A dark gallery room features a wooden bench facing a wide projection of a surreal landscape painting, showing a desert, mountains, figures, and blue sky on the far wall.

Cao Minghao and Chen Jianjun Residency

Artists Cao Minghao and Chen Jianjun (曹明浩和陈建军) will be in residence at Studio Voltaire from June to August 2025.

Water System Project is a long-term interdisciplinary collaboration combining art and ecology to drive community engagement and explore the relationship between people and water systems.

Since 2015, Minghao and Jianjun have been researching and working closely with communities to understand how water shapes landscapes, climates and human experiences. Their work focuses on overlooked environmental and social issues, using creative and participatory methods to highlight the deep connections between people and their surroundings.

The artists focus on reimagining places that are often seen as abandoned or in decline, uncovering their hidden stories and potential. Through a site-specific and collaborative approach, the project examines how water systems such as rivers, lakes and other bodies of water reflect environmental and social changes over time.

Through their residency, the artists will bring Water System Project to the UK for the first time. Minghao and Jianjun will explore London’s waterways and urban landscapes, connecting their past research in China with new experiences in the UK. By working with local communities and audiences, the artists will create opportunities for dialogue and exchange between different cultural and environmental contexts.

As part of the residency, the artists will host a Black Tent Meeting, a series of collaborative discussions and creative gatherings which have previously taken place in cities including Vancouver (Canada), Kassel (Germany), Aranya (China) and Shanghai (China). The London gathering will focus on the lived experiences of local communities, addressing ecological and social sustainability in a way that connects personal stories to broader global issues.

This residency is supported by the British Council's Connections Through Culture Programme with kind assistance from Schoeni Projects.

Cao Minghao (b. 1982, China) and Chen Jianjun (b. 1981, China) are artists and transdisciplinary researchers based in Chengdu. Their practice is research-driven and process-oriented, emphasising reciprocal collaboration between the artists and their partners.
Their projects have been featured in exhibitions and screenings across Asia and Europe, including Green Snake: Women-centred Ecologies at Tai Kwun Contemporary in Hong Kong (2023–2024), documenta fifteen in Kassel (2022), Rethinking Nature at Madre Museum (2021–2022), the 13th Shanghai Biennale (2020–2021), COSMOPOLIS #2.0: Repenser l’Humain at Centre Pompidou in Paris (2019), and COSMOPOLIS #1.5: Enlarged Intelligence in Chengdu (2018).
They have received various awards including Food Action Awards 2024 (Honourable Mention), Jonathan KS Choi Foundation Contemporary Art Award 2022, and undertaken a residency at Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2020. In 2023, they were invited as UBC Distinguished Visual Artists in Residence. Their works are also part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai.
Their film and video works have been screened at institutions such as La Casa Encendida, CA2M Museum, Hanart TZ Gallery, West Bund Museum, Centre Pompidou, CC Strombeek, Ateneo Art Gallery at Ateneo de Manila University, Lumbung Film at Gloria-Kino, OCAT Institute, and the Taipei Biennale Film Screening Section, among others.
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. We do this through our work in arts and culture, education and the English language. We work with people in over 200 countries and territories and are on the ground in more than 100 countries.
The British Council’s Connections Through Culture grants support new cultural collaborations between the UK and the Asia Pacific region. This support assists artists and cultural organisations working across all art forms to create new connections and collaborative projects.
britishcouncil.org
1. Cao Minghao and Chen Jianjun, Back to Mu Village's Fairy Big Lake, 2024. Installation view at Aranya Art Center North. Image courtesy of the artists. Credits Sun Shi.
2. Cao Minghao and Chen Jianjun, Water Sysytem Refuge #2, 2021. Installation View 13th Shanghai Biennale. Image courtesy of the artists.
3. Cao Minghao and Chen Jianjun, Black Tent Meeting 19th June, 2022–present. Image courtesy of the artists. Credit Ren Hai.
4. Cao Minghao and Chen Jianjun, Back to Mu Village's Fairy Big Lake, 2023. Still from Water System Refugee #4, 2023. Image courtesy of the artists. Commission by Tai Kwun Contemporary. Special thank you to Aranya Art Centre.
5. Cao Minghao and Chen Jianjun, Water System Refuge #1, 2019. Installation view. Commissioned for Cosmopolis #2: rethinking the human. Image courtesy of the artists.