In Chinese classics such as Zhuangzi and I Ching, the nature of “time” can be elaborated from both the natural and social perspectives. It represents the unbroken and continuous rhythm and cycle of nature’s cyclic linearity as well as the time segments of great value. Time becomes dialectic between the instant and the eternal, as infinite and indivisible as itself. Each present moment is both an extension of history and a look back from the future. The Chinese ancients applied this way of perceiving the temporality of nature to society, attaching importance to “harmonizing the order of four seasons” in response to changes, and in order to achieve the unity of the past and the present as well as the unity of heaven and man. With the gravitational pull of time, traditions are linked to the present and the future. Therefore, human civilization can be interpreted and presented in a more multi-dimensional way.
In modern physics, gravity is a theoretical model of the attractive effect of an object extending into space on another object. It is invisible yet perceivable. In the macroscopic deep-time dimension, space is bonded to time. In a wider space-time dimension, strata are superimposed and events are clustered. The many forms of landscapes shaped by time are a cradle of civilizational progress and life bound to go beyond imagination. City is a gravitational space for people where human activities and collective memories are overlapped and constructed. On the one hand, human practice and cognition promote each other in time and space, fusing history and collective memory into the story of urban space. On the other hand, urban space is constantly renewing itself in the process of adapting to the ever-changing times and social needs. In the time structure, the continuity of civilization, constituted by history, the present and the future, is necessary for the formation of urban identity. It creates an urban gravitational force that makes cultural identity possible and is full of diversity and creativity. Lewis Mumford, in The City in History, has argued that cities are vast containers of human civilization and evolution, and that the attraction created in the accumulation of time concentrates matter and culture and accelerates the speed of human interaction. Its ability to embrace multiculturalism is “the best organ of memory man has yet created” .
With the evolving of society and the advancement of technology, Anthony Giddens used the model of social space-time and human behavior to reconstruct the concept of space and time, treating them as standardized “units” that are socially constructed, so that they operate together with other objective facts and are put into the process of social reproduction. As a result, the concept of “spatio-temporal differentiation” was later put forward. The reality of the separation of time and space makes it possible for collective collaboration to produce a wider range of social relationships. With the iteration of technologies and the infiltration of the Internet, data and virtual reality in life, the “disembedding” of social systems out of indefinite spatiotemporal spans has been accelerated, and the geographic medium has become the new“gravitational force” of people in different time and space in the city. Human activities are no longer limited by the original space and more complex behavioral activities, as well as multiple and composite identities are formed per unit of time. Powerful trends of technological changes and complex and diverse urban ontologies overlap to produce new “historical” landscapes and“digital” texts oriented to the future.
In the clue of art history, art has become a “gravitational force” of “gazing,” perception and expression. Art is the blood that vitalizes urban civilization. It connects history with the contemporary and the local culture with diverse and inclusive foreign cultures, thus bursting into new possibilities of urban dynamics. In the meantime, art is a cultural force for the development of the city’s soft power. As an important phenomenal art event that reveals the urban volume, the 2023 Chengdu Biennale uses art as a text to inspire thinking about cities’ ubiquitous linking.
It also extends to the immaterial connections between people and cities, historical sites and natural landscapes, and technologies. It also focuses on urban samples, exploring the cultural sedimentation formed in their development and the complex symbiotic relationship with nature. Art itself is a gravitational force.
Chengdu, as a major historical city in China and the cradle of ancient Shu civilization, has a rich and diverse urban cultural landscape and innovative urban vitality. While having a rich cultural heritage, Chengdu is also a pioneer in the digital economy and among the first tier in China’s top 50 cities, as revealed by the Digital Development Capability Index. Chengdu is also a practitioner of the idea of park city, where ecology and urban culture coexist in harmony. “Time Gravity – 2023 Chengdu Biennale” will be held during the Chengdu FISU World University Games. We hope that the integration of strength and beauty and the interplay of wisdom and vitality with sensibility and creativity will create an urban gravitational force that will influence more widely and more deeply. The Biennale earnestly implements the important speech delivered by General Secretary Xi Jinping at the Symposium on Cultural Inheritance and Development. It aims to carry forward the cultural heritage while exchanging and learning from each other in the vibrant and anticipated context of contemporary art. By unveiling a multidimensional timeline of society and culture, the exhibition showcases the art of contemporary stars through a dialogue of diversity between tradition and avant-garde, local and global, humanity and nature. Inspired by the brilliant imagination of ancient Shu culture, the event aims to enable art to interact with the city and daily life, showing the inclusive cultural values and artistic atmosphere of the new era and depicting the picture of contemporary art fulfilling its cultural mission in the new era.