For over two decades, the work of Cao Fei has stood at the forefront of thinking around art, media, technology and futurity. Diverse in medium and approach, her projects explore facets of everyday existence mingled with the surreal and spectacular to tap into deep-seeded questions around what it means to be human in this ever-shifting twenty-first century.

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

 

Duotopia, a major exhibition by Cao Fei at Sprüth Magers, Berlin, will transform all of the gallery’s spaces and premiere several new works outside of China that delve into the metaverse, virtual reality and the interactions between human and machine consciousness.

Meta-mentary, 2022

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Meta-mentary, 2022

Duotopia, a major exhibition by Cao Fei at Sprüth Magers, Berlin, will transform all of the gallery’s spaces and premiere several new works outside of China that delve into the metaverse, virtual reality and the interactions between human and machine consciousness.

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Meta-Mentary, 2022
HD video, 9:16, color, with sound
28:17 min

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Anchoring the exhibition in the downstairs galleries are a group of new videos that each look to the connective and creative possibilities of the metaverse. Viewers first encounter Meta-mentary (2022), in which everyday people are interviewed about their thoughts on the metaverse and the distant future.

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Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Meta-Mentary, 2022
HD video, 9:16, color, with sound
28:17 min

Cao Fei
Meta-Mentary, 2022
HD video, 9:16, color, with sound
28:17 min

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin
Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Meta-Mentary, 2022

Cao Fei
Meta-Mentary, 2022

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin
Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Meta-Mentary, 2022

Cao Fei
Meta-Mentary, 2022

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin
Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Meta-Mentary, 2022

Cao Fei
Meta-Mentary, 2022

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Anchoring the exhibition in the downstairs galleries are a group of new videos that each look to the connective and creative possibilities of the metaverse. Viewers first encounter Meta-mentary (2022), in which everyday people are interviewed about their thoughts on the metaverse and the distant future.

Adjacent vitrines and screens look back to the artist's first virtual-reality construction, RMB City (2007–11), which housed her first avatar, China Tracy. Together, these projects illustrate Cao Fei's long exploration into the increasingly porous limits between the physical and virtual worlds.

 

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

 

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
DUOTOPIA – 1st Edition, 2022
3D rendering video, 9:16, color, with sound, loop
2:40 min

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Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
DUOTOPIA – 1st Edition, 2022
3D rendering video, 9:16, color, with sound, loop
2:40 min

Cao Fei
DUOTOPIA – 1st Edition, 2022
3D rendering video, 9:16, color, with sound, loop
2:40 min

Details
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Its substructures are shaped like massive aquatic figures that seem to bridge ocean and air. The 'duo' in Duotopia refers to the mandarin word 'duō 多', meaning many—thus a layering of many possible futures, environments and aesthetics.

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
DUOTOPIA 03, 2023
C-Print/Diasec
200 × 145 cm
78 3/4 × 57 inches

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Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
DUOTOPIA 03, 2023
C-Print/Diasec
200 × 145 cm
78 3/4 × 57 inches

Cao Fei
DUOTOPIA 03, 2023
C-Print/Diasec
200 × 145 cm
78 3/4 × 57 inches

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin
Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
DUOTOPIA 03, 2023

Cao Fei
DUOTOPIA 03, 2023

Details
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Its substructures are shaped like massive aquatic figures that seem to bridge ocean and air. The 'duo' in Duotopia refers to the mandarin word 'duō 多', meaning many—thus a layering of many possible futures, environments and aesthetics.

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

 

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Oz, 2022
Dual-screen digital video, 9:16, color, with sound, loop
1:36 min
Music: Ma Haiping

In Oz (2022), presented nearby on vertical screens reminiscent of mobile phones, Cao Fei has imagined a powerful new avatar for Duotopia, fifteen years after the birth of China Tracy and RMB City. Poised, androgynous and likewise water-related with her bionic tentacles, Oz emits a serene aura that suggests a hopeful eternity.

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Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Oz, 2022
Dual-screen digital video, 9:16, color, with sound, loop
1:36 min
Music: Ma Haiping

Cao Fei
Oz, 2022
Dual-screen digital video, 9:16, color, with sound, loop
1:36 min
Music: Ma Haiping

Details
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In Oz (2022), presented nearby on vertical screens reminiscent of mobile phones, Cao Fei has imagined a powerful new avatar for Duotopia, fifteen years after the birth of China Tracy and RMB City. Poised, androgynous and likewise water-related with her bionic tentacles, Oz emits a serene aura that suggests a hopeful eternity.

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Oz 05, 2023
C-Print/Diasec
145 × 200 cm
57 × 78 3/4 inches

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Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Oz 05, 2023
C-Print/Diasec
145 × 200 cm
57 × 78 3/4 inches

Cao Fei
Oz 05, 2023
C-Print/Diasec
145 × 200 cm
57 × 78 3/4 inches

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin
Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Oz 05, 2023

Cao Fei
Oz 05, 2023

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As a counterpoint to the metaverse, and separated spatially by an elaborate staging of false walls, props, photographs and memorabilia, are three recent projects by Cao Fei relating to the experience of her family and friends during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each situates viewers in more of an everyday reality, but still with the artist's signature elements of surrealism and theatricality.

 

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Isle of Instability, 2020
Multimedia installation showing Isle of Instability, 2020, HD video, 16:9, color, with sound, 10:01 min and Singapore Daily, 2020, HD video, 16:9, color, with sound, 10:01 min
Dimensions variable
Commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary

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Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Isle of Instability, 2020
Multimedia installation showing Isle of Instability, 2020, HD video, 16:9, color, with sound, 10:01 min and Singapore Daily, 2020, HD video, 16:9, color, with sound, 10:01 min
Dimensions variable
Commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary

Cao Fei
Isle of Instability, 2020
Multimedia installation showing Isle of Instability, 2020, HD video, 16:9, color, with sound, 10:01 min and Singapore Daily, 2020, HD video, 16:9, color, with sound, 10:01 min
Dimensions variable
Commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin
Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Isle of Instability, 2021

Cao Fei
Isle of Instability, 2021

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin
Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Isle of Instability, 2021

Cao Fei
Isle of Instability, 2021

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin
Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Isle of Instability, 2021

Cao Fei
Isle of Instability, 2021

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Isle of Instability (2020) documents a period of quarantine in Singapore during the pandemic's early months. Amid an array of necessities, including sanitizer and government paperwork, a video depicts an "island" the artist erected in her living room for her daughter's distraction and amusement, paired with scenes of deserted highways and city streets.

 

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
A Holiday, 2023
Multimedia installation showing A Holiday, 2023, HD video, 16:9, color, with sound, 90:00 min and Still Alive, 2023 HD video, 16:9, color, with sound, 13:05 min
Dimensions variable

A Holiday (2023)—an installation comprising a campground picnic, faux greenery, fences, a video filmed in Beijing in 2022, and other objects—refers to the desperate need for nature that many people craved in reaction to the confines and stresses of long-term remote living.

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Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
A Holiday, 2023
Multimedia installation showing A Holiday, 2023, HD video, 16:9, color, with sound, 90:00 min and Still Alive, 2023 HD video, 16:9, color, with sound, 13:05 min
Dimensions variable

Cao Fei
A Holiday, 2023
Multimedia installation showing A Holiday, 2023, HD video, 16:9, color, with sound, 90:00 min and Still Alive, 2023 HD video, 16:9, color, with sound, 13:05 min
Dimensions variable

Details
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A Holiday (2023)—an installation comprising a campground picnic, faux greenery, fences, a video filmed in Beijing in 2022, and other objects—refers to the desperate need for nature that many people craved in reaction to the confines and stresses of long-term remote living.

Still Alive (2023), Cao Fei's newest video, presents a poignant tribute to her mother amid the grief and loss of her husband, the artist's stepfather, to COVID-19 complications.

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Still Alive, 2023
HD video, 16:9, color, with sound
13:05 min

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Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Still Alive, 2023
HD video, 16:9, color, with sound
13:05 min

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Still Alive (2023), Cao Fei's newest video, presents a poignant tribute to her mother amid the grief and loss of her husband, the artist's stepfather, to COVID-19 complications.

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

All installation views: Timo Ohler

 

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Nova, 2019
HD Video, color, with sound
109:53min
Edition 5/9

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In the upstairs gallery, Cao Fei presents two videos that explore the concepts of time, space and the fictions of history and geopolitics. In the nonlinear narrative of Nova (2019), a Chinese scientist and his fellow researchers attempt to solve the problem of time travel, assisted by a Soviet scientist with whom he falls in love.

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Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Nova, 2019
HD Video, color, with sound
109:53min
Edition 5/9

Cao Fei
Nova, 2019
HD Video, color, with sound
109:53min
Edition 5/9

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin
Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Nova (video still)

Cao Fei
Nova (video still)

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin
Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Nova (video still)

Cao Fei
Nova (video still)

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin
Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Nova (video still)

Cao Fei
Nova (video still)

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In the upstairs gallery, Cao Fei presents two videos that explore the concepts of time, space and the fictions of history and geopolitics. In the nonlinear narrative of Nova (2019), a Chinese scientist and his fellow researchers attempt to solve the problem of time travel, assisted by a Soviet scientist with whom he falls in love.

In a desperate move, he accidentally traps his son in an alternate space-time continuum. Dressed in a space suit and attempting to find his way home, the son wanders amid a series of retro-futuristic locales that are echoed in the nostalgic details of Cao Fei's lush installation.

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Nova 11, 2019
Inkjet print on paper
110 × 150 cm
43 1/4 × 59 inches

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Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Nova 05, 2019
Inkjet print on paper
100 × 175 cm
39 3/8 × 69 inches

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Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Nova 11, 2019
Inkjet print on paper
110 × 150 cm
43 1/4 × 59 inches

Cao Fei
Nova 11, 2019
Inkjet print on paper
110 × 150 cm
43 1/4 × 59 inches

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin
Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Nova 11, 2019

Cao Fei
Nova 11, 2019

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Nova 05, 2019
Inkjet print on paper
100 × 175 cm
39 3/8 × 69 inches

Cao Fei
Nova 05, 2019
Inkjet print on paper
100 × 175 cm
39 3/8 × 69 inches

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin
Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
Nova 05, 2019

Cao Fei
Nova 05, 2019

Details
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In a desperate move, he accidentally traps his son in an alternate space-time continuum. Dressed in a space suit and attempting to find his way home, the son wanders amid a series of retro-futuristic locales that are echoed in the nostalgic details of Cao Fei's lush installation.

The researchers and the astronaut figure appear again, if briefly, in Cao Fei's new video MatryoshkaVerse (2022), in which she captures documentary footage of the incredible border city of Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia.

 

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

MatryoshkaVerse, 2022

 

A blend of Chinese and Russian influences, which are visible in giant Matryoshka-doll buildings and amusement parks, Manzhouli and its surrounding landscape become the ground for a metaphysical exploration into multinationalism, cultural hybridity and the complex ways in which human history continues to imprint itself onto the earth.

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
MatryoshkaVerse, 2022
Double Channel HD video, 16:4.5, color, with sound
37:38 min

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Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
MatryoshkaVerse, 2022
Double Channel HD video, 16:4.5, color, with sound
37:38 min

Cao Fei
MatryoshkaVerse, 2022
Double Channel HD video, 16:4.5, color, with sound
37:38 min

Details
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A blend of Chinese and Russian influences, which are visible in giant Matryoshka-doll buildings and amusement parks, Manzhouli and its surrounding landscape become the ground for a metaphysical exploration into multinationalism, cultural hybridity and the complex ways in which human history continues to imprint itself onto the earth.

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
MatryoshkaVerse 02, 2022
Inkjet print on paper
105 × 157 cm
41 3/8 × 61 7/8 inches

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Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
MatryoshkaVerse 02, 2022
Inkjet print on paper
105 × 157 cm
41 3/8 × 61 7/8 inches

Cao Fei
MatryoshkaVerse 02, 2022
Inkjet print on paper
105 × 157 cm
41 3/8 × 61 7/8 inches

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin
Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
MatryoshkaVerse 02, 2022

Cao Fei
MatryoshkaVerse 02, 2022

Details
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Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
MatryoshkaVerse 07, 2022
Inkjet print on paper
105 × 157 cm
41 3/8 × 61 7/8 inches

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Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
MatryoshkaVerse 07, 2022
Inkjet print on paper
105 × 157 cm
41 3/8 × 61 7/8 inches

Cao Fei
MatryoshkaVerse 07, 2022
Inkjet print on paper
105 × 157 cm
41 3/8 × 61 7/8 inches

Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin
Cao Fei – Duotopia – Berlin

Cao Fei
MatryoshkaVerse 07, 2022

Cao Fei
MatryoshkaVerse 07, 2022

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A utopia of a very different sort, MatryoshkaVerse, like all of Cao Fei's projects on view, reflects upon the rapid changes brought about by global developments, both in China and throughout the world, as well as the points that connect us across these divides.

 

MatryoshkaVerse, 2022