Rirkrit Tiravanija
November 8, 2025 - March 31, 2026 | Power Station of Art, Shanghai
Rirkrit Tiravanija, untitled 1992 (cure), installation view, Exit Art, New York, USA (1992)
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. In 2012, the Power Station of Art became the main organizer and permanent exhibition location of the Shanghai Biennale.
The Biennale takes its cue from recent scientific discoveries about the interactions between different life forms. Like the flower that “hears” the bee’s wings, this exhibition aims to operate at the intersection of differing models of intelligence, both human and nonhuman. It is based on the belief that recent art provides us with a privileged space for such investigations, offering an embodied and interconnected sphere in which communities may form stronger bonds with what eco-philosopher David Abram has called “the more-than-human world.”
We live in a moment of great uncertainty and global emergency that has given rise to a widespread sense of disorientation. Our world is transforming at a pace that eludes our capacity for comprehension, leaving us feeling bewildered and uncertain. If a return to the past is impossible, art offers us potential pathways out of despair and malaise, helping us to find emergent forms-of-life and new modes of sensorial communication amid this instability.
Conceived in dialogue with the ideas of artists, curators, intellectuals, musicians, poets, scientists, and writers, Does the flower hear the bee? recognizes that much depends on our capacity to sense the world around us and attune ourselves to its diverse array of intelligences. Its hopeful vision rests on art’s ability to orient us towards an unknown future.
For the 15th Shanghai Biennale, titled Does the flower hear the bee?, Rirkrit Tiravanija brings together new and historical works that continue his long-standing engagement with social space, language, and shared experience. The presentation combines two new large-scale text banners—THE FORM OF THE FLOWER IS UNKNOWN TO THE SEED and MY BODY IS FILLED WITH WAITING. Alongside them, untitled 1992 (cure)—the now-iconic orange tea tent—and untitled 1994 (angst essen seele auf), a functioning Fassbinder Bar and T-shirt printing workshop featuring the phrase FEAR EATS THE SOUL, extend the artist’s exploration of hospitality and encounter.