Group Exhibition Arsenale - Magazzino delle Cisterne, Castello 2169/F, 30122 Venezia
Solitary Hill and Plantain Rain: An Intermedia Scroll of Eastern Poetics.
Yang Fudong’s New Work Debuts at China Pavilion, 2026 Venice Biennale
From May 6 to November 22, 2026, the 61st Venice International Art Biennale grandly kicks off. Curated around the overarching theme Minor Tone, this edition centers on introspective spiritual expression and diverse cultural narratives.
Hosted at the China Pavilion within Arsenale - Magazzino delle Cisterne and curated by Yu Xuhong, President of China Academy of Art, the China Pavilion adopts the theme Dream Stream. It features the world premiere of Solitary Hill and Plantain Rain, a monumental new work by renowned contemporary artist Yang Fudong.
Following his 2020 solo exhibition Infinite Peaks—where he paid homage to Song-Yuan monk painter Yan Hui through storyboard-style single-frame paintings—and his 2025 solo show Fragrant River at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, which presented the 15-panel painting installation Whispers of the Pleasure Suburbs, Yang Fudong unveils his latest creation: the 20-panel group work Solitary Hill and Plantain Rain.
The piece continues his years-long exploration of his signature painting-film language. Static imagery unfolds slowly like a traditional Chinese handscroll, inviting audiences to engage with the work while walking. Viewers experience the narrative rhythm of cinematic montage through spatial movement.
The creation originates from two profound cultural origins. The first is Solitary Hill in Hangzhou. A celebrated cultural landmark on West Lake, Solitary Hill has long served as a gathering retreat for literati and a sanctuary for spiritual sustenance since the Song Dynasty. Literary figures such as Bai Juyi and Su Dongpo once composed verses here, while Lin Hejing embodied the ideal of reclusive seclusion through his legendary lifestyle of “plum blossoms as wife and cranes as children”. Solitary Hill carries tangible cultural heritage and symbolizes the individual’s solitary spiritual pursuit.
The second origin lies in the plantain imagery of traditional Chinese painting. With broad, graceful leaves that appear particularly elegant under rainfall, the plantain has long been adopted by ancient literati as a metaphor for the inner self, embodying contemplation, quiet observation, and subtle melancholy. Bamboo, by contrast, symbolizes refinement and noble integrity. By juxtaposing Solitary Hill and Plantain Rain, Yang Fudong constructs a literati spiritual realm hovering between ideal and reality.
In terms of medium, Solitary Hill and Plantain Rain integrates acrylic painting, black-and-white photography, video, and interdisciplinary mixed media. Its acrylic paintings draw inspiration from the Northern Song masterpiece Elegant Gathering in the Western Garden, depicting the gathering of sixteen literati including Su Shi, Mi Fu and Li Gonglin, forming a visual blueprint for the transcendental life ideals of ancient scholars.
The black-and-white photographic segments focus on bamboo groves and plantains, reinterpreting classical pictorial symbols through contemporary photographic language. Moving video footage infuses a temporal dimension with delicate scenes of drifting rain and swaying plantain leaves.
The 20 panels are not merely arranged side by side. As viewers move through the space, they encounter the immersive aesthetic of wandering within a painting. This mode of viewing echoes the traditional experience of unrolling an ancient handscroll; the rhythmic gaps and blank spaces between panels compose an imaginative cinematic montage.
Solitary Hill and Plantain Rain stands in direct lineage with Yang Fudong’s ongoing painting-film practice. It stimulates imagination through blankness and narrative pauses, interweaving multiple thematic threads: literati gatherings, bamboo groves in rain, and the iconic landscape of Solitary Hill.
The work continues his contemporary reinterpretation of the narrative structure of classical handscrolls, while further amplifying temporality and emotional atmosphere within static imagery. It represents a comprehensive crystallization of Yang Fudong’s painting-film language: rooted in traditional Chinese landscape and figure painting, he employs contemporary intermedia techniques to conjure an otherworldly dreamscape for quiet contemplation and poetic wandering.
The China Pavilion exhibition of the 61st Venice International Art Biennale will run until November 22, 2026, with Solitary Hill and Plantain Rain on permanent display at the China Pavilion, Giardini della Biennale, Venice.
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