The earth is the substantial material foundation and the starting point of civilization in this time-space dimension where we live. If we see the ground as a mirror, then the myriad landforms treasured in it not only fostered the initial appearance attributes of humans living in different places around the world, but also shaped their diverse characters and complex social structures in different civilizations. In the process of initially coexisting with nature, humans slowly began to use such media as knotting, painting, writing, dancing, and sacrifices to record their behaviors, celebrate harvests, forecast social crises, and construct the order in the mind. These behaviors are collectively referred to as “art” today. As symbols of human consciousness and emotional expression, they play the role as a bridge to link the people with the outside world, depicting the unceasing pulse of life on earth.

Today, art not only faces echoes from nature but also depicts a picture of urban space and modern society that has been disenchanted by technology, knowledge and rationality. The reason for this is that on the one hand, urbanization is an inevitable result of the improved social productivity and evolved production methods. Since the mid-18th century, Britain after the Industrial Revolution has set off a wave of urbanization with worldwide influence. On the other hand, art works are not only the embodiments of nature but also the reflections of social contradictions at that time. On this basis, attention to urban issues seems to be inevitable for the development of art itself. The turning of art began with the French Impressionists’ attention to urban life at the end of the 19th century. The various modernist schools that later emerged quickly withdrew from the image characteristics of the agricultural era on the basis of industrial society and transformed art into a arena for discussion of form and thought. Fortunately, entering the 1990s, Chinese contemporary art witnessed the entire process of urbanization while encountering the spectacle of “modernity”. The unknown diversity of urban life has become the theme for the various artistic concepts and media expressions. Today it seems that it is precisely these contents that have constructed people’s infinite imagination about urban content in time-space dimensions.

Of course, the problems presented during the process of urbanization today are no longer as radical as they were in the early days, but in such an overlapping and multi-dimensional structure, the urban cri- sis has turned into another side of the natural crisis. Urban life is full of consumption landscapes where people constantly seek stimulations and human-centered behaviors based solely on rationality, causing more traditional social spaces that retain their natural appearance to be dissolved in terms of resources and environment and losing the possibility of sustainability, while the continuous and single landscape of “megacities” dominates the world. These conditions are bound to trigger a reflection on urban culture. Therefore, the “Echoes of the Earth” section hopes to again bring “enchantment to cities” through the diverse practices of contemporary art. However, the “re-enchantment” of nature does not mean returning to the original view of nature, but rebuilding the relationship with nature on a scientific basis to achieve unity of technologies, ethics and aesthetics. Only when we approach nature with an aesthetic attitude and treat nature with an attitude of constantly reflecting on our own behaviors can we add a poetic touch to the technical activities in both urban life and nature.

Calvino asks a question in Invisible Cities: What does today’s city mean to us? He answers with fifty-five stories: At a time when it is increasingly difficult for us to live in cities as cities, the conjuncture of urban life is approaching. Invisible Cities is his last love poem dedicated to cities. I may be more optimistic than Calvino and believe that with the joint efforts of artists and audiences, urban poetry will continue to thrive and last forever. As an experimental exhibition, “Echoes of the Earth” starts from thinking about the situation of urban life itself to bring art and reality together, and assumes the relationship between current culture and nature in a state of constant changing, gathering and disintegration. What it presents is not a simulation of simple natural phenomena but a product of thought or a dream that grows out of visible and invisible urban life, that is, audiences and art listen to nature together, explore questions that have no answers for now, and find meaning in balancing life between instinct and reason.