The ninth Jing’an International Sculpture Project (2026 JISP), titled “Shapes of Becoming,” brings together 33 artist groups from 14 countries, presenting 36 works across Jing’an Sculpture Park and multiple public sites throughout the district. Nearly 60 percent of the featured works are by international artists, while close to 70 percent are newly commissioned for this edition.

As a biennial public art project, JISP continues to use sculpture as a means of observing and responding to a changing reality. In 2026, the rapid development of artificial intelligence is reshaping the boundaries between the physical and the virtual, the real and the generated. Against this backdrop, sculpture—an art form deeply grounded in material, scale, weight and space—takes on renewed significance. “Shapes of Becoming” focuses on moments when reality is still taking shape and new relationships are beginning to emerge, drawing on nature, material, urban life, personal memory and technological experience to explore new possibilities for contemporary sculpture.

Alongside traditional materials such as stone and metal, light, sound, reflection, moving image and digital technologies form part of the exhibition’s expanded sculptural vocabulary. Wind and light, the life of ancient trees, changes in soil, memories of the city, stars and digital signals all become material for artistic practice. Sculpture is no longer approached solely as an autonomous physical object, but as something that unfolds through time, environment and embodied perception. With Jing’an Sculpture Park open 24 hours a day, a number of works also shift between daylight and darkness, allowing light, weather, sound and the surrounding city to become active parts of the exhibition experience.

Jing’an Sculpture Park serves as the principal venue, while the exhibition extends along two of Jing’an’s defining urban axes—Nanjing West Road and Suzhou Creek—to Jing An Kerry Centre JAKC, Jing’an Park, Jing’an Shuangyong Park, Fotografiska Shanghai and Shanghai Suhewan MIXC WORLD. From public parks and commercial districts to waterfront spaces and cultural institutions, artworks enter existing routes of walking, commuting, leisure and gathering. The city becomes not simply a backdrop for sculpture, but one of the conditions through which the works are encountered, perceived and connected with the public.

The 2026 edition also opens key public spaces to a new generation of artists. The central lawn of Jing’an Sculpture Park features “Horizon,” a section dedicated to newly commissioned works by artists under the age of 45. JISP has also initiated “Shanghai New Sculpture: The Next Form” in collaboration with the Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts and the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts, Shanghai University. Four groups of emerging artists were selected to participate in the exhibition, providing an opportunity for new artistic practices to move beyond the academy and into the lived context of the city.

2026 JISP is curated by Cheng Jing of UCCA Lab, with Jin Heyun serving as Project Supervisor, together leading the UCCA Lab project team in the organization and presentation of the exhibition.

Selected works in the exhibition have received support from Yi Tong, the French Artist Residency Program in China, initiated and coordinated by the Embassy of France in China, as well as from the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Shanghai.