798 Art, Science and Technology Biennale 2025: SYMPTOMATICA | HORIZON

Art is the echo of an approaching future, where today becomes the symptoms of tomorrow. The evolution of art goes beyond a simple stylistic shift, revealing a creative process propelled by dynamic inevitability. It manifests emergent characteristics at the intersection of chance and necessity, where the deep time of art is constantly catalyzed by innovations that expand our perception of concepts, materials, technology, society and even our senses. Through their ceaseless interplay, material and immaterial, intrinsic and extrinsic elements, along with intelligence and extelligence – the external technical memory of culture – have broadened  the horizons of art. The undulating horizon of this worlding world uncovers symptoms that traverse the stratified temporality of art, bringing forth new potentials in non-linear time.

SYMPTOMATICA | HORIZON, presented the theme of the 798 Art, Science and Technology Biennale 2025, captures the changes of this era through the lens of 19  international artists. Their works creatively and innovatively converge art, science, and technology as a symptom of this transition. The exhibition space becomes a site of encounter with phenomena arising from the interplay of matter, machines, artifacts, and life, offering diverse perspectives on our complex yet interconnected world.

Matters emerge as active agents—swelling foam morphs continuously, deformed glass reveals its intrinsic material properties, and pollutants undergo subtle transformations over time. Vital processes awaken sensory perceptions, as trees emit fragrant organic compounds into the air, artificial nature takes shape through biomimicry, and the symbiotic relationship between soil microorganisms and roots resonates as sonificated data. Symptomatic machines are choreographed in varied ways, ranging from the impulsive gestures of pneumatic pumps sculpting space with nonlinear motions to the orderly rhythm of light bulbs, each concealing a camera, swinging on pendulums. Imperceptible phenomena transform into visible forms—geomagnetic storms materialize as dynamic sculptural forms, while a laser beam ripples across waves, evoking the luminous event horizon of a spinning black hole.

All transcend their role as mere artistic objects, becoming subjects that generate meaning rather than passively mediating it. This phenomenon reveals the symptomatic horizon of contemporary art, where the boundaries between the material and the immaterial blur, suggesting new possibilities for the relationship between art, science, and technology.

The exhibition presents the contemporaneity of these fields while exploring the complex processes that form their interconnectedness. It also suggests the expansion of art beyond visual reproduction into a multi-layered, experiential realm. Visitors will encounter a shift in perception, moving from ‘seeing’ to ‘sensing, diagnosing, and experiencing’ artworks. SYMPTOMATICA | HORIZON exists as an experiment that captures the defining symptoms of our time on this expanded horizon of art, where the symptomatic present foreshadows unexplored artistic territories.