Before Myth Becomes Rhetoric

Curator: Wang Huan

Time: 2026.5.23-6.21

Venue: Choi Centre · Cloud House

Address: No.16 Huantie Zhixian Section A, Jiangtai, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China

Artists: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Bo Choy, Cai Zebin, Chen Dandizi, Chen Zhe (Commissioned), Ding Shiwei, Mimosa Echard, Jessie Makinson, Jiang Pengyi, Jiang Zhi, Lea von Wintzingerode, Lee Kai Chung, Shen Jinghao (Commissioned), Shi Yi, Sin Wai Kin, Tan Yingjie, Tseng Chien-Ying, Zeng Hong, Vajiko Chachkhiani, Wang Hua, Wang Jiajia, Wu Chen, Xu Yang, Haegue Yang, Yun Yongye, Zhai Liang (Specially Commissioned), Zhang Ruyi, Zhao Yinou

Contemporary society is saturated with “myths”—or rather, myth has long since dissolved into rhetoric in the course of history. As myth is stripped of grandeur, ritual, and heroism, it shifts almost imperceptibly to the micro level: family structures, emotional labor, urban legends, vernacular experience. No longer written in the name of myth, these forms persist as a way of understanding the world and the movement of history itself.

Myth has always been suspect. In this exhibition, seemingly ordinary moments are placed in the same space as grand mythic narratives. Sacred stories are lowered into everyday instants, while ordinary moments are, in turn, constructed as myth. This internal logic compels us to ask: what constitutes a historical moment of magnitude? For those in the future, what matters is no longer what happened on that day, but that from that day onward it can no longer be regarded as an ordinary one. For those who lived within it, however, it may have been nothing more than a perfectly ordinary day—except that the sunlight was unusually harsh.

About the Soil Collection

the Soil Collection was founded in 2022 by collectors Vince Guo and Aria Yang. Through nomadic curatorial practices and commissions for emerging artists, the Soil Collection establishes a fluid and diverse platform, striving to promote and support the varied practices of young artists through collaborations with different institutions and regions. By fostering exchanges between China and the international community, it aims to build a more diverse and inclusive collection system, providing fertile ground for experimental projects within the art ecosystem.

About Curator

Wang Huan is a writer, art critic, and curator based in Beijing. He is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of 《GENERAL》(manual). In 2018, he received First Prize in the 5th International Awards for Art Criticism (IAAC). In 2019, he won the PSA Emerging Curators Project (Power Station of Art, Shanghai), In 2024, he was supported by the De Ying Curatorial Fellowship. His curatorial projects include Threading Inwards(Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile); Folk in Order (2024, Beijing, MACA Art Center; GUO Fengyi: COSMIC MERIDIANS (2023, Beijing, Long March Space); Sunset on a Dead End: The Notorious and Their Inexplicable Modes of Existence (2019, Shanghai, Power Station of Art), among others. His recent research focuses on the relationship between the folk, the masses, secret societies, and the self-driving force of creativity.