The exhibition “The New Survivors” follows the trajectory of trauma theory towards universalisation, and later lands on the hybrid reality we face today—where man-made traumatic events such as disasters, violence, and conflict are naturally disguised, falsified, and fabricated. In this way, the traumatic experience becomes an accidental, unanticipated shock that begins by chance and remains dormant for a long time in the present human life cycle. The exhibition attempts to travel through the present and historical moment through the medium of photography and video to re-witness the complete process of trauma exposure, deterioration, and subject survival, in order to suggest that we are in an “even more dangerous era of trauma,” the new survivors' identity needs to be re-identified and redefined.


ABOUT Wang Shuman
Wang Shuman (b. 1993, Nanjing, China), holds a master’s degree in art curating from the Department of Art History and Film Studies at the University of Sydney, and currently lives and works in Shanghai. After joining OCAT Shanghai in 2017, she has served as the supervisor of the exhibition department since 2018. Wang has years of experience in organising and coordinating exhibitions at OCAT Shanghai, which include Frontier: Refocusing on the Medium: “The Rise of East Asia Video Art” (2020), “I Hear Your Dreams: Contemporary Art from Norway” (2019), “Re-assessment of Post-Globalisational Politics” (2017).
More recently, she turns her attention to the emerging media art practices, and curated OCAT x KADIST Emerging Media Artist Exhibition “| ‘In Solidarity with____’ & ‘UN/ CONVENTIOANL’” (2022/20), “Payne Zhu: Match Pool” (2022), “Liao Fei: Is everything a contingent occurrence?” (2021), “Luka Yuanyuan Yang: Shanghai Low” (2020). In addition, she is a bilingual editor (Chinese-English) in OCAT Shanghai’s research team, responsible for the E-journal Amplifier, publications, and exhibition catalogues.
Wang is also a curator and writer working in the field of media art. Her recent research interests revolve around the tension between the self and the multiplicity of power, and the proxy rules run during the exercise of power. She was the finalist in the Hyundai Blue Prize Art+Tech 2022. Her writing about contemporary art appears regularly in publications including Artforum, Art-Ba-Ba, ARTDBL, etc.