Beijing exhibit highlights empathy, connection

"After a year-long social distancing and isolation around the world, it's never been so clear how much we crave connection and understanding as social beings," said a staff member of the museum's curatorial department.

Slated to run until March 7, the show, free to the public, invites visitors to explore how empathy helps connect one with themselves, others, and even technology, organizers said.

Aside from connecting with themselves in a meditative manner through interacting with Zhang's work, visitors can take a walk down memory lane to connect with their family through Memento No.2, a monument-shaped installation consisted of all the furniture a Chinese family used between the 1980s and the early 2000s.

"The tables and chairs in my work were commonly seen in Chinese homes during that period," said the artist Niu Wenbo, hoping his art "can help audiences feel connected with their family and past in this fast-changing era".