The China Moment: Contextualizing Individualism in Chinese Contemporary Art

The China Moment accompanies the eponymous research exhibition curated by Su Wei, Mi You, and Anna-Lisa Scherfose for the documenta Institut Kassel (January–March 2026). It examines Chinese contemporary art during the 1990s–2000s in dialogue with an equally vibrant intellectual history, foregrounding differing notions of individualism that mediate art’s relationship to the state, society, and public spheres. Bookended by the beginning and the subsequent unraveling of the golden era of globalization, this volume assembles essays, archives, and visual documentation to map both the convergent aspirations and mutual blind spots that structured this moment.