Cosmotechnics: Ding Yi as a Planetary Code

中文

Cosmotechnics: Ding Yi as a Planetary Code
Solo Exhibition Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy

Date: 05.09, 2026 - 11.22, 2026

Artists: DING Yi 丁乙

Cosmotechnics: Ding Yi as a Planetary Code

9 May – 22 November 2026
Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice, Italy

Press Preview Days: 4 May, 10am – 4pm; 5 May, 10am – 6pm

To coincide with the opening of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, one of China’s most prominent abstractionists, the Shanghai-based artist Ding Yi, presents a major presentation at Fondazione Querini Stampalia. Curated by Alfredo Cramerotti and Auronda Scalera, the exhibition brings together new and historic works that trace the evolution of Ding Yi’s language, alongside a series of stone steles that anchor the exhibition as a place of reflection and ritual, recalling ancient sites across China and Europe. Titled Cosmotechnics – a concept borrowed from philosopher Yuk Hui – the presentation transforms the Area Scarpa into a contemplative forest of images, the works operating like a planetary code with their placement creating a meandering path reminiscent of traditional Chinese gardens.

As an intentional departure from the ideological excess of post-Cultural Revolution painting, in 1988 Ding Yi began his Appearance of Crosses series. At a time when Chinese contemporary art was dominated by neo-expressionism and political pop, Ding Yi turned to the grid – not as a neutral device of Western modernism, but as a framework for meaning that was open, relational and generative. Over the decades, his system evolved, expanding into chromatic explorations, fluorescent canvases capturing Shanghai’s urban glow, and eventually sculptural reliefs that introduced shadow and tactility, culminating in projects where viewers could literally walk through the grid.

For Cosmotechnics, Ding Yi brings this inquiry to its most distilled form: twelve black-and-white paintings arranged as a constellation. These panels function as both paintings and contemporary steles, forming a meditative environment that invites the visitor to move slowly and encounter each work from multiple perspectives. The focus on a black-and-white palette marks an important pivot in Ding Yi’s practice: after more than a decade devoted to fluorescent colour, he embraced monochrome as a departure from the saturation of social noise and toward broader questions of time, space and perception. Alongside this, Cosmotechnics also features seven historic works spanning the 1980s to the 2020s, which – seen together – trace Ding Yi’s journey from the disciplined austerity of the late 1980s to a fully expanded cosmotechnical practice, where painting, sculpture, and architecture interpenetrate.

Accompanying these panels are two stone steles, either incised or rendered in relief, carved with Ding Yi’s signature ‘Appearance of Crosses’ motif. These commemorative forms, at once minimal and monumental, situate the paintings within a deeper temporal register, recalling China’s renowned Stele Forest (Beilin) and ancient sites such as Stonehenge, inviting reflection on memory, continuity, and cosmic orientation. These panels also prompt viewers to experience time as simultaneity, as an encounter with history and futurity at once: from classical Chinese ink traditions and memories of industrial Shanghai, to anticipations of the role of technology in our future.

Alfredo Cramerotti and Auronda Scalera, curators, say: “Ding Yi’s Cosmotechnics finds an exact counterpart in Carlo Scarpa’s Area at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia: a modernist instrument of equilibrium designed to live with Venice’s instability rather than deny it. Scarpa measures water, threshold, and passage with the same rigor that Ding Yi applies to the pictorial field. The new monochrome series here is a structural decision, like a register that clears perceptual noise and makes interval and proportion legible. In dialogue with Scarpa, Ding Yi traces a logic of construction in which painting, sculpture, and architecture converge and form a grammar of thresholds, attuned to a city where balance is always negotiated.”

Cristiana Collu, Director of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, says: "When Carlo Scarpa said he wanted to ‘cut out the blue of the sky,’ he meant that he wanted to render the visual field immediately perceptible, transforming a cosmic element into a bodily encounter through an architectural process; he was speaking poetically, for sure, but also very practically. Ding Yi’s works follow the same principle. Whether stars or cosmic elements are discernible in darkness or concealed in broad daylight, their presence remains constant: only outstanding technique, art and intuition make them always visible. In my reading, they share an architectural syntax, a sort of configuration of points that sustains a latent order, one not readily decipherable, yet perceivable somewhere between wonder and mystery.

Ding Yi says: “I am honoured to present a series of new works to audiences in Italy and across Europe at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia during the Venice Biennale. The new black-and-white paintings and stone steles reveal the macrocosmic void within the universe of Appearance of Crosses. Twelve basswood paintings of identical dimensions are arranged as a constellation, transforming the exhibition space into a solemn void that invites viewers to contemplate as they wander through the presentation. In juxtaposition, two stone steles bearing relief incisions establish a material and formal dialogue with the engraved marks and brushstrokes of the wooden panels, foregrounding the interplay between painting and sculpture. Solid, still, and silent, these images of steles are not relics; rather, grounded in a practice firmly situated in the present, they respond to the visual structures and temporal measures of the history of civilisation.”

Published by Skira, the volume accompanying Ding Yi: Cosmotechnics is conceived as a critical object in its own right: a book that mirrors the exhibition’s logic of constellation and measured encounter. Bringing together newly commissioned texts, a sustained curatorial dialogue, and a substantial visual corpus – including full installation views within Carlo Scarpa’s Area at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia and a documented selection of works from the 1980s to the 2020s – the publication clarifies how Ding Yi’s monochrome turn reframes his practice through structure, interval, and spatial reciprocity. With rigorous captions, artist chronology, and production notes, it offers both a readable entry point and an enduring scholarly reference, articulating the alignment between Ding Yi’s mark-making and Scarpa’s precision – two practices that transform constraint into equilibrium.

Cosmotechnics: Ding Yi as a Planetary Code is presented by the Fondazione Querini Stampalia with the support of Lisson Gallery and ShanghART Gallery.

About the artist

A leading figure in Chinese contemporary art, Ding Yi works across painting, sculpture, installation, and architecture. Since the late 1980s, his signature motif – the cross “+” and its variant “x” – has served as a symbol of structure, rationality, and a visual language exploring the essence of being.

Trained in both art and design, Ding Yi began experimenting with abstraction in 1982. During his student years, he developed a strong conviction about how to paint and what kind of artist he would become. Rejecting the Expressionism and Surrealism then prevalent in China, he chose a rational path “free from ideology.” Profoundly influenced by Western artists such as Piet Mondrian and Frank Stella during the 1985 “New Wave” art movement, Ding Yi launched his iconic Appearance of Crosses series in 1988, with a vision to create “an ultimate impression of abstraction”. At the time, he “designed” paintings that resembled plans for fabrics or blankets, using rulers and tape to eliminate traces of hand gestures – rigorously precise compositions formed through the repetition of the cross.Ding Yi’s methodical structures are animated by vibrant, reflexively chosen colours, introducing an element of chance and tension into the work. Through colour and form, his paintings reflect on China’s rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, with visual motifs echoing QR codes and the sensory intensity of an information-driven society. Since 2010, Ding Yi has adopted a more expansive perspective in his examination of the world, integrating reflections on the broader human condition. His more recent works reveal greater luminosity and intensity, carrying a deeper emotional resonance.

Ding Yi’s works have been collected by renowned art institutions including the British Museum in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the M+ Museum in Hong Kong. Ding Yi has participated in international major exhibitions including the 45th Venice Biennale, the 1st Asia-Pacific Triennial, and the 1st Yokohama Triennial. Recently, he has held solo exhibitions at multiple art institutions, including Contemporary Gallery Kunming and Anthropology Museum of Yunnan University (Kunming, 2025); Mostyn Contemporary Art Center (Llandudno, Wales, 2025); Château La Coste (Aix-en-Provence, 2024); Ningbo Museum of Art and Huamao Museum of Art Education (Ningbo, 2023); Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning (Shenzhen, 2023); Jebum-gang Art Center and Shide Space (Lhasa, 2022).
About the curators

Alfredo Cramerotti and Auronda Scalera are internationally recognized curators and cultural leaders whose practice bridges contemporary art, technology, and global networks. They form a curatorial duo active across Europe, America, the Middle East, and Asia, spearheading major exhibitions, biennials, and cultural programs that aim to redefine how audiences engage with art and digital culture, and creative learning.

Alfredo is Director of mm:museum [media majlis museum] at Northwestern University Qatar and President of IKT – International Association Curators of Contemporary Art (600+ members worldwide). Beyond his institutional role, he has directed over 150 international exhibitions and curated projects for major biennials (Venice Art Biennale 2013-2022, Manifesta 8 2010, Sequences VII Reykjavik 2015). His recent projects include Noor Riyadh (International Lead Curator), Art Dubai Digital, and Leviathan (57th Venice Biennale, worldwide tour). He is the author of five books, among which Aesthetic Journalism (2009) and the forthcoming Hyper-imaging in Art, Media and Visual Communication (2026). He is Chair of Digital Strategies Committee at AICA – International Association Art Critics and Advisor for the British Council, the UK Government Art Collection, Italian Ministry of Culture, and the KSA Visual Art Commission.

Auronda is an artistic director, curator, board member, and lecturer. With two decades of experience in contemporary art, Auronda has a profound understanding of the global art market and creates exhibitions and programs that blend art and cutting-edge technologies. She has curated or contributed to international exhibitions as Alula Design Award 2025, Noor Riyadh Festival, Art Dubai Digital, Lumen Prize x Sotheby’s, the IKT Congress 2025 in Qatar and the UAE, Web to Verse at Manchester Metropolitan University UK. A lecturer at Kingston University London and IESA Paris, she regularly speaks at cultural summits (WEF Davos AI House, House of Beautiful Business, Misk Creative Forum) and contributed as expert witness on art and culture to the UK Parliament’ s House of Lords on art and new technologies. Her curatorial research focuses on public art, digital art and inclusivity in cultural institutions. She is part of the AI & Art Group at The Alan Turing Institute in London, and the AI & Education Group at The Oxford University. She is a columnist for Observer NY and Wired.

About Fondazione Querini Stampalia

The Querini Stampalia is one of Italy’s oldest and most prestigious cultural foundations. Founded in 1869, for over 150 years it has upheld the vision of its founder, Count Giovanni, an audacious and visionary pioneer who conceived it as a place for research and learning, encounter and exchange, personal growth and dissemination of knowledge. Located in the heart of Venice, the Fondazione serves as a dynamic intersection where past and present converge: from its precious art collections and extensive library to the spaces reimagined by masters of contemporary architecture, including Carlo Scarpa, Valeriano Pastor, Mario Botta, and Michele De Lucchi. A courageous, welcoming, and intellectually vibrant institution, the Querini Stampalia consistently amplifies its exceptional heritage, cultivating public trust and ensuring each visit is a memorable experience. Its history originates from a radical and profoundly innovative choice. Giovanni Querini, the last descendant of a noble Venetian family, decided to dedicate his residence, his library, and his entire estate to the community, establishing an open and inclusive institution. His story begins with a radical and deeply innovative choice. Giovanni Querini, the last heir of a noble Venetian family, chose to make his home, library, and entire estate available to the community, giving rise to an open and inclusive institution. A forward-looking vision rooted in the conviction that art, culture, and knowledge are shared assets accessible to all through education, dialogue, and participation. Today, the Querini Stampalia Fondazione revitalizes this founding mission by actively engaging with the present in an international sphere, positioning itself as a space for cultural experimentation, conversation, and research. It interprets its heritage not as a static legacy, but as a dynamic platform for contemporary thought. Director Cristiana Collu envisions the Querini Stampalia as a place that inspires wonder—a true ‘Wonder Booster’— while also offering a space in which we learn to imagine the future responsibly.