News｜ZHANG Yunyao's participation in the 4th edition of the Artocène Contemporary Art Biennial

Saint-Gervais, southern France
Don Gallery is pleased to share that artist ZHANG Yunyao is participating in the 4th edition of the Artocène Contemporary Art Biennial, taking place from June 28 to September 14, 2025, in Saint-Gervais, southern France. Titled “Augmented Bodies” (Corps augmentés), this edition focuses on how the body continuously mutates and adapts between natural evolution and technological intervention. Twelve international artists have been invited to respond to this theme through diverse and multidimensional practices. The exhibition unfolds along a unique route spanning altitudes from 580 to 1,800 meters, guiding viewers on a mountainous journey where they encounter site-specific works embedded in the Alpine landscape. Through immersive installations, video, sculpture, and other media, the biennial offers a sensorial exploration into the evolving relationship between the body and its environment.
 
“Augmented Bodies” is not only an artistic exploration of bodily transformation, but also a profound reflection on how living beings evolve or adapt to their environments—whether through natural evolutionary processes or technological intervention. From the earliest use of tools, humans have continuously extended their capacities through external means: first with mechanical tools, then with digital ones, enabling a form of virtual augmentation of the senses and body. Today, the emergence of connected devices and artificial intelligence signals a fundamental shift in the relationship between humans and their environment.
 

This edition of the biennial takes the relationship between the body and the landscape as its curatorial starting point, with the Alpine terrain and the practice of mountaineering serving as central references. The Mont Blanc massif—an extreme natural environment—has been successively reshaped by technological developments (sporting equipment, cable cars, climate change) and digital tools (GPS, data systems, etc.), becoming a symbolic site of new relationships between the body and its surroundings. Amid these rapid and radical transformations, other species are also forced to adapt—often through processes of hybridization. The animal and plant kingdoms emerge as repositories of evolutionary scenarios, offering alternative trajectories and new imaginaries for Homo sapiens. Might the ongoing evolution of human technology ultimately lead us back to nature and the living world? In the near future, will we be called upon to internalize the slow rhythms of the landscape into our own bodily experience?

 
 
Artocène Contemporary Art Biennial 
Artocène is the contemporary art biennial of Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc in France, with each edition opening with a focus on a specific aspect of the Alpine landscape. The Mont-Blanc massif, emblematic of a fragile and ever-changing nature, serves as the starting point for reflection for the invited artists. The exhibitions address questions related to the living, the characteristics of the local territory, and current societal issues.
28 June 2025
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