In Xin Liu’s curatorial reflections for 2024, a core methodological orientation has become increasingly clear: she no longer regards an exhibition as a closed text requiring a unified interpretation, but rather conceives of it as a field of perception in which meaning is continually generated. Within this field, difference, interval and uncertainty are not obstacles to be overcome, but rather the structural conditions through which meaning comes into being.

Her focus is not on how to establish mutually corroborating relationships between works, but rather on how to generate an irreducible tension amongst them through the juxtaposition of different media, painting, sculpture, video and interdisciplinary practices. This tension does not aim for reconciliation, but rather remains open, allowing the viewer to experience the slow crystallisation of meaning within it.

Interval plays a key role here. Xin Liu does not attempt to fill the gaps between works, but rather deliberately preserves them, transforming them into productive spaces where the viewer can pause, hesitate and look back repeatedly. When the meaning of one work cannot be immediately continued or explained by the next, the viewer’s perception is suspended in a state of incompleteness. It is precisely this suspension that transforms meaning from a passively received conclusion into a process that gradually emerges through time and perception. The curator’s role thus shifts from ‘interpreting works’ to ‘establishing conditions’, creating the structural conditions that allow differences to manifest and dialogue to take place.

This curatorial approach also entails a conscious avoidance of binary, oppositional narratives. Liu refrains from reducing different cultural contexts or media traditions to simplistic dichotomies such as East versus West or traditional versus contemporary; instead, she seeks to dissolve cultural distinctions and geographical boundaries into a shared psychological landscape. Within this landscape, the relationships between works are not based on superficial similarities, but on deeper perceptual logics and conceptual resonances.

Meaning does not arise within the works themselves, nor in the curator’s interpretative texts, but rather in those unpredictable moments of encounter,between the works, between the works and the space, and between the works and the viewer. This active engagement with conditions of negation lends Liu's curatorial practice in 2024 a distinctive openness: it does not seek definitive certainty, but rather maintains the vitality and fluidity of meaning through a state of continuous suspension.