Jun Zhang and Yindi Chen
In residence: August - September 2026
Working collaboratively across installation and publication, Jun Zhang and Yindi Chen explore intersections between science and mythology, with a particular focus on more-than-human narratives. Rooted in ecofeminism, queer ecology, folk medicine, and critical fabulation, their practice draws from multiple knowledge systems to question the construction of a homogeneous worldview.
Yindi Chen is a curator and writer whose research, informed by queer ecology, examines cultural representations of nature and speculates on entangled relations between more-than-humans. She has curated exhibitions at MACA Art Center (Beijing), Yamanaka Suplex (Osaka), and Subtitled (New York), among others. Her writing has appeared in The Art Newspaper China, ArtReview, Cultbytes, C-print Journal, and Whitehot Magazine. She is co-founder of countercurrent, a publication dedicated to uncovering independent art spaces operating beyond the mainstream.
Jun Zhang describes his artistic practice as Imaginal Ethno-Cosmology, positioned at the intersection of comparative anthropology, speculative ethnography, and cosmological reimagination. Drawing from myths, folklore, and religious traditions across diverse regions, his work amplifies indigenous cosmologies and alternative knowledge systems that have been suppressed or sidelined by colonialism and capitalist modernization.
During their residency at Artica Svalbard, Zhang and Chen will continue their research into the history of whaling and its ties to colonial cartography. Focusing on Smeerenburg, a 17th-century whaling settlement in Svalbard, they will combine archival study with on-site exploration to uncover local oceanic knowledge once marginalised by colonial activities. Through this research, they aim to speculate on symbiotic scenes of Arctic more-than-human worlds, weaving together ecological, historical, and mythological threads.
Websites: Jun Zhang / Yindi Chen
Instagram: Jun Zhang / Yindi Chen
Images: Yindi Chen (left) Photo by: Yulin Gu Jun Zhang (right) Photo by: Louisa Vergozisi