The panoramic exhibition Stay Connected: Art and China Since 2008 presents twenty-first century art that addresses changes in social realities in China and their impacts on the world. Framed through the dual lenses of digital technology and the manufacturing supply chain, the two chapters, titled Stay Connected: Navigating the Cloud (26 Sep 2025 to 4 Jan 2026) and the forthcoming Stay Connected: Supplying the Globe (27 Feb to 31 May 2026), trace a constellation of innovative and alternative artistic practices as well as cultural transformations during this period.

Navigating the Cloud presents more than 50 artworks by over 35 artists and groups who examine the transformations in contemporary art practices and in society brought on by the spread of the internet and digital technologies. The artworks in Navigating the Cloud are presented in eight thematic sections that highlight subjects including information bubbles, artificial intelligence, communities formed through the internet, and the changing nature of human labour with the use of digital technologies. These sections guide the audience to reflect on how we can overcome boundaries and divisions in order to “stay connected” in a world where the digital and physical realms are already inseparable.

Along with two interconnected chapters, Stay Connected: Art and China Since 2008 encompasses cross-disciplinary activities, including video screenings, curatorial talks, learning and engagement programmes, and the launch of a companion publication in early 2026 produced in collaboration with Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong).

The Beijing Olympics opened in 2008 with the slogan “One World, One Dream”, which painted a hopeful vision of globalisation. The year 2008 is also when the usage of the internet and digital platforms rapidly accelerated in China, profoundly integrating globalisation into its social and economic fabric. Yet tumultuous events around the world since then—including the pandemic in 2020—have transformed optimism about a shared vision for the twenty-first century into scepticism.

A new era is still taking shape, marked by the conflicting desires for more openness and more restrictions, by calls for solidarity and the ideologies of division, and by a mix of inevitability and unpredictability in global events. In such conditions, contemporary art can serve as a testing ground for exploring how we can overcome boundaries and “stay connected” in a world where the digital and physical realms are already inseparable.

Navigating the Cloud starts with the concept of openness. Since the emergence of the internet in the early 1980s, openness has been one of its defining features, enabling users to access a vast array of images, data, and ideas. With the rise of social media and short-form video platforms in recent years, people have gained ever more intimate glimpses into the private lives of others. In this image-dominated “cloud”, the world appeared on the verge of becoming more open to the free exchange of diverse perspectives. Yet this promise has been increasingly hampered by rapidly evolving technologies and the systems designed to govern online spaces.

In response to the specific conditions of the internet in mainland China (often referred to as the Great Firewall), artists have cultivated their own wild, unruly creativity. Digital technologies have not only given rise to new artistic forms but have pushed artists to continually re-examine existing limitations on the physical world. Alongside breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies, many artists today are exploring ideas of community, solidarity, and mutual support as they seek to reconnect isolated individuals across expansive networks and to explore solutions for society’s many unfolding crises.

Courtesy of Tai Kwun.