On the afternoon of June 27, 2026, the academic brand "Four Directions Salon" of Guan Shanyue Art Museum was held. Dr. Shen Qilan, an international curator, writer, and cultural scholar, visited Shenzhen and presented the topic of "Art and Curation: A Dialogue between Sensibility and the Times", using important curatorial practices in recent years as a clue, showing how an "author type curator" uses sensibility as a method to achieve deep dialogue with the times, artists, and audiences.

Shen Qilan

International curator, writer, cultural scholar, PhD in philosophy from the University of M ü nster in Germany.

Shen Qilan is an international curator, writer, cultural scholar, and holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of M ü nster in Germany. Shen Qilan has planned multiple internationally influential exhibitions and forum projects with domestic and foreign art museums. Formerly served as the editorial director of Art World and currently serves as an editorial board member of Bookstore magazine. Visiting Professor at the School of Design, East China Normal University. Shen Qilan is one of the representative figures of China's new generation of cultural scholars and curators.

In recent years, exhibitions planned include "Time flies: Chen Yifei retrospective exhibition" (Shanghai Pudong Art Museum); The Breath of Time ", National Museum of Ancient Roman History, Narbo Via, France; Lindy Lee: Stars of the World "(Chengdu A4 Art Museum); Per Kirkeby: The Creation of Order Alone "(Shunde He Art Museum); New Knowledge of Love "(Nanjing Golden Eagle Art Museum), etc.

In 2025, Shen Qilan was awarded the title of "Curator of the Year" by both "Lobo Report" and "Bazaar Art" for her outstanding curatorial work and extensive cultural influence. Her articles have been translated into multiple languages including English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, and published in various countries.

1、 Sensibility is a life judgment that includes rationality

At the beginning of the lecture, Dr. Shen directly pointed out the spiritual dilemma of the current digital age: the public is immersed in short videos for a long time every day, and fragmented information constantly dilutes people's perception. Sensibility is not just a casual exclamation of "the night is beautiful tonight", but the most precious core ability that distinguishes humans from artificial intelligence. She broke the shallow perception among the public that "sensibility" is equivalent to sentimentality, and gave a definition with philosophical background: "Sensibility is an emotional activity that contains rationality and the ability to act with judgment. Sensibility determines the quality of consciousness, the distinction between high and low art, and the essence is the clarity and heaviness of consciousness behind the work

In the current era where AI is deeply involved in creation and communication, rational tools can complete data sorting, text generation, and logical deduction, but cannot achieve true empathy and touch. Dr. Shen proposed that reason can only handle standardized rules, while sensibility requires people to look directly at others' situations and establish spiritual connections; The essence of creation is' touching knowledge '- writing is touching knowledge, curation is touching knowledge, and viewing art is also a two-way spiritual touch. She cited the original text from Duras' "Writing" as the core support: "Writing is an unknown variable, and before writing, you have no idea what you will write... If you know roughly what you will write before you start writing, you will never write, it is not worth writing

In Dr. Shen's curatorial practice, "sensibility" is not an intuitive experience opposite to rationality, but an ability and channel to enter the historical scene: it is related to understanding how artists establish connections between images, materials, bodies, memories, and time, as well as how curators raise questions, connect contexts, and generate new viewing orders between works. Starting from the exhibition "Emotional Dialogue" in 2022, all of her curatorial activities revolve around "How Emotions Respond to the Times", using the exhibition as a carrier to achieve emotional communication between different individuals and civilizations.

2、 Curatorial Practice Series: Building Multiple Dialogue Fields with Sensibility

Dr. Shen breaks down seven core exhibitions in chronological order, combining creative background, spatial design, artist communication, narrative structure, and concrete display. We can see how an "author type curator" implements abstract sensory concepts into a complete spatial narrative, making each exhibition a sensory experiment targeting specific issues of the times.