Screening at Piccadilly Lights

Screening

Piccadilly Lights (London, UK)

September 16, 2023

As a CIRCA2023 Prize finalist, EMERGE:NCY (2023) was screened on the Piccadilly Lights.

EMERGE:NCY (2023) was selected as one of 30 CIRCA2023 Prize finalists from over 1,000 global submissions, and screened on the Piccadilly Lights in London at 20:23 GMT on September 16, 2023.

The site-specific film responds to the CIRCA2023 Manifesto (HOPE: THE ART OF READING WHAT IS NOT YET WRITTEN), positioning a monumental figure struggling to physically break out of Europe’s largest commercial LED billboard. Drawing from Rebecca Solnit’s reading "inside the word 'emergency' is 'emerge'", the work converts a dominant site of public advertising infrastructure to a temporary canvas of relentless physical struggle through uncertainties.

The CIRCA 2023 edition is juried by a panel including Sir Frank Bowling, Douglas Gordon, Anne Imhof, Michèle Lamy, Shirin Neshat, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Josef O’Connor, Olu Odukoya, Sir Norman Rosenthal and Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot, alongside an international public vote powered by Piccadilly Lights.

Interactive projection-mapped installation

Multichannel video sculpture

Xin-1.0.36(2026)

Video

2026

Personhood, Version FourMVR Gallery (Ithaca, NY)Solo Exhibition

Self—ish, a Solo ExhibitionHelix Art Space (Stockholm, Sweden)Solo Exhibition

2025

Silent InterferenceFengling Commercial Building (Taoyuan, Taiwan)Exhibition

AI as an Art MaterialHelix Art Space (Stockholm, Sweden)Talk

Alternative Roots FestivalHoxton Hall (London, UK)Exhibition

Art as an Act of HomemakingBow Arts (London)Talk

Personhood at Speculum ArtiumDelavski dom Trbovlje (Trbovlje, Slovenia)Exhibition

2024

Personhood at Asian Art MuseumAsian Art Museum (San Francisco)Solo Exhibition

Into the FutureWhitespace Gallery (Edinburgh, Scotland)Exhibition

The Kakilang 2025 CommissionKakilang (London, UK)Commission

Technarte ConferencePalacio Euskalduna (Bilbao, Spain)Talk

2023

BEAM at Royal Society of SculptorsRoyal Society of Sculptors (London, UK)Exhibition

CIRCA2023 Public Vote PrizePiccadilly Lights (London, UK)Award

Screening at Piccadilly LightsPiccadilly Lights (London, UK)Screening

Ars Electronica FestivalAtelierhaus Salzamt (Linz, Austria)Exhibition

ART-ACT FestivalTen Square (Singapore)Exhibition

Agawen is the studio practice of J. Aga (PH) and Xin Wen (CN/US). Their collaboration began in London, where they completed a joint postgraduate programme between the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. They made their artistic debut during a term abroad in Singapore, followed by a UK debut later that year on the Piccadilly Lights, which received the CIRCA Public Vote Prize.

Their current body of work is about how contemporary life is structurally determined by cities and screens, and it draws from their experience as diasporic artists and their technical foundation as design-engineers. Their experimental videos, kinetic sculptures, and immersive installations have been exhibited at the Asian Art Museum (San Francisco, USA), Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), Helix Art Space (Stockholm, Sweden), and Speculum Artium (Trbovlje, Slovenia).

Formerly XJ.