North x Anthropocene: Ecological Sensibilities from the Edges is a long-term research-based curatorial project. Originating from Northeast China, it adopts a transnational perspective to examine the entanglements among environmental history, geopolitics, ecological thought, and technology in Northeast Eurasia. The project explores alternative modes of ecological perception, distills the ecological wisdom of cross-species alliances, and seeks to infuse existing political ecology with local experiences and critical perspectives from Northeast Eurasia.

Northeast Eurasia: A Frontier of Diffusion and Mobility

If we describe Northeast China and its surroundings under a long-term historical framework, then the “Northeast Eurasia” may be a more appropriate unit of analysis. Today, the northeastern part of the Eurasian continent and its offshore area are respectively subsumed into the territory of China, Russia, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea and Japan. However, before the formation of the modern state, this vast region, with its ecological diversity and geo-political uniqueness, has already served as a critical traffic corridor between East and Inner Asian countries, as well as a field of overlapping political, economic, religious and cultural forces. Throughout history, numerous conquering dynasties have arisen here. In modern times, this region has also become a battleground for various modern countries to compete for and carry out their works of state-building. From past to present, Northeast Eurasia has been regarded as a frontier. But such a frontier has not only the feature of mobility—which is common for all frontiers—but also the feature of diffusion which is from the center to the periphery. Such a characteristic is particularly evident in the formation of modern industrial systems in East Asia. As a frontier, Northeast Eurasia has constructed a complex historical tension with the modern state, which urges us to rethink various binaries created by the modern system.

Speaker Song Nianshen Song Nianshen is Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, Tsinghua University. His recent research interests include modern Chinese history from the perspectives of regional and global history, frontiers and ethnicity, East Asian history, cities, historical geography, etc. The monographs he has published include Making Borders in Modern East Asia: The Tumen River Demarcation, 1881–1919 (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and Faxian dongya (Discovering East Asia) (Beijing: New Star Press, 2018). His essays and articles have appeared in The American Historical Review, The Journal of Asian Studies, Geopolitics, Open Times, Dushu, Beijing Cultural Review, New Historiography, and others.

Convener & Speaker Mia Yu

Mia Yu is a Beijing-based art historian and curator. She has received numerous awards and fellowships for her art writing and curatorial practice, including China China Contemporary Art Award (CCAA) Art Critic Award, the Yishu Award for Critical Writing, Tate Asia Research Fellowship, and she was nominated for 2020 Art Awards of China (AAC) Curator of the Year Award. She serves on the jury committees of Hyundai Blue Prize, Art 021 x Porsche Art Award and Art Nova. Mia Yu has curated numerous exhibitions including Jimei x Arles International Photo Festival in 2020 and the OCAT Biennale in 2021. She co-wrote the book Uncooperative Contemporaries: Contemporary Art Exhibitions in Shanghai in 2000 which was published by Afterall Exhibition Histories series. She teaches at the International MFA at China Academy of Art.

Respondents Song Yi, Wang Bo

Song Yi is a curator, writer and filmmaker, one of the operators of the independent art space "Institute for Provocation (IFP)”, organizer of ”the Migrant Workers Video Collective“, organizer of ”Bloom" art & architecture collective curatorial group.

Wang Bo is an artist, filmmaker and researcher based in the Netherlands. As an artist, his works have been exhibited internationally, including venues like Guggenheim Museum and Museum of Modern Art in New York, Garage Museum in Moscow, Rotterdam Film Festival in the Netherlands, Visions du Réel in Switzerland, Image Forum Festival in Tokyo, Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art in Yekaterinburg, DMZ Docs in South Korea, Times Museum in Guangzhou, BOZAR in Brussels, among many others. He received a fellowship from the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar in 2013, and was an artist-in-residency at ACC-Rijksakademie 2017-2018 as well as NTU CCA in 2016.