A4 Art MuseumExhibitions
Artist Case Study

Cao Minghao & Chen Jianjun Solo Exhibition：Currents of Kinship

2025.11.29–2026.03.08
  • Artist
    Cao Minghao & Chen Jianjun
  • Artistic Director
    Sunny Sun
  • Academic Consultant
    Hai Ren
  • Curator
    Yang Yuting
  • Organizer
    A4 Art Museum
  • Venue
    3F Exhibition Hall, A4 Art Museum (Mountain-top Plaza, Luxetown)

Exhibition information

The year 2025 marks the tenth anniversary of the artistic practice project Water System Project by artist duo Cao Minghao & Chen Jianjun. For years, they have focused on a specific river stretching from Chengdu to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, observing the fishermen, farmers, Qiang ethnic groups, and pastoralist communities living along its banks, as well as the stories, practices, and cosmology surrounding this river system. They trace these elements across diverse geographies, topographies, and histories to develop a non-separatist mindset and reflect upon the world-making. So far, their work has reached the source region (Sanjiangyuan), where the insights they gained during the journey upstream have initiated a new phase in their water system research. This exhibition will feature the artists’ latest creations from their practice at Sanjiangyuan alongside a selection of previous works.

“Only upon reaching the source did we understand how the intangible and invisible water deity ‘Lu’ renders all local water sources and systems visible. Thus, against the backdrop of global climate change and environmental degradation, participants within the holistic life-techniques of Indigenous knowledge include both humans and non-humans.” (Excerpt from Cao Minghao & Chen Jianjun’s research notes)

  • Introduction

    Currents of Kinship

    Ren Hai
     

    Water is a fundamental element of the ecosystem. Bodies of water in the headwaters of the Changjiang (Yangtze River) and the Huanghe (Yellow River) exhibit remarkable diversity. These water bodies encompass a wide range of types, including streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, and dams. Additionally, they include floating, amphibious bodies such as wetlands, seasonal lakes, permanent and seasonal springs, and ever changing, weather-related clouds, rains, snows, and glaciers. However, due to global climate change and environmental degradation, the shape and boundary of water bodies undergo constant transformation. This includes the decline of glaciers and the instability of the water network composed of springs, ponds, lakes, and swamps as the wheel of time turns.

    Water serves as a mediator between the enduring interaction between humans and nonhumans. On the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, the artists Cao Minghao and Chen Jianjun consistently confront the realities of shanshui in their work, whether by investigating water-related changes, constructing a palace dedicated to a water deity (“Lu Palace”), or establishing a “school of the water system” to make yak products. Through collaboration with other artists, residents, and scholars, the artists do not merely present observable phenomena; rather, they endeavor to reveal what are behind of these phenomena: fundamental issues that are often invisible or overlooked but reflect cosmological and world views. In co-constructing a “Lu Palace,” for example, the artists and their collaborators work together to safeguard water sources. This work acknowledges and recognizes an inseparable connection between water source protection and place-based cognitions. Furthermore, the artwork demonstrates that building is intertwined with thinking and dwelling by establishing a series of relationships between wisdom and technology, water sources

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