Starting from June 20, 2025, Space No.0 unveils the second chapter of its "Utopia" series, "La Magie." This chapter will present and explore the "changes" and "unchanging elements" in contemporary artistic creation from the perspectives of different artists. Moving beyond established theories and methodologies, we return to art itself—progressing from visual perception to inner contemplation, seeking answers through a non-dualistic approach.

Following Qiu Anxiong, who revisited the ancient Chinese tradition of "wandering through landscapes in mind" through contemporary artistic forms — his perspective as a Chinese literati unfolded a philosophical picture for viewers, reflecting on how to respond to the current state of nature. While on October 11, Timur Si-Qin, with his multicultural background (German, Chinese/Mongolian, and San Carlos Apache Indigenous cultures), has long been committed to reestablishing the core position of nature's spirituality in environmental and ecological issues, and consistently urging reverence, respect, and attentive observation of the natural world. This spring, invited by Space No.0, Timur Si-Qin embarked on another journey into the Sichuan region, drawing inspiration from its mountains, rivers, and forests to create a visual revelation that chants of contemporary "La Magie" from nature's own perspective.

“(Along the edge of the) Burning River” - continues Timur Si-Qin's series of cast stainless steel sculptures of trees and elements of nature. Across cultures and eras, the tree has stood as the original center of spirituality — a living axis linking earth, sky, and the human imagination. By recreating the intricate details of nature in a language of the sacred, Si-Qin proposes a restoration of nature at the center of spirituality: a reorientation urgently needed to guide human values toward ecological balance and survival amid climate change.

The exhibition grows out of the artist's fieldwork in Sichuan's mountain ranges. Traveling through the region in 2025, he created 3D scans of vegetation, rocks, and riversides. These digital impressions form the basis of stainless-steel sculptures that translate the detailed beauty of untouched wilderness into enduring form. The gallery itself also becomes part of the work: windows are tinted orange, flooding the space with the hue of forest fire skies — an atmosphere at once luminous and foreboding.

Staged in Chengdu, the exhibition resonates with the region's most iconic ancient sculpture: the bronze tree of Sanxingdui. Over three thousand years old, this monumental work embodied the cosmic world tree, connecting realms of heaven and earth while affirming nature's role as the axis of spiritual life. Si-Qin's stainless-steel trees carry this legacy into the present, reimagining sacred trees for an age defined by ecological crisis and technological mediation.

Underlying the exhibition is a call to reimagine spirituality less as a progression through history or prophecy, and more as rooted in the living spaces and landscapes we inhabit — a spirituality of space rather than time. This distinction, articulated by Vine Deloria Jr., reflects how Indigenous traditions honor sacred mountains, rivers, and trees, in contrast to Western traditions that locate meaning in historical revelation. By shifting our focus back to place, the exhibition affirms our responsibilities to the landscapes, ecosystems, and waterways that make up concrete reality.

Here, meaning emerges not in distant horizons but in the immediacy of rivers, mountains, and forests. The natural world appears not as backdrop but as presence — a guide and a teacher for how humanity might walk differently within the living fabric of the earth.

By Timur Si-Qin