“Temporary Eternity” is rooted in the time-honored dialectic of Chronos and Kairos. Kairos refers to the opportune moment, whereas Chronos signifies sequential, chronological and cumulative structure of time. In the context of city time, the “Temporary” can be seen as Kairos, qualitative time—the urban time that is not bound by linear rhythm, but is decisive for actions and events. The “Eternity”, by contrast, corresponds to Chronos, the continuous and measurable time structure—regulated by deliberate long-term planning, and sustaining urban institutions and development logic. The “Temporary” is not the antithesis of the “Eternity”, instead, they are intertwined and interdependent. Propelled by countless transient states, together they form a sustained temporal structure in oscillation.

Shenzhen is precisely a city that manifests this model of “Temporary Eternity”. Its project-based short-cycle production, high-frequency spatial iteration and fluid population mobility have collectively institutionalized the “Temporary” states into a lasting mode of urban governance. The paradigm for defining the contemporary city is undergoing a fundamental shift: its ontological basis is moving away from a mappable spatial form toward the operations on invisible and fluid time. Temporary Eternity, this Biennale is deconstructed into four process-states:  how events are generated; how processes endure; how traces are preserved; how meanings are deferred. It constructs a temporary structure infinitely progressing in oscillation, mirroring the city’s own mechanisms of time.

Thereby, Temporary Eternity invites us to pose an ontological inquiry into time itself: when the mentality of running for short cycles dominates the way a city operates, and when renewal becomes the norm and conservation the exception, how can such a temporal structure reshape urban lifestyle and social relations? When ephemeralities replace certainties, and event-driven dynamics supplant accumulative ones, how can experience acquired in a city be preserved, circulated or shared? In a city under constant reshuffling, how can individuals position and establish themselves, keeping and extending their memories, connections and meanings?

The exhibition doesn’t seek to provide definitive answers to these questions, but rather to examine urban mechanisms, cultural renewal and individual experiences that are placed within the same temporal framework. It inspires participants to reflect on: how do we coexist with others, with this city, in this temporary eternity?

Quadrant I: Becoming  

Here art is incarnated into a kind of “event”, intervening in the city through its spontaneity and proactivity. It captures and creates Kairos—those fleeting opportune moments, opening a “crack in time” within existing urban framework and rhythm. This section focuses on video, bodily intervention and spontaneously generated creations, responding to the spontaneous use of temporary spaces, cultural flash mobs, short-term collaborations and community-engagement actions within a city.

Quadrant II: Duration

Having been stretched, the "Temporary" reveals the volume of time. This section examines how art constructs an internal "temporal infrastructure" through process aesthetics and repetitive rhythms. The works acquire a tenacious power of sustaining when the life cycles and forms of the materials and mediums adopted are re-imagined and extended. Looking back at urban society, the logic that justifies the mechanism of rapid consumption and regeneration is, to maintain a dynamic stability in flux—making the “Temporary” a duration.

Quadrant III: Trace

Cities and memories are rewritten in constant elapses. Here art plays the role of archiving and reconstructing—not to seal the past, but to regenerate memory. Through the traces left by objects and the reproduction of images, art translates vanishing events into experiences and institutional time that can be read, allowing the invisible time layers deposited in demolition and reconstruction to re-emerge.

Quadrant IV: Deferral

Here, the “unfinished” is not imperfect, but a fully-charged potential. Art and the city together enter a deferral of time—where meanings keep drifting and forms resist finalization. The eternity of Shenzhen, doesn’t lie in still monotony, but rather grows out of endless fluidity and open oscillation. In their oscillations, art and city jointly form an “ecosystem of time”.

Duration: Dec. 4-7, 2025

Venue:Hall 6, Shenzhen Convention & Exhibition Center (Futian), "Art Shenzhen", Booth D01

Funded project of Shenzhen Cultural Development Promotion Funds

Coordinators: Hao Qiang, Yang Xiaoyang

Curator: Yang Yong

Executive Curators: Lin Runyin, Li Huiyi

Executive Team: Shangqi Art

Sponsor: Shenzhen Federation of Literary and Art Circles

Organizers: Shenzhen Public Culture and Art Creation Center (Shenzhen Fine Art Institute) / Shenzhen Artists Association / Shenzhen International Cultural Industry Fair Co., Ltd. / Shangqi Art

Acknowledgements: CLC Gallery / De Sarthe Gallery / WHITE SPACE / NONG ART / MOCUBE / Inna Art Space / ShanghART Gallery