OPEN CALL: Changbai Spring 2026-The Idea of North Research Residency Fellow

In 1967, Glenn Gould launched his contrapuntal radio documentary, “The Idea of North”. This was the result of his first trip to Canada’s subarctic, where he interviewed people who had worked and traveled in that vast, northern hinterland. For Gould, “North” did not refer to the relative position of a person or country, but rather to the Earth’s absolute position—the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, a.k.a. the geographical “Grid North.” The swirling snow, the train hurtling toward the desolate, frozen land, and the insignificant human figures provided Gould with symbols for contemplating the solitude. Changbai Spring is a series of research residency programs initiated by the Northeast Asia Art Archive that spans the geographical range of Northeast Asia, with the theme for 2026 being Gould’s “The Idea of North.” Given its cold climate, Northeast Asia can also be considered more broadly a part of the broader high latitudes. The generally cold conditions, coupled with human migration, have led to the emergence of similar cultures across the high-latitude region.

Research has shown that the DNA of Ancient Paleo-Siberians is closely related to that of contemporary Native Americans. The Inuit and Sámi in Arctic Circle, both inherit Mongoloid traits and share similar animist beliefs with the indigenous peoples of Siberia, the Russian Far East, Sakhalin Island, Hokkaido of Japan, Northeast China, and the Korean Peninsula. They have a variety of shamanic practices, including rituals and paths that vary. However, all belong to a way of communicating and responding to the cold, powerful, and mysterious forces of nature. Likewise, while languages of different ethnic groups in Northeast Asia are unintelligible to each other, they nonetheless share similar grammatical structures. The Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic languages were once grouped into an “Altaic” language family. Earlier, the Japanese Kana, evolved from the cursive and regular scripts of Chinese characters; while the Korean Hangul, was inspired by the Mongolian ʼPhags-pa script and was mixed with Chinese characters for a long time. These languages and scripts are the result of a longue durée of contamination across this region’s populations.

Unlike the concepts of “Global North/Global South,” which are anchored in neoliberal economic development, we seek to explore the possibility of a regional cultural assemblage. This ecologically generated “assemblage” represents the intellectual and cultural exchange we anticipate within the global high latitudes. It is spontaneous, organic, and internal, rather than an externally “othered” region due to curiosity and gaze, or even romanticization and labeling. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Scandinavian Symbolism, Impressionism, Naturalism, Decadence, and Neo-Romanticism, were once labeled as “Borealism.” Much like Edward Said’s “Orientalism” critique, it also embodies the exoticism and stereotypes imposed on the Nordic region, from the perspective of Greco-Roman centrism. In the ’85 New Wave art movement in China, the “Northern Art Group” advocated the concept of a “post-culture of cold zones,” based on the “inherent tendency of world civilization towards colder zones.” Is the North inhospitable, barbaric, violent, and turbulent? Or is it solitary, sublime, pure, and enlightened? It may not be so easily defined, but it requires a deeper and more nuanced, embodied understanding.

The Changbai Spring program, based on the iconic Changbai Mountain in Northeast Asia, welcomes artists and researchers from around the world, particularly those from high latitudes, to visit Northeast China in 2026 for ten days of workshops, creating and sharing diverse “Ideas of North.” The field trip in 2026 will primarily be conducted in Jilin and Heilongjiang Provinces, including Mohe Beiji Village, China’s northernmost point. The research will focus on the relationship between climate, soil, and agriculture; the living spaces and autonomous experiments of indigenous and immigrant communities; and the history of borders and geopolitical conflict. The project is conceived by OU Ning and LI Jiaqi, with invited participants including DONG Bingfeng, HE Yining, LIU Chuang, Tessa MORRIS-SUZUKI, Kyong PARK, PI Li, Leandro PISANO, SHU Qun, SUN Xun, WANG Hongzhe, ZHAO Zhi, ZHOU Feifei, among others. We welcome the signed-up research fellows to have mutual learning practices with us.

Zoom information session: January 18, 11am–12pm, (GMT+8)

Application deadline: February 15, (GMT+8)

The residency is limited to ten fellows. Join zoom info session here. Submit an application here. Visit our website for more details.