Beyond the Endgame : Curated by Martina Köppel-Yang: featuring Yang Jiechang, Wang Du, Ru Xiaofan, Du Zhenjun, Chen Zhen, Celine Shen, An Xiaotong, and Armando Milano/Felicitas Yang
Staged in the heart of Silicon Valley, Beyond the Endgame brings together nine Paris-based artists of Chinese descent spanning three generations. In a region dominated by technological acceleration, artificial intelligence, and automated futures, this exhibition presents an optimistic refusal of predetermined outcomes. Rather than treating ecological, social, or technological disruptions as inevitable endpoints, the featured artists create through crisis—offering systemic, harmonious, and human-centered alternatives to contemporary existential dread.
Curated by art historian Martina Köppel-Yang, the exhibition organizes cross-generational perspectives around three core themes: Optimistic Collapse, Post-Humanism & AI, and Rebirth from Hybridity.
Navigating Systems & AI: Du Zhenjun engages in a visual feedback loop with artificial intelligence, translating algorithmic responses back into expressive oil paintings. An Xiaotong uses Lego bricks and video game aesthetics (Superheroes, 2022) to test human agency within closed structures, while Wang Du intentionally integrates digital glitches from 3D printing into sculpture (Hand — One Finger Zen, 2025) to reaffirm human presence in machine processes.
Reframing History & Memory: Conceptual pioneer Chen Zhen proposes collective resonance as a cure for social fragmentation in his interactive sound installation Juechang – Fifty Strokes to Each (1998). Similarly, Yang Jiechang suspends historical inevitability by juxtaposing early Adolf Hitler watercolors with Northern Song Dynasty techniques, interrogating moments before fate was sealed.
Hybridity & Digital Continuums: Ru Xiaofan remixes Old Master compositions with surreal botanical forms that reflect on cultural memory, while younger voices Celine Shen and duo Felicitas Yang & Armando Milano utilize video, experimental film, and non-linear storytelling to explore material transformation and cyclical renewal.
The presentation establishes a vital bridge between historical transition and the digital frontier. Senior figures who left China in the 1950s–60s amid profound political shifts (Chen Zhen, Du Zhenjun, Ru Xiaofan, Wang Du, Yang Jiechang) dialogue directly with mid-career artists shaped by early digitalization (An Xiaotong) and a new generation confronting ecological and technological instability (Celine Shen, Felicitas Yang, Armando Milano). Together, their works demonstrate that identity and creative resilience are constantly constructed through confluence.
Dr. Martina Köppel-Yang is an independent art historian and curator based in Paris and Heidelberg. A leading authority on contemporary Chinese art since the 1980s, she authored the seminal text Semiotic Warfare (2003) and has curated international exhibitions at the Rockbund Art Museum (Shanghai), Musée Guimet (Paris), and SAMOCA (Riyadh), alongside pioneering virtual museum projects in the metaverse.
An opening reception for Beyond the Endgame will be held on September 26, 2026, from 4:00–6:00 pm. The exhibition will remain on view through November 14, 2026.
