Exhibition View of Trekking: Embodied Tracing

As the fourth session of the "Expand + Curate: Young Experiment Project Space" and the first exhibition supported by the CAFA Young Teachers Seed Program, "Trekking: Embodied Tracing" features the latest work by artist Zhang Wenchao. Curated by Wu Xiaohan, the exhibition brings the "climbing" and "trekking" scenes in video games to the Gallery 3C of the CAFA Art Museum, providing a "walking guide" for the audience that spans between the real and virtual worlds.

Exhibition View of Trekking: Embodied Tracing

Jiankou: A Bodily Guide, 2025

Zhang Wenchao + Wu Xiaohan

Spatial installation, body data, geographical trajectories, mixed media Dimensions Variable

The exhibition centers on "trekking", showcasing two recent series by Zhang Wenchao, "Jiankou: A Bodily Guide" and "Levee City-X". The former uses laser-engraved painting as a base, covered with climbing human figures drawn on translucent tracing paper—a material "recreation" reminiscent of Photoshop layers. These are combined with Zhang's hand-drawn records of his vivid experiences in climbing the Jiankou section of the Great Wall, as well as extensive bodily movement tracking data recorded by sports watches and hiking apps. By stitching and organizing these images, videos, and data sequences from different media, Zhang links them on the wall to create a "physical guide" to climb the Great Wall at Jiankou for the audience, conveying both symbolic and instructive significance.

Levee City-X, 2025

Zhang Wenchao

Embodied trajectories, dataset, five-channel synchronized video

4K/30fps, 10:08 min

"Levee City-X" also takes bodily movements as its starting point and the core of creation. Zhang Wenchao completed a survey over around 20 days in two separate trips, walking and inspecting various points of flood control engineering from Nanjin Pass in Yichang to Hukou in Jiujiang along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Five segments of "parodied" outdoor video podcasts are showcased at the exhibition, with a video shot and edited in a first-person perspective from the video game of "trekking" on display simultaneously, presenting a multi-dimensional narrative that transcends time and space along the same route.

The Dataset Segments of Levee City-X

"Whether it's recording movement trajectories with smart devices or using spacecraft to drive changes in an observational perspective, fundamentally it is about human experience and insight into motion, or the thought chains triggered by the process of movement, which leads to content generation (or navigation) and creation. In previous works, this has mostly manifested as interactive programs or technological art installations, with the core element of 'human action' always hidden in the background." In "Jiankou: A Bodily Guide" and "Levee City-X", when technology retreats slightly to the background and bodily action comes to the forefront, this supplements a component that has always been subtly present yet extremely important in the artist's creation. Perhaps this "transformation" is not only a matter of waiting for an opportunity but it also carries a certain inevitability. Therefore, the exhibition is of particular significance for the artist, "Although it is a small exhibition, it is a new beginning."

Jiankou: A Bodily Guide (detail)

At the present time, we generally stay away from real geographical environments, and our understanding of the world comes more from video guides and other "internet-based experiences." As the artist and the curator have said, "Even when we use technology in our work, our focus remains on exploring the relationship between humans and the real environment, the real world, and real nature. By emphasizing the material nature of the work, we intend to stimulate a series of imaginative actions in visitors' minds about the interaction between their bodies and real space." In an era overloaded with information and everyday AI use, this allows us to reactivate the connection between our bodies and reality through genuine interactions with the world, leading to a renewed understanding.

The Creative Process of Jiankou: A Bodily Guide (detail)Jiankou: A Bodily Guide (detail)

According to Wu Xiaohan, the curator of this exhibition and also another creator of "Jiankou: A Bodily Guide", the actions presented in the work are not a reproduction of hiking experiences, but rather a reinterpretation of the relationship between space and the body by means of body. In actions such as climbing, gripping, and leaping, space reveals its potential possibilities through the manifestation of movements. Furthermore, as Maurice Merleau-Ponty pointed out, action was an extension of perception. "Jiankou: A Bodily Guide" also demonstrates how space is actively generated by the body. By recording interactions between the body and the environment through data and trajectories, we can see how space continually reorganizes itself through movements, gaining forms and narratives through actions. " 'Jiankou: A Bodily Guide' does not convey a mapped venue, but a 'space in progress' that is continually produced and continually changing through actions.

Workshots of Levee City-X

All hydraulic events are the result of the overall climate of the watershed, the interaction between rivers and lakes, human factors, and dynamic ways of moving, which jointly constitute the "X Factor" in "Levee City-X". The experiences gained during Zhang's exploration are constantly generated in dynamic fieldwork, and are then contrasted with the "strategy guides" before departure and imaginations of geography and history, creating new experiences once again. These experiences contribute to the depth and richness of "Levee City-X".

Screenshots of Levee City-X

Zhang Wenchao regards the "river embankments" he has traced as an "interface of struggle" between human and natural forces, and they are also taken as a "narrative interface". Thanks to advancements in contemporary navigation technology and smart devices, "we can treat ourselves like game characters exploring an open world." By opening online maps and drawing a route, all devices can follow your movement. With the support of new technology, we gain a new perspective on the real world while also becoming intertwined with history. In the five video segments of the work, viewers can follow the artist's main perspective, wandering through a multidimensional narrative that spans time and space, woven together by bodily experience, natural geography and climate, the sediment of human history, and ongoing construction.

Screenshots of Levee City-X

For Zhang Wenchao, this resonance reminiscent of the ancients' nostalgia in China holds long-term significance in the post-digital era. "It's like sharing experiences with fellow travelers on the internet, forming resonance through a climbing challenge. Walking in the real world allows the inner self to overlap with the surrounding environment, and the key is ultimately to return to the real world to construct experiences, which is crucial." He tries to redirect his vision back to the real world, by using intelligent tools and devices along with the collective experiences accumulated on the internet, to "trek" in the real world, in a new way, rediscovering human coordinates in the world.

About the Exhibition

Dates: November 15-December 28, 2025

Venue: Gallery 3C, CAFA Art Museum

Text (CN) by Mengxi, edited (EN) by CAFA ART INFO.