourage us to reflect on our place within the systems that shape our lives at every scale.

Launched in 1996, the Shanghai Biennale is not only the first international biennial of contemporary art on the Chinese mainland, but also one of the most influential in Asia. It upholds the mission of supporting academic and cultural innovation, while continuously tracking social changes and trends in knowledge production in a global context with an open view. Themed as “Cosmos Cinema”, the 14th Shanghai Biennale ran from November 2023 to March 2024 and took place in the Power Station of Art in Shanghai. It was curated by Anton Vidokle with Hallie Ayres, Lukas Brasiskis, Zairong Xiang and Ben Eastham.

Fang Shizhong is Director-General of the Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture and Tourism.

Gong Yan is Director of the Power Station of Art in Shanghai.