Song Chen: Soil Artivism, Ritual Repair, and the Mythic Body

SummaryThis episode follows the Shanghai-based artist Song Chen (宋陈), whose practice treats soil not simply as an environmental theme but as a medium, a witness, and a moral problem. Beginning from the premise that urban life is designed to keep soil out of sight, the episode asks what it means to build modern comfort on damaged ground. Song’s early earth-based works, including Dust to Dust and Breakthrough, stage a stark rhythm of burial and emergence, while her Walking Landscape figures imagine the human body as a porous terrain that carries ecological burden rather than mastering it.The episode then turns to Song’s 2019 World Soil Day exhibition Healing Land in Suzhou, centered on Wounded Soil and the installation Soil Fetus. Here, soil injury is framed as life injury, with reproductive imagery pushing viewers toward responsibility rather than distant concern. Moving between scientific protocols of sampling and classification and mythic imagination through the figure of Nuwa, Song builds an ethics of mending that resists quick fixes. Beyond the gallery, she develops public platforms—forums, education programs, and participatory rituals—that make soil care repeatable, arguing that ecological attention has to be practiced, not just felt.Keywords Song Chen, soil artivism, World Soil Day, Healing Land, Wounded Soil, Soil Fetus, soil toxicity, citizen laboratory, Nuwa, mythic repair, ecofeminist resonance, public pedagogy, participatory ritual, ecological literacy, soil biodiversityKey References Arthing (艺术人人网). “宋陈个展：土地频率”Song Chen Solo Exhibition：Land Frequency. 艺术人人网. https://www.arthing.org/archives/2025/12/4850796.html. 2025.Beijing Art Now Gallery (北京现在画廊). “Breakthrough: Song Chen Solo Exhibition” (破土而出：宋陈个展). http://beijingartnow.com/EnExh_Details.aspx?id=24&model=ew. 2012.Song Chen 宋陈. “Documentary: Wounded Soil” (纪录片《殇土》). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laSCiDWv-kA&list=PLZtBZjNoH8-_X9xdDahlFEn8N7cmtbZDP. 2019Song Chen 宋陈. “Dust to Dust” (尘归尘) Series and Collection History. Beijing Art Now Gallery. http://www.beijingartnow.com/EnWorks.aspx?id=30&md=1. 2011.Song Chen 宋陈. Artist Biography, CV, and Selected Works. Artsy. https://www.artsy.net/artist/song-chen-song-chen/cv. 2025.SUIS QingPu. “Reviewing Clay Art and Building Awareness of Soil Ecology — Field Trip to Song’s ‘Ecological Chronicle’ at the Xinqiao Art Museum.” https://qingpu-en.suis.com.cn/2022/02/22/reviewing-clay-art-and-building-awareness-of-soil-ecology-a-middle-school-study-field-trip-at-the-xinqiao-art-museum/. 2022.United Nations. “World Soil Day: Background of the Observance.” https://www.un.org/en/observances/world-soil-day. 2025.Xinqiao Art Museum (上海新桥美术馆). “Soil Ecology: Song Chen Ecological Art Exhibition” (土壤生态纪：宋陈生态艺术展). https://chuangxin.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202112/09/WS61b1c76ea3107be4979fc435.html. 2021. My academic website: http://csun.academia.edu/MeiqinWang