Artist Hu Weiyi, nominated by X Contemporary Art, received the 2025 Jimei × Arles Discovery Award for his work The Inner Obscura. Zhuang Zhihui, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Jimei District Committee and Head of the Publicity Department, presented the award certificate to the artist. RongRong&inri presented the RMB 100,000 (pre-tax) cash prize supported by the Cathay Capital. In 2026, Hu Weiyi will be invited to hold a solo exhibition at Les Rencontres d'Arles in France.
The winner of the award was announced by juror Bas Vroege, and juror Cao Dan delivered the jury's citation: "The jury believes that in The Inner Obscura, Hu Weiyi dissolves his own gastric acid into the chemical solution used for developing film in darkroom, introducing an unpredictable intervention into images of mountains and natural landscapes through the most intimate of bodily fluids. Through embodied physical pain and individual trauma, the artist retraces the origins of image production and re-examines the ethical relationship between photographer and subject, and between art and technology. At a time when digital imagery pursues visual spectacle, he uses the human body as a medium to push the boundaries of art, allowing life, nature, and the act of creation to generate new meanings and new visual worlds through continuous digestion and transformation."
Hu Weiyi
Hu Weiyi was born in 1990 in Shanghai, China. He graduated from the China Academy of Art with a BA in Public Art in 2013, concluding his studies with an MA in Media. He lives and works in Shanghai. His work has been the subject of major museum solo shows including the Asian Art Center Taipei and Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Beijing. Further exhibitions have included the Yuz Museum, Power Station of Art, Long Museum, MoCA Shanghai, Guangdong Times Museum, Minsheng Art Museum, CAFA Art Museum, and Hong Kong Arts Centre. His work has been exhibited at international institutions including Helmhaus Zürich, White Rabbit Gallery Chippendale, and V2_ Rotterdam. In 2014, Hu Weiyi won the 2nd Art Sanya Huayu Youth Award Grant Jury Prize.