On view November 8, 2025 - March 31, 2026
15th Shanghai Biennale: Does the Flower Hear the Bee?
This edition of the Biennale will feature over 250 works by 67 individual artists and collectives from China and around the world, taking 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.
This edition of the Biennale will feature over 250 works by 67 individual artists and collectives from China and around the world, taking 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.”
