Alt-Alterity

About

In the midst of gathering storms — genocides, wars, forced displacements, global climate collapse, the ascendency of technocracy, alongside the unyielding presence of unjust ideologies such as sexism, racism, colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism — Underground Art And Design (UAAD) introduces their curatorial and editorial initiative, Alt-Alterity. It emerges as a profound and timely attempt to provoke a co-imagination of an alternative paradigm for how humanity engages with both the "other" inhabitants of the planet and "each other" within societies.

"Alterity," from the Latin "Alteritas," signifies the state of being other or different. The prefix "Alt" suggests "alternative," one of the derivatives of "Alterity."

“Alt-Alterity” is a manifesto for the future of coexistence, a way of being in which the notion of “alterity” need not exist, prompting a departure from an anthropocentric perspective to one that values a comprehensive appreciation of planetary diversity and interconnectedness.

From December 2023 to February 2024, Alt-Alterity features the creative voices of 26 groups of artists hailing from 13 countries. From the imagination of reversed realities and hybrid forms of existence to the exploration of marginal cultural expressions and the blurred boundaries of fluid identity, we will guide you through the following themes: "Unsung Wisdom, Rebel Tech", "Ephemeral Cycles, Everlasting Collapses", and "Fluid Bodies, Blurred Boundaries."

/Artists

Aiping Xu, A.J. Cincotta-Eichenfield, Angela M Link, Bobby Zhaocheng Xiong, Chia-Hua Lee, Christie Lau, Betty Russ and Michael Donnelly, Fatima Al-Kuwari, Flavia Mazzanti, Ishraki Kazi, Joshua Carlos Barrera, Krithi Nalla, Ludovica Galleani d'Aglian, Meiyi Jiang and Xiaoting Tan, Mehrdad Sedaghat Baghbani, Mingyong Cheng, Mo Nan, Shashwath Santosh, Symonne Liu, Tiange Wang and I-Yang Huang, Tianyun Jiang, Xinyuan Ma, Yimei Zheng, Yu Chen, Yuwen Huang, Yuqing Liang, Zhijun Song and Yalin Hu

/Curators

Xiaofan Jiang, Fangyi Yang