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Memory Coexistence: the artworks of the collective
Memory Coexistence stems from the experience of the City Digital Skin Art festival, a project that promotes digital art as a large participatory event, held in various cities across Asia and Europe. While the CDSA Festival 2025 continues to bring digital art to urban public spaces, using the LED surfaces of cities, Memory Coexistence shifts this research to the museum space, thus creating a dialogue between the public and institutional environments.
The exhibition, curated by Yuelai Ruan, Dominique Moulon, Maria Grazia Mattei e Susa Pop, showcases a significant collection of works by collectives and individual artists. The works address the theme of memory as one of the anthropological cornerstones of the technological age. The thesis is that memory has a very private, intimate dimension. But it is also a universal set, accessed intuitively.
There are four sections to the narrative: ‘The memory of the senses and the body’, ‘The intelligent memory of nature’, ‘Construction of historical and cultural memory’, ‘Collective emotions’.
LOUNGE e LIVING STAIRCASE
A Right Hand That Has Lost Its Grace by Ban Ling Sheng – An installation featuring an imperfectly modeled artificial right hand lying motionless next to a comma-shaped light bulb that flashes gently. The work creates a silent dialogue between two seemingly unrelated elements, inviting the viewer to reflect on the sensations that arise when fragments of reality meet unexpectedly. The hand, a symbol of human action and ability, becomes a metaphor for vulnerability and imperfection, while the intermittent light suggests a vital presence that persists despite everything.
Like a Flower by Chen Can Rong, Ruan Yuelai, DigitalFun – A series of portraits from the 1960s and 1970s, collected from public Internet channels and artificially colored, recreate the beauty standards of the era. These faces represent how photography has replaced reality as an aesthetic reference, becoming “the standard of beautiful things.” The work intercepts time and restores memory, allowing for a better understanding of the relationship between image and real identity. The technique of artificial coloring reveals how photos not only document, but also influence and control the collective perception of beauty and social values.
Origin by Ruan Yuelai – An installation with a 3-meter-high vertical LED screen that symbolically pierces the axis between heaven and earth. Inside, fluid images generated by generative artificial intelligence unfold like an invisible consciousness, growing and reinterpreting themselves continuously. The work explores the relationship between technology and nature, virtual and real, presenting technology not only as a tool, but as the awakening of a new form of life that dialogues with the origins, memory, and future of humanity.
《Flowing Boundaries》di George Yankov
CDSA Award-Winning and Collaboration Exhibition Works
Confluence by Yang Xue Ning – A work that combines performance, wearable installations, and video. The artist weaves padlocks into her hair as a personal ritual to dissolve the boundaries between herself and the outside world. The work is inspired by the Chinese tradition of Lunar New Year, when elders talk about “unlucky years” and people protect themselves with red strings and amulets. The performance explores how we project emotions and ideas onto everyday objects, infusing them with a spiritual essence that influences us. A bold reflection on the interface between reality and non-reality, stimulating dialogue between objects and human emotions.
GALLERY 1
Pastoral Light Plan by Zheng Jing – An artistic project for public spaces launched in 2022 with research in Dunhuang, followed in 2023 by “Lingdingyang” in a marine environment. In 2025, the “Human Utopias” series inaugurates the global chapter of Pastoral Light, promoting an artistic methodology rooted in nomadism and imagination. Through movement, light, and speculative thinking, it imagines the future of the planet. The utopian spirit is not an escape from reality, but a flower of hope that blooms from difficulties. The work transcends time and space, bearing witness to the shared human desire for a better life.
Dancing with the Cosmos by Lu Ying Ying – A digital short film set in an empty virtual space, where a silver mechanical arm stands in the center—a common industrial robot upgraded with a precision manipulator. This arm dances with a golden dragon to symbolize the union between contemporary technology and ancient culture. Integration can activate new forces for the heritage and innovation of human civilization. The audience can experience the magical sensation of dancing with the dragon, which, when activated, traces an infinity symbol among the cosmic planets, blessing humanity with a message of peace and an end to conflict.
The Missing Pixel by Chen Zhi Hao, Ruan Xiao Quing – The absence of photoreceptor cells in the optic disc of the retina creates a physiological blind spot in our field of vision, which the brain automatically compensates for. The artist has designed a wearable device with an artificial intelligence algorithm that tracks eye movements, digitally capturing and removing images corresponding to the blind spot. This simulates raw visual data, unprocessed by the brain—what our eyes actually “see.” As digital technology becomes a prosthetic extension of our bodies, the work forces us to reexamine ancient philosophical questions about subjective perception and objectivity in the world.
GALLERY 2
Tracing AI by Léo Sallanon – The artist creates digital architectures left to decay and overgrown with wild vegetation, exploring the porous boundary between digital and material reality. The essence of the project lies in developing craft skills to deepen the transition from AI matter to physical matter. The use of a pen plotter allows creations derived from artificial intelligence to be materialized in a tangible form, made of ink and paper. This process of translation from digital to physical creates a poetic bridge between two dimensions of existence, where generative technology finds its concrete materiality.
Unique Windscape by Kou Shu De – Wind is the breath of heaven and earth: intangible but perceptible, formless but traceable. When technology becomes a means of perceiving nature, can we use data as a brush to redraw the spirit of the landscape? Not a replica of nature, but the creation of a second nature built on technological data. The work is presented through a virtual space in live streaming, where the audience interacts in real time with data and the work itself, perceiving the second nature and space-time memory of traditional Chinese landscape painting. Viewers, positioned in the gap between data and reality, are invited to reconsider the very definition of “reality.”
GALLERY 3
Coexistence of Memories: The Art of Interaction between Biological Memory and Digital Memory by Wu Jian Bin, Spinor – An interactive installation that explores the coexistence of human biological memory and digital memory through electroencephalographic (EEG) induction devices. Visitors’ biological memories are captured and converted into personalized visual forms of digital memory. Each participant enters their own mnemonic fragments into the system by wearing the EEG device, generating images that are integrated into the overall design. As more viewers participate, the work continuously evolves, forming a dynamically growing memory network. The goal is to demonstrate the possibilities for joint development between human memory and technology, exploring how the two types of memory influence each other until they achieve coexistence.
BLOOM NGC 5457 by Li Zhen – A galactic giant 170,000 light-years away shatters space-time with its silent and thunderous revolution at 200 km per second. Every strand of its light is an emissary that travels 21 million years through the cosmic void to reach us. The work transforms astronomical data into a poetic experience, where the vastness of the universe condenses into a moment of contemplation. Although stardust will erase the traces of the human explorer, that single moment in which we looked into the cosmic abyss opened the eyes of the nulliverse, creating an intimate connection between the terrestrial observer and galactic infinity.
IMMERSIVE ROOM
Virtual Nature Study by Zheng Hai Yu, ZorkArt – An eco-aesthetic experiment that challenges anthropocentric views, focusing on speculative models of natural evolution not dominated by humans. It emphasizes symbiotic and interdependent relationships between biological forms, technology, and the environment. Using digital transformation, the project creates intersections between the human and natural realms with the aim of evoking deep emotional resonance with nature. It encourages harmonious coexistence between human activities and natural ecosystems, imagining a sustainable and symbiotic future that transcends species boundaries. The work proposes a new relationship with nature based on mutual respect rather than domination.
Symphony by Yang Qi Rui – A digital video installation that explores collaborative relationships and dynamic balance, inspired by the polyphonic structures of music. Within the spatial environment, the viewer is immersed in a silent symphony composed of shapes, lights, shadows, and material textures. Each element functions as a musical note: autonomous but resonating within a larger architectural rhythm. Rather than presenting harmony as a final state, Symphony imagines an ever-evolving order of coexistence, where movement and transformation are an essential part of balance. The work creates a visual language that translates musical principles into an immersive spatial experience.
Luminous Icons: Echoes in the Sacred Grottoes by Yu Zhen + Team – An immersive experience that uses digital art and mixed reality technology to protect and pass on cultural heritage. AI digital simulation technology uses hyper-realistic artistic content to show historical scenes from ancient temples and relics such as the Dunhuang Mogao and Yungang caves. The ancient myth of “seeking caves and creating statues,” due to its complex connotations, can no longer be experienced by ordinary people in its original form. Under the guidance of a small virtual monk, viewers can travel through ancient and modern time and space, experiencing a cultural bridge that connects the past and present through technological innovation.
Landscape: Verdant Southland by Gao Shiqiang + Team – The work transforms Zhuangzi’s philosophy, in particular the concept of “Qiwu” (the equality of things: “Nature and I were born together; all things and I are one”), into aesthetic language, creating a poetic visual experience across multiple screens. The philosophy of “Qiwu” explores the possibility of existing without ego, seeking harmony between the inner and outer worlds. The “landscape” becomes a tangible and symbolic element, representing the essence of the great ‘Self’: a channel that unites the human and the sacred, where mind and material world merge. The work harmonizes distant elements: mountain forests with urban spaces, vegetation with human life, creating unity in diversity.
Unbounded: Future Garden by Wang Feng – The rapid development of society has brought enormous benefits to humanity, but it has also caused serious damage to the ecological environment, gradually awakening people’s ecological awareness. The central concept of the work is “unlimited,” which means eliminating the dividing line between people and plants, making them a continuous existence. In this “garden of the future,” plants and humans come together in a symbiotic relationship, creating an artistic space that transcends the traditional boundaries between man and nature. The installation proposes an alternative vision of the future where technology facilitates integration rather than separation, suggesting new possibilities for sustainable coexistence.
Return of the South by Luo Bao Quan – The work is inspired by the unique meteorological phenomenon of the “Return of the South Wind” in southern China. During the transition between spring and winter, the southern region experiences sudden changes in temperature, increased humidity, alternating clouds and sunshine, and incessant rain. Based on this climate, the artist uses immersive digital space to allow the body to merge with nature, feeling the humidity of the outside world blossoming in the senses and bodily cognition. The installation transforms meteorological data into a sensory experience, allowing visitors to intimately perceive natural rhythms and atmospheric changes through immersive technology.
Coexistence & World-Creation – Forest Shadows · The Whisper of Trees by DAI Yanliang, H1H Art – A virtual digital art project that blends nature, the essence of Chinese Zen philosophy, and images generated by AIGC, exploring the potential for coexistence between the digital and natural realms. The monumental images of slowly moving trees are ethereal projections generated by the fusion of computational modeling and artificial intelligence, representing the presence of sentient entities. Modern optical forms reveal inner perceptions, amplifying the visual expression of ancient tree structures, perhaps approaching illusion or hallucination. As if emerging from invisible ink, computers and AI translate abstract concepts into elegant and intriguing works that dialogue with the Eastern contemplative tradition.
Clear and Distant View of Streams and Mountains by Chuang Qiao – A cyber-Chinese artistic experiment that explores the “ethereal transcendence” of Southern Song Dynasty landscape painting, skillfully blending the treasures of Italian civilization with the wisdom of traditional Chinese pagodas. Inspired by cyberpunk aesthetics, it creates a surreal world where reality and virtuality intertwine, interpreting the dialogue and lasting friendship between ancient Chinese and Italian civilizations. As viewers move through this realm where reality and illusion overlap, they witness the rebirth and fusion of cultural heritage in the digital world, understanding how technology breathes new life into ancient cultures and how cultural heritage infuses technology with humanistic warmth.
Landscape Theater by Lee Lee Nam – The work spans past and present, shedding new light on classic paintings that have lost their original brilliance over time. Using modern technology, the paintings come to life, going beyond simple movement: they pursue the ideal of Eastern painting, where the original spirit of the work, revitalized by light, is transformed into a modern language that communicates empathy and timeless messages. The artist’s goal is to promote cultural democracy, making art accessible to all, freeing works from the limitations of traditional institutions to let them shine in the digital light. Technology becomes a tool for cultural democratization.
Echoes, Whispers and Memories by Mark Chavez, Ina Conradi + Media Art Nexus – A multimedia installation that explores the stratification of collective memory through sound echoes and digital whispers. The work creates an immersive environment where past and present dialogue through mnemonic fragments that emerge and dissolve in space, inviting visitors to reflect on the ephemeral yet persistent nature of shared memories. Technology becomes a medium for exploring how individual and collective memories intertwine, creating common narratives that define cultural identities.
METAMORPH by MP studio – Inspired by Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis,” the experience presents a dystopian vision of human beings who have awakened beyond the known horizon. The experience explores the increasingly blurred boundary between humanity and technology, leading visitors into a world of uncertainty where human identity is called into question. The immersive installation uses visual and sound elements to recreate the feeling of alienation and transformation described by Kafka, transposing it into the contemporary context of the digital revolution. Visitors physically experience the metamorphosis of human beings in the technological age, a central issue of our time.
The Bloom of Mei Lanfang by Wang Shuai, Xu Xiao Hua – Integration between digital art and Peking Opera performance, reinterpreting Mei Lanfang’s classic opera pieces through a new contemporary visual language. Using digital technology, the stylized movements of Peking Opera have been captured and transformed, condensing them into dynamic digital images that retain the original performative essence. The creation aims to reinterpret the essence of traditional culture through digital media, creating a generational bridge that allows the sophistication of classical opera art to be appreciated.
