Zhang Wenchao: Hidden in a Theater Path
16th Mar – 30th Apr, 2024
Organized by Tokyo Gallery + BTAP, with theacademic support of Xu Bing and curated byFeng Boyi, the exhibition "Zhang Wenchao:
Hidden in a Theater Path" will open on
March 16, 2024, at Tokyo Gallery + BTAP.
Born in 1985 in Beijing, Zhang Wenchao
received his MFA in 2014 from thePrintmaking Department of the Central
Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA). He is currently
the director of the Art and Technology
Direction of the School of Design at theCentral Academy of Fine Arts and a
researcher at the Institute of Science andTechnology and Art at the Central Academyof Fine Arts. His art practices draw on humanexperiences, behaviors, and imaginations
from the virtual environment, rendering
montage-like
immersive
experiences
through non-linear and enmeshed spacetime structures. His works and projects
involveinteractive
installations,algorithmically generated images, games
and virtual worlds, and other art languages
using emerging technologies.
Zhang Wenchao's debut solo exhibition in
Beijing consists of ten recent works,
including
video,
interactive
video
installations, oil on canvas + projectedanimation, interactive games and digitalprints, as well as his latest space art creation,
which has been selected for the "Xu Bing
Space Art Residency Program" and will beexperimented with "SCA-1", the first satelliteof the "Star Chain of Arts Project" chaired by
Xu Bing, exploring one's knowledge andpossible relationships between his art
practice and the universe.
By appropriating historical and literarysources and investigating narratives oflegends and fables, Zhang reveals hisobservation and tracing of civilization fromtoday's science and technology perspective.

Moreover, he also wades through theeveryday virtual reality system that's reliant
yet ambiguous to the physical world andmemories of space that carry the individual'stravels, tracing fluid pathways andunexpected encounters along the shareddomains.
In this exhibition, he connects, integrates,
and transforms the interlocking zones ofreality and the virtual world throughhyperlinks while attempting to break theboundaries of art. Zhang’s intertextual
nesting of the virtual and the real, his adept
docking of historical narrative and personal
imagination, and the integration of elements
such as the universe, fantasies, deduction,suspense, etc., afford scenes of strange andimmersive domains of multiplicity. The
resulting synthesis reveals the essential logic
operating in virtual and real worlds. In thissense, this exhibition is both Zhang
Wenchao's journey and his return. Here,
Zhang Wenchao is undoubtedly not an
optimistic prophet but someone who
traverses history, reality, and the intervals oftime and space, providing us with muchneeded energy and imagination.
It is particularly unique that the artist hasconceived the exhibition into a theatre
based on the architectural features of Tokyo
Gallery + BTAP and set up the show such that
one would self-navigate and criss-crossthrough the works on display autonomously
through the prologue and the five sections ofa play. Zhang presents to the spectator amontage-like roaming experience filled withtheatrical tension that satisfies the curiosityand desire of an online community yearning
for fresh stories. This approach is how theartist constructs "Pop Script," or the "Infinite
Theater," where he continuously interprets
the ever-changing visual stories.