July 7, 2025

Sabriel’s Warmth

He Yunchang

A performance where grief and tenderness take form through enduring gestures, transforming vulnerability into strength and leaving a lingering trace of presence that continues to resonate.

Documents

Documentation

About

Artists

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From July 7–11, 2025, Arts Letters & Numbers hosted He Yunchang’s Performance Art Workshop: Existential Dimensions, a five-day intensive led by the renowned Chinese performance artist known for his works of endurance, devotion, and quiet defiance. Participants were invited into a rare study of He’s methodology—where gesture becomes inquiry, and the body itself a medium for reflection. Through conceptual development, site-specific exercises, and shared critique, the workshop guided artists, students, and curators in exploring the thresholds between idea, action, and presence.

The workshop culminated in Sabriel’s Warmth, a profoundly moving performance presented on July 19 at Arts Letters & Numbers. Through this offering, grief and tenderness unfolded in gestures both fragile and enduring. What remained was a trace of presence—an act of witness carried by those who gathered, and by the images that continue to echo the moment.

Curated by David Gersten and Zhang Xiaorui, with executive curation by Lu Gao, direction of photography by Billy Chen, and music direction by Jiangchen Xi, the program embodied ALN’s spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration and artistic exchange. Documentation of the performance remains part of the ALN archive, with gratitude to all who made this event possible.

All rights to the performance, its images, and documentation remain fully reserved to the artist, He Yunchang.

Photographs by Billy Chen

Workshop Dates

Existential Dimensions

July 7–11, 2025

Performance Dates

July 19, 2025

Sabriel’s Warmth

6 PM • The Barn

Announcement →

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Metroland Interview

#Downloadable Material

Press Release

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Born in Yunnan Province, China in 1967, He Yunchang has lived and worked in Beijing since 1999. He has held solo exhibitions at Wind H Art Center in Beijing, Francisco Carolinum Linz Museum in Austria, Today Art Museum in Beijing, White Box Art Center in Beijing, National Art Museum of Belgium, National Art Museum of Indonesia, Ink Gallery, Tokyo Gallery, Chambers Fine Art Gallery, and Galerie Urs Meile.
He has participated in The 6th Documentary Exhibition of Fine Arts (2023), Chengdu Biennale (2023), G21 Summit Group Exhibition (2021), The Curitiba Biennial (2019), The Gwangju Triennale (2014), The Yokohama Triennial (2014), The 55th Venice Biennale (2013), The Guangzhou Triennial (2012), The 10th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial (2009), The 2nd New York International Performance Art Biennial (2007), The Wall: China (2005), The Sharjah Biennale (2003), The Busan Biennale (2002), Uncooperative Approach (2000), Guangzhou Biennale (1992), and numerous other international exhibitions.
He has received The First Yan Wenliang Youth Art Award (2011), China Contemporary Art Golden Palm Award (2010), Transformation History 2000–2009: China Contemporary Art Award (2010), Olhares Interiores: Macau Museum of Modern Art Performance Art International Exchange Award (2005), China Contemporary Art Award (CCAA), and the Bronze Award (Oil Painting) at The 9th National Exhibition of Fine Arts.
His works have been collected by The National Art Museum of China, The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan, The White Rabbit Gallery in Sydney, The Queensland Art Museum, The Pompidou Museum of Contemporary Art in France, The Macao Museum of Modern Art, The E. R. I. En Meyer Photography Foundation in Switzerland, The M+ Museum in Hong Kong, The Gian Enzo Sperone Collection in Italy, and other public institutions and private collectors.