Anton Vidokle and Lukas Brasiskis on curating the 14th Shanghai Biennale

The Shanghai Biennale was initiated in 1996 and is the first international biennial of contemporary art on the Chinese mainland. The 14th biennale opened on 9 November 2023 at the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, which is the first state-run museum dedicated to contemporary art in mainland China. Selected artists for this edition of the biennale include Black Quantum Futurism, Saodat Ismailova, Deimantas Narkevičius, Agnieszka Polska, Raqs Media Collective, Kidlat Tahimik and others.

Anton Vidokle is chief curator of the Shanghai Biennale and co-founder of e-flux. Lukas Brasiskis is a curator on the artistic team of the Shanghai Biennale and also curator of film and video at e-flux. Additional curators on the artistic team of the biennale include Zairong Xiang, Hallie Ayres and Ben Eastham. We spoke to Anton and Lukas by email about their work organizing the 14th Shanghai Biennale, which has the title Cosmos Cinema and is presented in a multilayered dialogue with all things cosmological. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.