What response do you expect from the museum visitors to your installation, and what would you consider a success of this project?
We never seek to direct people’s reactions. We like to create an environment for people to think and conclude for themselves. An art museum is a mental space, a place for contemplation and experimentation. Art should not be didactic or be used in any instrumental way, but it can be part
of creating platforms for both critical
and visionary thinking—thinking outside the box.
The success of a project depends
on so many di erent factors. Of
course it depends on the moment of experience, whether or not it manages to communicate the intended ideas. It depends on execution, on timing and
on the context in which it is shown. Failure can be a success, too—maybe an experiment that turned out in an unexpected way, and from which you learned something important. The reading of a work also changes over time and according to the local situation. When we show a work in New York, it might be understood di erently from how it is perceived in Beijing. We don’t really think that there is such a thing as universal truth.