ABOUT THE Exhibition
TANK Shanghai presents Danwei Unfolding, curated by Merit Zimmermann, Nathan Yeomans, and Yu Jiayue——the awardees of TANK CURATOR Prize (co-winner of the award with Ningjue Lu).
Danwei Unfolding examines the complex and evolving relationship between identity and space, with a special focus on China. By reading the danwei system and its dissolution through Gilles Deleuze’s notion of the fold, the exhibition posits that urban China has undergone not just structural, but deep ontological transformations. Cities are not simply expanding or modernizing – they are re-folding, constantly reshaping the interplay between physical space and inner life. The exhibition takes its name from China’s unique “Danwei” system. This geographic unit, which once bound work, housing, and social relations, has developed a new form of belonging in the digital age, leading people to experience a collective folding movement of spatial cognition.
TANK CURATOR Prizes is a focused and challenging residency program for young curators, bringing together young curators from different countries and regions of the world, with an international outlook and a vision for the future. In a multicultural context, the program uses exploration, experimentation and experience to cultivate curators who can lead the trend of culture and art in the world.
TANK Shanghai is committed to presenting exhibitions exploring the evolving role of contemporary art institutions and their relationship with society. As a future-oriented award, TANK aims to support young curators in expanding artistic practice boundaries and fostering a more interconnected and inclusive art ecology.
About the curators
Yu Jiayue
Yu Jiayue is a cross-media art creator, spatial experimental performance director, choreographer and designer, space designer, and young curator. She graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (B.Arch) and the AA Architectural Association (MFA), and is the co-founder of Rongye Art Studio in Hangzhou.
Sensitive to the changes in the socio-technical environment and its impact on human beings as a community, Yu Jia Yue is currently focusing on narrative creative expression using the performing body, integrated installations and spatial environments as a common medium. Her forms include, but are not limited to, performance art, spatial installation, video text creation, and curatorial practice. In 2022, she was selected to participate in the 9th Shenzhen-Hong Kong Urbanism/Architecture Biennale (UABB) in the academic research group “On Office” initiated by Wang Minan, and her results were published in its official publication; in 2023, she was honored with the “Oil Tank Curator Award” by the Shanghai Curator Lab. “The Oil Can Curator’s Award, Shanghai Curator’s Lab, 2023. Her work has been exhibited at Heals Gallery (London), 798 Yue-Art Museum (Beijing), M50 (Shanghai), West Theater (Hangzhou), Ren Community Art Museum (Hangzhou), and UFO Terminal (Shanghai), among others, and she was invited to hold a solo exhibition “ADVERTISESEVERSE. ADVERTISESEVERSE – Our Lost Future”, in which he realizes the cross-media fusion of performance, installation, spatial design, music, body technology, video and graphic text in his multiple identities as an artist/curator/director.
Merit Zimmermann
Merit Zimmermann is a researcher, curator, and writer. She is currently a PhD candidate in Digital Heritage at Erasmus University Rotterdam, where she explores the digitization of heritage and vice versa the heritagization of digital culture. Her work has been presented at international conferences and published in journals, edited volumes, magazines, and blogs—including Routledge, Bloomsbury Publishing, Dichotomy, The GCHU at Kellogg College, THE DORF, and Giddyheft (with several pieces forthcoming).
Outside academia, she collaborates with artists, galleries, and institutions as a writer and curator. Recent work includes texts for JVDW, basedonart, Galería Silvestre, Clara-Lane Lens, and Luca Calaras, as well as curatorial and research projects with organizations such as DAM, Vitra, IMPAKT, and Rib.
Nathan Yeomans
Nathan Yeomans is a British curator whose research explores the intersections of curatorial practice, spatial and architectural theory, and identity formation within museum and gallery contexts. He has curated exhibitions internationally and has collaborated with both emerging and established artists.
He holds an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art, a Graduate Diploma in Curating, Museums, and Galleries from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Art, University of the Arts London.
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