Chen Zhe’s practice is often rooted in self-reflection, which expands and engages with the universal experience of life. Her subjects are often inherently paradoxical, such as the body that can simultaneously experience pain and relief (The Bearable & Bees), the nebulous zone where day turns into night (Towards Evenings: Six Chapters), and the life that vacillates between impermanence and eternity (A Slow Remembering of a Long Forgetting). Springing from and expanding on her photographic work, Chen’s recent projects focus on the expressive potential of temporality in different mediums and environments. Her projects tend to develop organically over the span of several years, with works that annotate each other as they unravel, and present an ongoing process of research and discovery.Chen Zhe (b.1989, Beijing) received her BFA in Photography and Imaging from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. Her works has been exhibited at Lillehammer Art Museum, Norway (2022); UCCA Dune, Qinhuangdao (2021); Yokohama Triennale, Japan (2020); Plug In ICA, Canada (2020); Ming Contemporary Art Museum, Shanghai (2020); Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany (2019); White Rabbit Gallery, Australia (2019); the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Australia (2018); Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Japan (2018); Para Site, Hong Kong (2018); OCAT Shenzhen, Shenzhen (2018); Guangzhou Photo Triennial, Guangzhou (2017); Anren Biennale, Chengdu (2017); CAFA Art Museum, Beijing (2017); the 11th Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai (2016); Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai (2016); University of Toronto Art Centre, Canada (2014); Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing (2013); Fotohof, Austria (2012); Three Shadows Photography Art Centre (2011) and more.Chen Zhe is the recipient of the Inge Morath Award from the Magnum Foundation (2011), Three Shadows Award (2011), Lianzhou Festival Photographer of the Year Award (2012), Xitek New Talent Award (2015) and the Foam Talent (2018). She is also subject of TV documentary films Chinese Viewfinder (ARTE, France, 2013) and China Through the Lens of Youth (NHK, Japan, 2014). Her publication Bees & The Bearable was awarded the Best Photobook of the Year by Kassel Fotobookfestival in 2016.

Anita Pan’s creative practice expands from her background in literary studies and vocal training. Centring around words, literary text, sound, music, installation and performance, she explores the possibilities of writing and singing in time-space, and experiments with what specific media can or cannot do in expressing the poetic, the theatrical and the narrative. In the long process of co-working with artists across fields, she repeatedly identifies her destined bond with literature and sonic arts.Anita Pan (b. 1986, Beijing) graduated from Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society with an MPhil in Literature. She has created two sound albums, As Precise As Fever (2023) and Meridian (2017). Her sound designs and film scores include multi-track sound composition for Chen Zhe solo exhibition “As Precise As Fever” (Beijing 2023), her video You Are a Circle, Expanding (2023) and installation An Expansion of Kobo Abe’s The Red Cocoon (Reading) (2019); film score and sound design for Gao Yuan animated short films Cloud of the Unknown (2019) and Lunar Dial (2016); music composition for multimedia theatre Rabbit Hole (Beijing 2012). She has performed as improvised vocalist in physical theatre consumerism (Beijing 2019, with physical artist Martina Morrocchi) and in Chai Mi audio- visual theatre Resonance of Water (Beijing/Taiyuan/Shanghai 2015-2019, with artist Chai Mi and musician thruoutin). She designed and carried out a bicycle-themed experimental sound performance Meridian: Recurrent but not Repetitive (Shanghai 2017, with thruoutin), and has earlier performed at School and XP (Beijing 2015). Her installation works contingent has been exhibited at Vacant Lot: Locality and Quo (Beijing 2019); Stutterer, Horologe, Birth Ceremony and Traffic at a series of Space Regeneration Project exhibitions (Beijing/Tianjin/Zibo 2013).

Vortex is a long-term project. We will update the content of performance lectures by artists and talks by experts both on- and offline. Following the fundamental approach of connecting local practice, theories, and context, we hope that this nonstandard art venue will become a place of torrents, flux, and confluence.