一路之上——2026·第八届昆明美术双年展

任何一种文明形态，都不是静止的固态。文明的变迁与发展，总是在历史与当下、此地与他方的交互流动中不断生成新的形态，而道路则始终是这种流动最直接的文明载体。从古代商旅踏出的丝绸之路、茶马古道，到大航海时代国际贸易航线，再至工业化铁路、数字化高铁所编织的庞大物流网络，道路不仅改变了空间距离，更不断重塑了人与土地、城市与乡村、本土与世界之间的关系。

艺术的演进也随着文明的流动而将不同地域的文化艺术相互串联，在不同艺术的碰撞、互鉴与融通中不断增生新的创造支点。艺术史上的每一次流派更迭、风格演变、媒介转换与观念更新，几乎都伴随着新的空间关联与文化流动而发生。可以说，人类文明其实是在相互流动中而不断生成新的形态的共同体。道路塑造了文明，也形塑了艺术。云南正是这种流动历史最为典型的见证者之一。

作为中国连接南亚、东南亚的重要门户，云南自古便处于多元文明交汇之地。从南方丝绸之路、茶马古道，到近代滇越铁路，再至今天贯通中国与老挝、连接泛亚铁路网络的中老铁路，每一条干线的出现，都不仅意味着交通体系的更新，更意味着区域空间、经济结构、文化形态以及社会风貌的重塑。云南也因此不断完成自身空间身份的转换：从传统意义上的西南边疆，逐渐成为中国面向南亚、东南亚开放的重要节点，并在新的全球化格局中不断激发出新的文化创造活力。

如果说以往道路的连接，较多显现的是贸易往来；那么，今天的铁轨更承载了文明理念交互流动的时代景观。高速铁路压缩了时间，也改变了空间理念；数字媒介突破了地域边界，也建立了文化网络的传播方式。在云南，人们惊奇地看到：现代城市与民族村寨、数字生活与传统技艺、高速列车与乡村集市、国际游客与地方居民等一帧帧的同框画面；高速与舒缓、传统与现代、本土与全球等在此并非是彼此对立、互为替代的关系，而是时空一体的共生结构。

第八届昆明美术双年展以“一路之上”为主题，把铁路变迁作为视觉对象，通过对“路”这一具有历史深度与现实广度的文化意象，发掘彩云之南的这方沃土在开放发展的新时代斩获的新的社会活力。展览聚焦的“路”，既是物质形态的交通线路，也是文明形态的历史路径；既指向物理时空的连接，也指向文化生态的交互。“路”编织的网络，使本土与世界结成一个共同体，通过人与物的不断流动而发生景观、习俗、生产、消费、生活、观念等改变。而这种文明形态的变迁，也鲜明地映射在视觉感知方式的变换上，这便是“一路之上”力图给予人们的视觉叙事。

艺术之于时代，从来不是仅见再现的回应，而是透过现实探寻其背后的精神肌理。今天，当一条条四通八达的铁路重塑云南与南亚、东南亚的空间格局时，艺术也获得了一种前所未有的观察视角。它把发展的宏大叙事，转换成一帧帧真切而鲜活的生活现场，在人与土地、劳作与迁徙、传统与更新之间诠释出多种文明互鉴发展的视觉痕迹。

本届双年展突破艺术品种的边界，以视觉经验建构了三个相互关联的叙事单元：

“生活之路”

“时间之路”

“文化之路”

三个叙事单元既分别对应空间、时间与文化三个维度，又共同构成了展览对“路”之意象的深描。“路”已经超越行走的概念，而成为铁轨承载的速度对历史过往与不同文明空间的高强压缩；速度形成的文化穿越，也成为本届双年展视觉创造的高光。当观众走进展厅时，他们所面对的已不仅是一帧帧锁定时光的影像、一幅幅凝固笔触的肖像、一件件储存历史的物品，更是一条连接历史与未来、延伸传统与当代的文明互鉴之路。

流动的文明才真正让世界充满爱和活力。

策展人/学术主持：尚辉

· 策展人兼学术主持

· 中国美协理论与策展委员会主任

· 博导

2026年7月25日于北京22院街艺术区

No form of civilization is ever fixed or static. Civilizations transform and develop by continually taking on new forms through the interplay between history and the present, and between the local and the distant. Roads have always been the most direct carriers of this movement.

From the Silk Road and the ancient Tea Horse Road trodden by merchants and travelers, to the international trade routes of the Age of Exploration, and onward to the vast logistics networks woven by industrial-era railways and digitally enabled high-speed rail systems, roads have not merely shortened distances. They have continually reshaped the relationships between people and land, cities and the countryside, and the local and the global.

The evolution of art has likewise unfolded in step with the movement of civilizations, linking the cultures and arts of different regions and generating new points of creative departure through encounter, mutual learning, and integration. Nearly every succession of movements, evolution of styles, transformation of media, and renewal of ideas in art history has been accompanied by new spatial connections and cultural flows. Human civilization may therefore be understood as a shared community that continually takes new shape through circulation and exchange. Roads shape civilization; they also shape art. Yunnan offers one of the clearest testaments to this history of movement.

As a major gateway linking China with South and Southeast Asia, Yunnan has long stood at the confluence of diverse civilizations. From the Southern Silk Road and the ancient Tea Horse Road to the modern Yunnan-Vietnam Railway and today’s China-Laos Railway—which links China and Laos and forms a key part of the Pan-Asia railway network—the arrival of each major artery has meant not only an upgrade in transport infrastructure, but also a reconfiguration of regional space, economic structures, cultural forms, and the social landscape.

In the process, Yunnan has continually redefined its spatial identity: from a southwestern frontier in the conventional sense to a vital node in China’s opening up to South and Southeast Asia, generating new cultural creativity within an evolving global landscape.

If earlier roads were most visibly associated with trade, today’s railways present an emblematic landscape of our time: the circulation and exchange of ideas among civilizations. High-speed rail compresses time and transforms our conception of space; digital media crosses geographical boundaries and creates new networks for cultural communication.

In Yunnan, one encounters striking juxtapositions: modern cities and ethnic villages, digital life and traditional crafts, high-speed trains and rural markets, international visitors and local residents, all appearing within a single frame. Speed and a slower rhythm, tradition and modernity, the local and the global do not stand here as opposites or replacements; they coexist in a symbiotic structure of integrated time and space.

Under the theme “On the Journey,” the 8th Kunming Art Biennale takes the evolution of railways as a visual point of departure. By exploring “the road” as a cultural motif of historical depth and contemporary breadth, the exhibition seeks to reveal the new social vitality emerging across Yunnan in an era of openness and development.

The “road” at the center of the exhibition is both a material transport route and a historical path of civilization. It connects physical space and time while enabling interactions across cultural ecologies. The networks woven by roads bind the local and the global into a shared community, and the ceaseless movement of people and things reshapes landscapes, customs, production, consumption, everyday life, and ideas.

These changes in civilizational form are vividly reflected in changing modes of visual perception. This is the visual narrative that “On the Journey” sets out to articulate.

Art’s response to its time has never been limited to representation; it probes the spiritual texture beneath reality. Today, as an expanding railway network reshapes the spatial configuration linking Yunnan with South and Southeast Asia, art gains an unprecedented vantage point.

It translates the grand narrative of development into vivid and tangible scenes of everyday life, revealing visual traces of mutual learning among civilizations in the relationships between people and land, labor and migration, tradition and renewal.

Transcending conventional boundaries between art forms, the Biennale structures its visual experience through three interrelated narrative sections:

The Road of Life

The Road of Time

The Road of Culture

The three sections correspond respectively to the dimensions of space, time, and culture, while together offering an in-depth exploration of the motif of “the road.” Here, the road transcends the simple notion of travel. It becomes an image of how railway speed intensely compresses historical time and the distances between different civilizational spaces.

The cultural crossings made possible by speed become a defining feature of the Biennale’s visual imagination. When viewers enter the galleries, they encounter not only images that hold moments in time, portraits held in the stillness of brushwork, and objects bearing history, but also a road of mutual learning among civilizations—one that links past and future and extends from tradition into the contemporary.

Only a civilization in motion can truly fill the world with love and vitality.

Shang Hui

Curator and Academic Director of the 8th Kunming Art Biennale

Director of Theory and Curatorial Committee, China Artists Association

Doctoral Supervisor

July 25, 2026

22 Yard Street Art District, Beijing

昆明美术双年展自2012年创办，是由云南省文化和旅游厅批准立项、省财政拨款的国际性学术型双年展。昆明美术双年展分别于2012年、2014年、2016年、2018年、2020年、2023年、2025年陆续举办了七届。参展艺术家累计超600人，观展人数超300000人。昆明美术双年展作为当代国际文化艺术交流的当代平台，采用中国策划委员会与国际策展人相结合的策展机制，旨在构建富有地域特色的国际性展示空间。本双年展品牌通过举办国际性艺术展览，致力于在全球视野下深入探讨如何重建既恪守中国立场，又超越地域局限的当代中国叙事与论述。本展览充分发挥地域优势，通过近十年不断地深入交流，已对南亚、东南亚的艺术发展起到了良好的促进作用。