Hao Jingban: I Witness

Blending documentary sensibility with poetic construction, Hao Jingban makes moving-image installations that are emotionally precise, historically incisive, and formally experimental. About Working slowly and off-camera, she treads carefully around histories that have been obscured, forgotten, or actively suppressed—those shaped by political rupture, cultural transition, or generational silence—building trust with her subjects over months or years and leaving room for refusal, anonymity, and fragmentation. Hao's first major US museum solo gathers recent work centered on I Witness (2025), a three-channel installation that takes up the embodied residue of the COVID-19 pandemic: four participants move slowly through a well-lit apartment, their images punctuated by stories of loss—an older woman who sleeps alone and rises to clean her refrigerator, a group of young people pacing an open field. Set to an ambient hum of heavy breathing and refrigerator-like drones, I Witness opens a space for the body's own testimony to be heard. Hao Jingban lives and works between Yunnan Province, China, and Berlin, Germany. She received an MA from the University of London and BA from Goldsmiths College. Recent solo exhibitions include Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2025); Matadero Madrid (2020); OCT Contemporary Art Terminal, Xi'an, China (2019) and recent group exhibitions at venues including 36th Bienal de São Paulo (2025); Rockbund Art Museum (2025); TANK Shanghai (2024); West Bund Museum, Shanghai (2023); Seoul Mediacity Biennale (2021); among others. Hao's works are in the collection of the M+, Hong Kong; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Frac Bretagne, Rennes; the Power Station of Art, Shanghai; Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona. Hao Jingban: I Witness is organized by Natalie Bell, Chief Curator. Read more Toggle Installation Film / Video