皮皮樂迪·里斯特：掌心宇宙
UCCA Center for Contemporary Art presents “Pipilotti Rist: Your Palm is My Universe” between July 19, 2025, and October 19, 2025, a sensually immersive solo by the pioneering Swiss spatial video artist. The exhibition is anchored by 掌心宇宙 Your Palm is My Universe (2025), a newly conceived, site-specific video installation commissioned by UCCA and layered with a specially-created sound composition of the same title by experimental multiinstrumentalist Surma (Débora Umbelino), alongside iconic works that transform UCCA’s Great Hall into a sensorial cosmos of flowing image and layered soundscapes. Interweaving perspectives of female empowerment with ecological philosophy and Taoist ethos, this landmark presentation brings forth Rist’s radiant universe of whimsical defiance.
Commissioned by UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, monumental video installation 掌心宇宙Your Palm is My Universe (2025) transforms the Great Hall into a colorfully charged micro-universe—a space where themes of touch, perception, and expression unfold at their fullest. Spanning 1,800 square meters, it is the largest artwork in physical dimensions the museum has commissioned since its establishment in 2007. The work features delicate, “skin”-like fabrics draped throughout the space, on which a series of looped videos play with a layered soundscape composed by musician Surma (Débora Umbelino) for Rist’s work. Visitors are encouraged to touch and engage, emphasizing the deeply experiential approach of the work and dissolving the perceived distance between the installation and viewer. As the videos are projected onto the fabrics, they also become living, breathing elements of the expansive, somatic artwork. The site-specific nature of the installation adds another layer of experience. Rist imagines the Great Hall as a symbolic body—a collective organism housing the manifestation of her artistic vision for the museum and its audience. Foundational elements of her creative ethos—the human form and sensation—guide the visitor’s eye, humanizing warped visuals and normalizing bodily realities. Here, hands, feet, and faces appear throughout the moving images, extending beyond their frames in gestures inviting engagement rather than passive viewing.