Yujia Bian (b. 1993 Yunnan, CN) is an artist and writer, currently based in Berlin. Her work explores a feedback loop between what’s made physically and digitally, and how they are each brought into the world of the other, often through installations and videos. These processes generate symbolic meanings that are understood metaphorically, before being further differentiated. Her recent practice explores how personal experiences are mediated through everyday objects — like a dice, a piece of moss, or a marble bead. These objects hold symbolic meanings, intertwining personal memories and engendering imaginations. Her creative process acts more like a mediator and a facilitator. Writing is also integral to her practice. Her texts, often in the form of autofictions, evoke humour and bittersweet emotions, sometimes veering into the absurd.
EDUCATION
2023-
Class of Michael Stevenson
Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nürnberg
Fine Art, Nürnberg, Germany
2016-2018
M.S. in Critical, Curatorial & Conceptual Practices
Columbia University GSAPP/ Division of Architecture
New York, US
2010-2015
B.E. in Landscape Architecture
Beijing Forestry University
SELECTED GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
2019 - 2020
Participatory Fellowship, MAHASSA/ Modern Art Histories in and Across Africa, South and Southeast Asia program
Funded by Getty Foundation’s Connecting Art Histories Initiative, ICM/ Institute of Comparative Modernities (ICM) at Cornell University
2018 - 2019
Archival Fellowship, Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York
2018
Seed Grant, Design Trust Hong Kong
2017
The Temple Hoyne Buell Center Fellowship, The Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, USA
SOLO/DUO SHOWS
2019
(Duo show with Ruishi Ge) Taming Weathers, TM Studio Art Space, Shanghai.
2018
(Solo show) Re/Collecting, Schermerhorn Extension, Columbia University
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2025
Hidden Realities, Spreepark Art Space, Berlin
2024
Echolocation, Jahresausstellung, Akademie der Bildenden Künste Nürnberg
2023
Not a Penguin Pool: Echoes of More-than-Human Entanglements. Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, Dessau, DE
A Sample of Life in Shanghai 公寓问题. 555 Found / 三明治 & 建安公寓, Shanghai
2022
Landscapes of Material and Mind, New York Hall of Science (NYSCI)
2019
Oslo Architecture Triennale, Oslo, Norway
The Oculus Art Show, Asia Cultural Center & The Blanc Gallery, New York
SYMPOIESIS, School of Visual Arts, New York
RESIDENCIES
2024-2025
Trust Quest, Trust, Berlin, DE
2024
Spreepark Art Space Residency, Spreepark Art Space, Berlin, DE
202
Bauhaus Lab 2023: Concrete Antarctica, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, Dessau, DE
2019
Bio Art Summer Residency, School of Visual Arts, New York, US
Princeton-Weimar Summer School for Media Studies , IKKM/ The Internationales Kolleg für Kulturtechnikforschung und Medienphilosophie, Weimar, DE
2018
Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art, Spike Art Magazine, Berlin, DE
SELECTED TALKS, PANELS, GUESTS, SCREENINGS
2024
Screening “I Cry and I Cry” 60s Seconds Festival, Copenhagen
Participant at The Climate Congress, Lahore Biennale 03, Lahore
“Quest Play Hivemind”. Participant at Trust Berlin, Berlin
2022
Respondent for “Planetary Interiors Turning Off and On: Ecological Design, Valving Media, and an Archeology of Flow Diagrams” at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Shanghai
Guest critic for “Patchy Climate”, Longlati Foundation, Shanghai
Guest panelist for artist Hanwei Li’s exhibition “New Communication” at K11 Art Museum, Shanghai
2021
Reading session “Read Plants”, UrbanCross Gallery, Shanghai & Jiazazhi (Ningbo)
Reading session “Alles, was wir wissen”, UrbanCross Gallery, Shanghai
Guest critic for Pills Architects’ reading session PILLS Digest Vol.01, Pills Architects, Beijing
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Regular contributor for Artforum (CN&EN) since January 2019. Regular content writer for 44KW (CN), L0Fi (CN), BIE bié Records 别的 since 2021. Other translations and interviews for - Almine Rech Gallery, Antenna Space, Edward Ressle Gallery, Diving Art Space 跳水空间, etc.
2024
“Stepping into the Unforseeable Future Past” in Not A Penguin Pool: Echoes of More-Than-Human Entanglements, Spector Books (upcoming)
2022
Artforum Magazine, February 2022. (translation) “Li Ming | Antenna Space” art review translation from Chinese, written by Du Keke.
2021
Artforum Magazine, December 2021. (translation) “Liquid Ground | Para Site” art review translation from Chinese, written by Chris Wan.
2020
Spike Art Magazine, #65 Autumn. “One Work | Zheng Guogu's Liao Garden".
The Paper (CN). “Taming Weathers: A Modern History of Hong Kong and Typhoons” (图遡｜驾驭天气：香港和台风的现代史)
OCAT Museum Shanghai, OCAT AMPLIFIER: Media Art Issue. Translation for Julian Ross’ text “Situating Intermedia and Expanded Cinema in 1960s Japan”.
2019
The Oxford Climate Journal, Issue 4, Anthroposphere. “And the Water is Coming”.
The Museum Review, Volume 4, Number 1. “Museum politics of the Huni Kuin: the Aru Kuxipa exhibition at TBA21 in Vienna”.