About

Xy June Li (Xingying Li)
(b. 1988 in 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 examine 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 criticizing 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 the 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.

Breaking Horizon (since 2024) 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.

Ministry of Artificial Truth (MOAT) (currently at the research
stage) is a fictional institution I built 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.

CV

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

2026
“Breaking Horizon” | HuMBASE, Stuttgart

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
“Diese Ausstellung hat keinen Titel/无题” | Böblingen Kunstverein, Böblingen

2025
Project “Kuling Consulate” | 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 Faculties | 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 & Fellowship

Residency

2027 | Studio Residency Fellowship | Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (Baden-Württemberg Ministry)
2025 | Kosovo Consulate Residency, BB Foundation | Stuttgart

Lectures, Talks & Workshops (selected)

2027 | Seminar “Language, Naming, and Institutional Structures” (co-convened) | Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe
2026 | Contribution, Symposium Ambivalente Sichtbarkeiten | Universität der Künste Berlin | Talk on Bildpolitik | Critical Faculties, Berlin
2026 | Empowerment workshop series for the Asian diaspora: “Wieder verbunden mit den eigenen Wurzeln”, “Was schmückt Dich?”, “Die Kunst der Verbindung” (co-conceived and co-facilitated with Idzumi Neumärker and Dr. Caroline Yi) | Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart
2026 | Workshop “A Body Exercise on the Perception of Time” in the context of Breaking Horizon | HuMBASE, Stuttgart
2021 | Artist Talk on New Materialisms in Art Practice | Freies Radio Stuttgart
https://www.freies-radio.de/sendungsdetails/202104261700

Press

2026
“Kunstverein Böblingen: Eine Ausstellung ganz ohne Titel” | Sindelfinger Zeitung / Böblinger Zeitung
Feature on two-person exhibition “Diese Ausstellung hat keinen Titel/无题,” Kunstverein Böblingen (September 21, 2026)
2023
“Umsetzung mit Hund oder auch mit Ameise” | Schwäbisches Tagblatt
Feature on solo exhibition “Walkabout,” Kulturhalle Tübingen (March 14, 2023)

Publications

About

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

Artist Statement

CV

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