Dongbay (Yübo Xü) is an artist whose practice explores the shifting relationship between humanity and the natural world in an era shaped by industrialization and digital acceleration. His work reflects on the growing distance between human experience and ecological systems.

Through field-based research, Dongbay travels to remote regions, engaging with communities whose ways of life remain closely connected to their environments. These encounters inform a multidisciplinary practice that spans installation, painting, and moving image. Combining organic materials with industrial remnants, his works bring together elements of spirituality, technology, and lived experience.

Central to his approach are the concepts of “primitive futurism” and “ritual minimalism.” Primitive futurism proposes a dialogue between ancestral knowledge and contemporary systems, while ritual minimalism emphasizes reduction and essential forms, creating spaces that carry both symbolic and material resonance.

Dongbay’s work reflects on the paradox of progress, examining how technological advancement can simultaneously expand and flatten human experience. Rather than turning to nostalgia, his practice seeks to reinterpret fragments of ecological awareness within a contemporary context, offering moments of reflection and reconnection within an increasingly mediated world.

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