The 15th Shanghai Biennale has selected Kitty Scott as chief curator. Slated to run from 8 November 2025 to 31 March 2026 at the Power Station of Art (PSA), the edition is titled Does the flower hear the bee?.
The title takes inspiration from the recent scientific discovery that flowers also serve as an information gathering agent rather than being a passive resource alone. Under this theme various forms of sensorial communication and intelligence will be explored, as well as intersections between humans and the ‘more-than-human world’.
‘We have long known now that when bees gather, they communicate and share knowledge with each other. We are only just recognising that this network of communication extends even further,’ Scott said in a statement. ‘It turns out that flowers too are gathering information, and we now appreciate that they “hear” the vibration of honeybee wings, which causes them to secrete a sweeter nectar in their presence.’
Kitty Scott is currently Strategic Director at Canadian charity Shorefast and its cultural programme Fogo Island Arts. Previously she has served as Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Carol and Morton Rapp Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Director of Visual Arts at The Banff Centre, Chief Curator at Serpentine Gallery as well as Curator of Contemporary Art at the National Gallery of Canada.
