UCCA has organized a series of public programs to accompany the exhibition, offering audiences new perspectives and a deepened understanding of Yang Fudong’s artistic practice. On the opening day, UCCA Director Philip Tinari and Curator Chelsea Qianxi Liu will lead a walkthrough of the exhibition, sharing insights into the curatorial approach and the ideas underlying the works. This will be followed by a conversation between the artist, Philip Tinari, Chelsea Qianxi Liu, and Ute Meta Bauer, Professor at the School of Art, Design, and Media, NTU, beginning with “Fragrant River” then delving into Yang’s creative process and distinctive cinematic language.

 An analog filmmaking workshop led by Yang’s frequent collaborator, cinematographer Hu Chen, will invite participants to experiment hands-on with shooting and film manipulation exercises, discovering the tactile textures and unique materialities of the medium. In A Drift Between Image and Music, musician Jin Wang—Yang’s long-term collaborator—will guide participants in an improvisational workshop that interweaves sound and moving image to create an immersive, sensory experience. 

During the exhibition period, UCCA will also present a series of academic conversations on “Fragrant River,” taking Yang Fudong’s artistic practice as a point of departure to explore themes such as poetics and nostalgia, time and memory, and the local and the global. The series will examine the aesthetic and conceptual significance of Yang’s work within the context of contemporary art. The Cinema Arts program “Where Images Take Place,” featuring three sessions of screenings and dialogues, will continue the exhibition’s critical reflections on modernization and urban construction, investigating how generational memory is transmitted and reconfigured across historical time while deepening the inquiry into the perception of moving images. For the latest updates and event details, please visit UCCA’s official website and WeChat account.

Program Overview

Guided Tour with the Curator

Speakers: Philip Tinari (UCCA Director), Chelsea Qianxi Liu (UCCA Curator)

2025.11.22 (Sat)

UCCA Exhibition Hall

Opening Conversation | Yang Fudong: Fragrant River

Speakers: Yang Fudong (Artist), Ute Meta Bauer (Professor, School of Art, Design, and Media NTU), Philip Tinari (UCCA Director), Chelsea Qianxi Liu (UCCA Curator)

2025.11.22 (Sat)

UCCA Auditorium

Analog Filmmaking Workshop | From Grain to Vision

Speaker: Hu Chen (Cinematographer)

2025.11.29 (Sat)

UCCA Auditorium

Workshop | A Drift Between Image and Music

Speakers: Jin Wang (Musician & Composer), A Li (Music Host)

2025.12.07 (Sat)

UCCA Auditorium

Special Guided Tour: Polyphony of Images

Speaker: Lucien Lu (Shuimu Scholar, Assistant Research Fellow, Department of Philosophy, Tsinghua University)

2026.01.18 (Sun)

UCCA Exhibition Hall

Behind the Scenes: Space, Viewing, and Movement

Speaker: Anna Yang (UCCA Senior Exhibition Designer)

2026.01.31 (Sat)

UCCA Exhibition Hall

An Other Cinema: Literati Aesthetics and Spatial Narrative in Yang Fudong's Oeuvres

Speakers: Erika Balsom (Reader in Film and Media Studies, King's College London), Chunyan Fu (PhD Candidate in Film and Screen Studies, University of Cambridge)

2026.03.14 (Sat)

UCCA Auditorium

Revisiting 2000: International Curators' Visit to China

Speakers: Zheng Shengtian (Artist, Scholar, Curator), Chelsea Qianxi Liu (UCCA Chief Curator)

2026.03.31 (Tue)

UCCA Auditorium

Guided Tour: Variations on Literati Cinema

Speaker: Yang Ge (Curator of Public Works Department & Assistant Research Fellow, China Film Archive)

2026.05.10 (Sat)

UCCA Exhibition Hall

Cinema Arts: Where Images Take Place

Speakers: Lo Lai Lai Natalie (Artist), Tang Chao (Artist), Yu Guo (Artist), River Yuhao Cao (Artist & Filmmaker), Xiao Zhang (Artist), Dorothy Cheung (Artist & Filmmaker)

2026.05.24 (Sun)

UCCA Auditorium