An annual event

Zhu, the curator, says that one of the latest developments in contemporary art is its active combination with technology. Science's characteristics of change and innovation are converging with art.

"In fact, contemporary art has always been a lab of creativity," he says.

The Annual notes that artists should remain wary of advanced technology when actively embracing these new sciences. Many works on display reflect the artists' feeling surrounding such issues.

Artist Ding Shiwei concentrates on exploring the relationship between people and their screens, as well as the definition of what is real and virtual. When visitors get within a meter of the works in the 34-year-old's series Aesthetic Distance — comprised of circular screens featuring popular facial emojis — the features on the emojis will collapse.

Art collective Slime Engine presents a video installation, Extreme Live, at the show. Three big phone-shaped screens livestream a digital avatar selling goods by employing different promotional skills to attract as many potential buyers as possible in a virtual wilderness. The Shanghai-based art group, consisting of several young artists, has been utilizing the digital space since 2017, with different projects that manipulate people's understanding of physical space.