Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery @KCUA held a solo exhibition of the influential artist Zheng Bo. Based on careful research into historical facts and social phenomena, Zheng creates artworks to contemplate the future, working together with plants, especially weeds.

Zheng conducted research in Kyoto in January and March 2019. He visited Suujin, an area east of Kyoto Station with a long activist history centered on the idea of equality, where Kyoto City University of Arts will be relocated to. He was enchanted by Suujin, where the situation is changing every day in the midst of the city’s redevelopment efforts and the impending relocation of the university. He decided to create a project to imagine a more ecological future for this area, centered on equality for all species. He grew this project in collaboration with a group of activists, artists, architects, anthropologists, and ecologists who are already living or working in Suujin. In the exhibition, Zheng created an installation based on this research.

The Chinese title of the exhibition “道在稊稗” (Dao is in Weeds) is a passage from Zhuangzi. It appears in the scene where Zhuang Zhou is faced with a question “Where does Dao exist?” and he explains “Dao is ubiquitous, and all embracing.” Everything in nature – not just human agency – is equally valuable. Through his work, Zheng ponders: how should we, who are deeply entangled in the geological epoch of the “Anthropocene,” reposition ourselves in Earth’s ecosystems, and what kind of futures do we want to create, for all beings?