Artist-in-Residence

Zishi Han

Residency

25.09 – 10.12.26
YDP

Zishi Han and Wei Yang, Loach Water, Four Boxes, Skive, 2026. Installation view, exhibition commissioned by Politikens Forhal, Copenhagen, 2025. Courtesy of the artists and Four Boxes.

Display on view 02.10–19.12.2026

YDP hosts Zishi Han as our 2026 autumn Artist-in-Residence.

Zishi Han is drawn to things that contain and let through, membranes and structures under tension, and forms caught in processes of adaptation and metamorphosis. In his work, materials appear in temporary states, carrying traces of being acted upon and signs of transformation.

Han’s residency at YDP begins with a display of the nocturnal flights of stillness (2026), a recent moving-image work revolving around forces that are sensed before understood. The video will be shown in the Artist’s Lab alongside a low vibrating platform at the centre of the space.

Han approaches the display at YDP as a spatial condition, where architecture, materials and sensory experience become entangled. Ephemeral elements pass through and unsettle otherwise rigid structures. The space becomes an apparatus of power that shapes how bodies move, sense and relate to their surroundings through attraction, dependency and attachment.

Vibration is important in Han’s work. It inhabits a structure while continuously unsettling it from within. This dependence carries masochistic, parasitic intimacy: the host sustains the force that acts upon it while being altered by its passage. Moving directly through the body, vibration can transmit and provoke feelings, transforming it into a field that precedes language.

Over the course of Han’s residency, the platform will become a point of departure for further experiments: a stage, an instrument, or a surface shared by performers, objects and visitors. Performances and small interventions will gradually shift the display.

About the Artist

Zishi Han (b. 1990, Beijing) is an artist based in Frankfurt am Main. His work spans installation, sculpture, moving image, sound and performance. He often develops projects with sustained attention to spatial conditions and material behaviours. Before studying art, Han trained as an engineer and designer, and graduated from Städelschule in 2024.

Han’s work has been presented internationally at Guangdong Times Museum, Busan Biennale, SculptureCenter, Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Politikens Forhal, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, West Den Haag and Fondazione Antonio Ratti. He received the inaugural E.A.T. PRIZE in 2024, jointly presented by Guangdong Times Museum, MACA and Rockbund Art Museum.

YDP is closed for the summer from 16 August. We look forward to welcoming you back in October.