Curatorial Team

Curator：

Lan Lan

Executive Curator：Yatao Zhang

Organizer&Co-ordinator：Clara Ke

Designer&Media Operator：Yummy Ye

Preface

Since its inception in 2020 by the Nordic Contemporary Art Center (Xiamen) during the World Ocean Week in Xiamen, the Ocean Dreams International Contemporary Art Exhibition has been held for six consecutive years. As an international art project centered on ocean culture, it has continuously advanced curatorial practice and cross-cultural collaboration, connecting nearly two hundred artists from fifteen countries and regions. Taking Xiamen as its point of origin, it has established an international platform that uses contemporary art as a medium and the ocean as a shared language.

The curatorial concept of the exhibition is rooted in the “Ocean Art+” research framework—viewing the ocean as an open cultural archetype to explore the interrelations between art, ecology, society, science, and education. The exhibition not only presents artists’ diverse perceptions and reflections on the marine world but also underscores contemporary art’s potential as a form of knowledge production and cultural action. It is both a site of creation and an open field for examining the intricate relationships between humanity, nature, and culture.

Over the years, the Nordic Contemporary Art Center has developed Ocean Dreams into a curatorial practice of methodological significance through its focus on artist residencies, international collaboration, public engagement, and art education. By fostering dialogues across disciplines and borders, it transforms oceanic issues from scientific discourse into social perception and cultural identity, forming an ever-evolving collective imagination of ocean culture.

In 2025, the exhibition continues and expands this trajectory. Artists from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Thailand, the Philippines, Brazil, and China are invited to conduct residencies and present their works in Xiamen. Through painting, installation, video, photography, and sound, the exhibition examines the interconnections among the ocean, climate, ecology, and human destiny, offering a multi-perspective artistic response to the ideas of the ocean, the future, and coexistence.

Structured around the three dimensions of Art + Science + Public, the 2025 edition brings together six concurrent exhibitions, forming a multilayered and interdisciplinary ecosystem:

 1. “A New Era of Beautiful Nature and Better Life—Award-winning Works from the 1st National Natural Resources Cultural and Creative Design Competition (Marine Category)”: creative design showcasing ecological beauty and public engagement;

 2. “Understanding, Protecting, and Utilizing the Poles—Chinese Polar Expedition Photography Exhibition”: documenting China’s pioneering journeys and scientific spirit in polar research;

 3. “Empowering a Better Future—China National Offshore Oil Corporation Thematic Photo Exhibition”: presenting national achievements in energy security, technological innovation, and sustainable development;

 4. “Outstanding Works from the 11th National College Student Marine Culture Creative Design Competition”: highlighting the creativity and social awareness of the younger generation;

 5. “One Hundred Swedish Children’s Ink Paintings on the Ocean”: reimagining the global oceanic vision through the intuition of children and the medium of Chinese ink;

 6. “Ocean Dreams International Contemporary Art Exhibition”: bringing together artists from China and abroad to explore the symbiotic relationship between art and nature, culture and ecology.

Together, these six exhibitions converge in time and space to create dialogues between art and science, children and adults, China and the world, the present and the future. They offer multidimensional perspectives on humanity’s shared destiny with the ocean, weaving rational inquiry with artistic imagination into an integral narrative of coexistence.

Through the intertwining of art, science, and the public, Ocean Dreams 2025 presents not merely an image of the sea but an open imagination of civilization. Serving as a bridge between cultures and eras, it invites us to reconsider the intricate interdependence between humanity and the ocean, society and ecology, technology and the future. Within today’s global context, it stands as a testament to humanity’s ongoing effort to reflect upon nature, understand it anew, and envision a shared sustainable future.