Official Announcement｜The 2025 5th Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art

pubdate: 2025/5/12   author: zjam  source: zjam  click:

The 2025 5th Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art, under the theme “Re-Constellations”, confronts the era of radical global value restructuring. The exhibition begins with humanity’s ancient gaze upon the starry sky, unearthing the metaphorical tradition that envisions the starry sky as woven fabric among different civilizations and revealing the profound connection between textile craftsmanship and cosmological cognition through the lens of “woven meaning”.

The cultural colonization behind the modern standardized constellations has marginalized diverse starry sky narratives. Nowadays, amid shifting geopolitical and cultural landscapes, “Re-Constellations” seeks to dismantle monolithic narrative hegemony, restoring contemporary relevance to each civilization’s imagination about starry sky. Under pluralistic ideological trends, fiber art becomes a cultural medium to dissolve the center-margin dichotomy.

Participating artists in this exhibition employ fiber as their medium to reweave diverse “starry sky narratives” and explore possibilities of integration within differences. Through artistic reflection, the exhibition responds to the dilemma of globalization, calls for pluralism and coexistence, and expects to seek connections across differences and links across divides, so that every cultural starlight may shimmer within this fiber cosmos.

The Organizational Structure of the Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art in 2025

 

Exhibition Director

Jinfei Ying

 

Artistic Director

Hui Shi

 

Curators

Jun Jiang, Yan Huang, Assadour Markarov, Jia Xu

 

Official Director

Publicity Department of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee

 

Host

Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture Radio Television and Tourism

Zhejiang Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles

China Academy of Art

 

Organizer

Zhejiang Artists Association

Zhejiang Art Museum

Contemporary Fiber Art Institute of China Academy of Art

School of Sculpture & Public Art, China Academy of Art

 

Sponsor

Zhejiang Provincial Arts Fund

China Academy of Art Education Foundation

De Ying Foundation

 

Jinfei Ying

 China

 Exhibition Director

Mr. Ying Jinfei is currently the General Director of Zhejiang Art Museum. He is a second-tier professor and doctoral supervisor. He is recognized as "Talents in Five Fields" of Zhejiang Province’s promotion and cultural system (2017) and is a leading expert in humanities and social sciences of Zhejiang Province’s "Ten Thousand Talents Plan" (2018). He is also a recipient of the State Council’s special government allowance.

Mr. Ying Jinfei is a Central Committee member of the China Association for Promoting Democracy, a member of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a researcher at the Zhejiang Provincial Research Institute of Culture and History, and a consulting expert for the Standing Committee of the Zhejiang Provincial People’s Congress.

Additionally, Mr. Ying Jinfei serves as a council member of the China Artists Association, the Deputy Director of the Watercolor Art Committee of the China Artists Association, a Council Member of Art Museums of the Chinese Museums Association, President of Zhejiang Academy of Printmaking.  

 

 Hui Shi

China

Artistic Director

Professor and PhD supervisor of China Academy of Art, Founder of Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art. She has started contemporary artistic creation since 1986 and her works are featured by adoption of cotton, hemp, Xuan paper, pulp and other fiber materials. Due to the creative framework based on the sense of modern art and her sensitivity and skills on materials, her artistic creation has become more purified and mature. Among the patterns of Chinese contemporary art, Shi Hui's works display unique visual features. She extends the traditional weaving into a construction of visual space and changes the weaving process into an experience process, so that it becomes a kind of image interpretation on "postmodern animatism" to reflect the cultural heritage of the Eastern spirit on the level of contemporary art. 

Some of her important exhibitions include: “The Third Shanghai Biennale” (Shanghai Art Museum, 2000), “Living in Time — 29 Chinese Contemporary Artists Exhibition” (National Gallery of Berlin, 2001), “The First Guangzhou Triennial "Reinterpretation: Ten Years of Chinese Experimental Art" (Guangdong Art Museum, 2002), “Alors, la Chine? - Chinese Contemporary Art Exhibition” (Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2003) and “Our Future: Guy & Myriam Ullens Collection” (Beijing Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, 2008). She has also held her individual exhibitions at the HHLA Exhibition Center in Hamburg (2006), Germany and the Ludwig Museum in Koblenz, Germany (2013). She won the Martell Award for Extraordinary Artist in 2007 and the award of AAC the 8th Award of Art China for Sculpture Influence in 2014. She has published 20 collections of works, such as the Poetic Simplicity: Shi Hui’ s Work and Shi Hui.

Members of the Curatorial Team of the Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art in 2025

 

Jun Jiang

 China

Curator

Jiang Jun is an independent curator and art critic, a guest curator at the Shenzhen Museum of Contemporary Art & Urban Planning, and the chairman of the Art and Economy Professional Committee of the Zhejiang Creative Design Association. He graduated from the Kunstakademie Münster, Germany, and later obtained a doctorate in Art Studies from the China Academy of Art. From 2021 to 2024, he served as a postdoctoral researcher in architecture at Tongji University in Shanghai. Jiang Jun co-curated the Chinese National Pavilion at the 60th Venice International Art Biennale (2024), and has also co-curated the 7th Guangzhou Triennial (2022–2023) and the 2023 Chengdu Biennial.

 

Yan Huang

China

Curator

Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the China Academy of Art, Head of the Department of Fiber Art.

Received a doctoral degree in 2017, invited by the Josef & Anni Alberts Foundation for a residency research and conducted academic visits in the United States. Authored monographs such as "The Evolution of Fabrics" and "The Artistic Language of Digital Weaving". In 2013, joined the project team of the Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art. Served as the co-curator of the third project, the project leader of the fourth project, and currently serves as the project leader and curator of the fifth project in 2025.

Started engaging in the creation and theoretical research of contemporary fiber art in 2004, studying under Shi Hui. Since then, has undertaken/led a series of national and provincial research projects, published multiple papers in core journals, and simultaneously planned and promoted projects such as the "Seminar on Chinese Contemporary Fiber Art Teaching", "Emerging Fiber Art Exhibition", and "International Lecture Series of Fiber Art (IPFA)".

In personal creation, emphasizes the exploration of fibers, visual space, and visual symbols, and is proficient in constructing an abstract art context that includes perspective dimensions, spatiotemporal cognition, and logical concepts through schematic language rich in logical thinking. Mainly in the forms of easel installations and spatial installations, involving media such as images and lighting. Recently, has focused on the research of visual imaging in the fields of digital weaving technology and digital fiber.

 

Assadour Markarov

Bulgaria

Curator

Assadour Markarov, PhD is an artist, educator and curator, has been lecturing around the world, in Japan, UK, Ireland, Finland, and currently is a professor at China Academy of Art, Fiber Art Department. 

Markarov was trained as an artist in China, make his degree in traditional Chinese calligraphy and later in the field of contemporary textiles, researching in UK and Japan. As an artist, he works in different fields of visual art as painting, printmaking, and works with hand made paper, calligraphy, sculptures and installations in space. His works have been exhibited in 15th Lausanne Biennial for contemporary textile art in Switzerland, 7th International Cairo Biennial of Contemporary Art, 10th International Lodz Triennial of Tapestry in Poland, "Fascinatie Texstyle 2" in the Museum Van Bommel-van Dam, Venlo in Holland, 2nd Beijing Biennial for Contemporary Art, and other major group exhibitions in Bulgaria.

His major curatorial projects include Bulgarian artists’ participation on Estampa 2000 and 2001 in Spain, co-curator of the 1st and 2nd edition of Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art in 2013 and 2016, China. A chief curator of the “Silk and tradition”, project in China National Silk Museum, and China Academy of Art an exhibition and symposium titled “Unrealized projects of Maryn Varbanov” related on the education of fiber art (2017). From East to East · Contemporary Printmaking Art Exchange Exhibition (2021), and Ceramic Transitions · China – Bulgaria contemporary ceramic art exhibition (2024).

 

Jia Xu

China

Curator

Xu Jia is an artist, curator and writer. She received a B Arch Degree from Tongji University in 2008, Master’s Degree in Art History from China Academy of Art in 2013, and PhD in Art Theory from CAA in 2016. She is now an associate professor in Fiber Art Department of CAA. She is the curator of “The Subversive Threads：5th Frontier Fiber Art Exhibition” in 2023 and co-curator of Fiber Code exhibition in China International Design Museum in 2021, the curator of Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art in 2016. She is now working as co-curator of 5th Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art in 2025. She is now Vice-Editor and China-Regional Editor of TEXTILE: CLOTH AND CULTUREjournal.

She is also the editor-in-chief of The Fiber Reader 2 (Proceedings of the Symposium of the 3rd Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art 2019), Fiber Thinking (Proceedings of the Symposium of the 4th Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art 2022), Maryn Varbanov’s Departure(2022), and Subversive Threads(The catalogue of 5th Frontier Fiber Art Exhibition)(2023).

 

 Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art 

Founded in 2013, The Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art is an international exhibition platform dedicated to the research, creation and presentation of contemporary fiber art. Initiated by the Contemporary Fiber Art Research Institute (formerly Maryn Varbanov Tapestry Research Centre), China Academy of Art, the Triennial is co-organized by the China Academy of Art and the Zhejiang Art Museum. The themes of the Triennials are "Fiber Visions" (2013), "Weaving & We" (2016), "Boundless Encounters" (2019), "Being Theoria" (2022), and "Re-Constellations" (2025).

The opening of the 5th Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art is scheduled on September 23, 2025 at Zhejiang Art Museum. The artworks will be presented in the six exhibition halls on the 1st and 2nd floors, as well as outdoor and public areas of the museum.

The Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art website: https://fiberarthangzhou.caa.edu.cn