Beijing Dangdai Art Fair 2027 will take place from May 27 to 30 in Hall 11 of the National Agricultural Exhibition Center. Its annual theme, “IN FLOW”, takes this fundamental rhythm of life as its starting point, exploring how people and art find new ways of perceiving, connecting, and creating through ongoing encounters with the world.

Beijing Dangdai Art Fair 2027 will take place from May 27 to 30 in Hall 11 of the National Agricultural Exhibition Center. Its annual theme, “IN FLOW”, titled “呼吸” (breathing) in Chinese, takes this fundamental rhythm of life as its starting point, exploring how people and art find new ways of perceiving, connecting, and creating through ongoing encounters with the world.

The Fair’s annual themes have consistently explored the relationships between people, art, and the world. Previous themes: “REUNION” called for renewed connections, “COHESION” brought collective energies together, “CONCAVE-CONVEX” explored differences and affinities, and “LAND TRACE” traced the imprints of history and geography. “IN FLOW” extends these inquiries, considering how individuals connect with the world and how art sustains its vitality and generates new possibilities through continuous exchange.

Every breath brings the body into exchange with the world beyond it. As a metaphor,  “呼吸” also evokes openness and mutual awareness between people, and between people and art: we absorb new experiences and respond to the world through creation and expression. Through this reciprocal movement, art continually unfolds and transforms. This understanding resonates with the notion of “becoming” in process philosophy, in which things continually take shape through relationships, movement, and change. The English theme, “IN FLOW,” extends the metaphor of breathing to the dynamic, ever-moving currents of art, ideas, and culture.

Within contemporary art, “呼吸” also signifies openness and growth. Art sustains its vitality through ongoing processes of absorption and creation, convergence and divergence, emergence and renewal. Emerging artists, new ideas, and encounters among different localities, regional cultures, and lived experiences across the globe together form an artistic ecosystem that continues to breathe.

Beijing Dangdai Art Fair is like an annual “deep breath” for the city. From May 27 to 30, 2027, art institutions, artists, and artworks from around the world will gather at the National Agricultural Exhibition Center. Through a rich concentration of encounters and exchanges, they will showcase the vitality and ongoing renewal of the artistic ecosystem, inviting audiences to “Tune into Art Zone of Beijing”, an open world of art in constant motion.