Chris Zhongtian Yuan in Conversation with Valentin Diakonov

Join us for the finissage of Two Improvisations, featuring a conversation between artist Chris Zhongtian Yuan and Valentin Diakonov, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art from the Whitworth Art Gallery.

Exploring themes of diasporic practices and making on the move, this conversation will reflect on Yuan's multidisciplinary practice and the ideas that shape Two Improvisations. Together, Yuan and Diakonov will discuss how migration, cultural memory, storytelling, performance, music, and curatorial practice intersect, considering artistic experimentation as a way of navigating identity and belonging across borders.

The conversation will be followed by an audience Q&A and marks the closing weekend of the exhibition.

Booking is required for this event.

About Chris Zhongtian Yuan

Chris Zhongtian Yuan (b. 1988, Wuhan) is an artist based in London. Their practice centres on ‘punk filmmakingʼ, which deploys techniques drawn from improvisational music and experimental animation. Moving fluidly between reality and myth, digital and analogue, Yuan's work examines the role of memory in familial, domestic and institutional spaces and relationships.

Yuan has presented work internationally, including at John Hansard Gallery; Studio Voltaire; Surplus Space, Wuhan; Current Plans, Hong Kong; Somerset House; Reading International; Macalline Art Center, Beijing; The Courtauld Institute of Art; Kunsthal Rotterdam; Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen; Guangdong Times Museum; Whitechapel Gallery; OCAT Institute, Beijing; Power Station of Art; Videox Zurich; and the International Film Festival Rotterdam, among others. They have also contributed to the Venice Architecture Biennale (Greek Pavilion) and the B3 Moving Image Biennale. Yuan holds an AA Diploma from the Architectural Association School of Architecture.

About Valentin Diakonov

Valentin Diakonov (b. 1980, Moscow, Russia) is the curator of Modern and Contemporary art at the Whitworth, University of Manchester. He served as curator at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, in 2016-2022, organising group projects (Congo Art Works/Chukotka Art Works, The Fabric of Felicity, A Beautiful Night for All the People) and solo shows by Rasheed Araeen, Juergen Teller, Sophia al-Maria and others. In 2022-2024 he was critic in residence at the Core Program in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where he organised Houston Hauntology, a three-day symposium on the esoteric, the hidden, and the ephemeral in Houston’s visual culture at TransArt Foundation. As an art critic, he published reviews and articles in many Russian- and English-language publications, such as Frieze, e flux Criticism, Glasstire, Burnaway, and others.

Image credits:

1.Chris Zhongtian Yuan, 'Two Improvisations: A Punk Musical' (2026), 2-channel film. Commissioned by esea contemporary. Photograph by Jules Lister.

2.Chris Zhongtian Yuan, 'Two Improvisations', commissioned by esea contemporary. Photograph by Jules Lister.
3-4. Travels in Houston: Image courtesy of Valentin Diakonov.
5. Chris Zhongtian Yuan, 'Two Improvisations: A Punk Musical' (2026), 2-channel film. Commissioned by esea contemporary. Photograph by Jules Lister.

6. Portrait of Chris Zhongtian Yuan, courtesy of artist. Photography by Adama Jalloh.

7.Valentin Diakonov, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, The Whitworth