About

Xy June Li (b. 1988 in Jiujiang, China) lives and works in Stuttgart, Germany

Artist Statement

My practice is grounded in language as agency. Working across video, installation, performance, painting, publication, and intervention, I question how realities are narrated, challenge who holds the authority to tell histories, and how power operates inside different narrative systems such as bureaucracies, archives, and AI.

I use fiction to intervene in reality, treat language as material to play with time perceptions, and find alternative paths into the past. My approach to criticize institutional authorities is to keep the outer form of a system solid while playing with the logic running inside.

Three projects extend these concerns in different directions.

The Kuling Project (since 2023) is a long-term investigation into a colonial mountain resort founded in 19^th century by the British missionary Edward Selby Little (Li Deli), in the region where I grew up in China. Based on this hidden history, I experiment with various methods to evoke a silenced past and reconstruct different gazes onto our histories.

Ministry of Artificial Truth (MOAT) (since 2024) is a fictional institution I build to investigate the patterns of power and the violence of language embedded in generative AI. The current focus is on languages saturated with ideology that LLMs (Large Language Models) inherit from their training data.

Breaking the Horizon (since 2026) questions the linear time perception carried in Western language. Drawing on the Chinese time-space concept and Walter Benjamin’s Angel of History – both of which place the past in front and the future behind – the project works to decolonize Western temporality.

CV

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

2025
“The Story of Kuling” | HuMBASE, Stuttgart
Art Intervention “We Are Here” | Main Train Station, Stuttgart

2023
“Walkabout” | Kulturhalle, Tübingen
“Gaia—Landscape as Agency” | Kulturhaus Schwanen, Waiblingen

Group Exhibitions/Projects (selected)

2026
Böblingen Kunstverein, Böblingen (Upcoming)

2025
Project “The Consulate of Kuling” | Consulate, BB Foundation House, Stuttgart
Performer (live performance) | POLYPHONIC HOT AIR, Anahita Razmi; Current City Festival, Stuttgart

2024
“OK, Bye” | Kunstbezirk, Stuttgart
“Time Based Community” | Altes Automatenwerk Feuerbach, Stuttgart

2023
Project “Unseal the Water” at the Workshop “Utopia as Practice” within “Open for Maintenance” | German Pavilion, Venice Architecture Biennale, Italy
Art Intervention “Künstlerhaus Stuttgart as Artist Travel Agency”| Künstlerhaus Stuttgart
“Recent Posts” | Former Conrad, Stuttgart
“Absurd Naturalism” | AKKU-Künstlerverbund, Stuttgart
“Deus Ex Machina” | Gewerkschaftshaus, Stuttgart

2022
“Labour, Arbeit, iş” | Labor Court, Stuttgart

2021
“Lebabbabel” | OSO-9 Project in cooperation with Current City Festival, Stuttgart
“Speculative Future” | White Noise Club, Stuttgart
“Turn Around” | WKV, Stuttgart

2018
“Kunext” | Kulturhalle, Tübingen

Education

2019–2024 | Diplom in Fine Arts
State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, Germany
Under Profs. Heba Amin, Sam Durant, and Katrin Plavčak
2015–2020 | Master of Arts in International Literatures
Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, Germany
2011 | Postgraduate Diploma in Translation (Chinese-English)
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
2006–2010 | Bachelor of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language
Nanchang University, China

Professional Experience & Engagement

2026–Present | Research Associate | Critical Faclities | Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe
2025–Present | Art Education Collaboration | Württembergischer Kunstverein & Esslingen Art Academy
2021–Present | Freelance Chinese Language & Art Teacher
2024 | RISE Leadership Program for BIPoC, Berlin
2023–2024 | Concept Group “Action Weeks Against Racism”
Organized lecture/workshop “An Exchange on Anti-Asian Racism,” Stuttgart
2022–2024 | Tutor | Prof. Heba Amin’s Class, State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart

Scholarships & Awards

Residency

2027 | Studio Residency Fellowship | Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (Baden-Württemberg Ministry)

Artist Talks & Press

2023
“Umsetzung mit Hund oder auch mit Ameise” | Schwäbisches Tagblatt
Feature on solo exhibition “Walkabout,” Kulturhalle Tübingen (March 14, 2023)
2021
Artist Talk on New Materialisms in Art Practice | Freies Radio Stuttgart
https://www.freies-radio.de/sendungsdetails/202104261700

Publications