The Peripheral Experiment
The Peripheral Experiment 2025
Date: 24-25 May 2024
Venue: Topu Town, China
Curating the Invisible, Invisibly Curated.
The Peripheral Experiment is a continually evolving exploration. From the untamed vitality of its previous edition to the current phase of negotiating with rules and boundaries, we continue to navigate uncertainty, refining our path along the way. As an “anti-festival,” The Peripheral Experiment resists becoming a conventional platform for display. Instead, it aspires to be a space that nurtures mutual observation, shared presence, and genuine exchange.
This year, we propose the curatorial ethos “Curating the Invisible, Invisibly Curated”. It reflects our commitment to gathering and illuminating voices that are marginal, minute, and untamed- those practices and expressions that elude easy visibility, definition, or assimilation into dominant systems. At the same time, we resist the traditional curatorial impulse to impose structure or control, opting instead for an approach that is open, fluid, and discreet. This is not an intervention of authority, but an experiment in coexistence.
The second edition of The Peripheral Experiment will take place from May 24 to 25, 2025, unfolding across a constellation of unconventional sites in Topu Town: art museums, lakesides, bookstores, basements, unnamed public zones, the ruins at village fringes, grassy fields, roadside curbs… Within a 40-hour window, 52 artists from diverse backgrounds will activate 35 artistic actions – including exhibitions, performances, moving images, actions, sound pieces, improvisations, discussions, workshops, live script games, and open exchanges.
The Peripheral Experiment 2024
Date: 29-30 June 2024
Venue: Topu Town, China
The Peripheral Experiment is an impromptu independent art gathering initiated by Huang Suhuai and Liu Xiaoyi, envisioned as a small, random, and unorganized art festival. We encourage independent, experimental, and unfinished works or works-in-progress, while also providing participants with opportunities for exchange, creative support, and advice for future development. The selection of works adheres to the principle of “No Barriers, No Selection, No Censorship.”
The inaugural Peripheral Experiment took place from June 29 to 30, 2024, across various spaces in Topu Town, including art galleries, lakesides, bookstores, village ruins, meadows, and street curbs. Over the course of 30 hours, 16 artists from Topu Town, Nantong, Shanghai, Kunshan, Hangzhou, Hefei, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia presented 16 art events. These included exhibition installations, theatre performances, performance art, film screenings, cultural policy research presentations, music performances, workshops, and more.
We warmly invite you to join us at the edge of the city.
