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Timur Si-Qin

@timursq

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Last of the Wild and Free (Rhododendron calophytum)
Stainless steel
216 × 219.4 × 176.3 cm

A devotional monument to the untamed phenotype of Rhododendron calophytum as it grows in the high-altitude forests of Sichuan—an ecosystem increasingly threatened by climate change, habitat loss, and industrial extraction.

Beyond honored to have been commissioned to create this work for Frieze Sculptures 2025 by @albionjeune .

Special thanks to @luccahuewilliams , @michaelhuewilliams , @magicianspace, @societeberlin, @mtec0 and @bradleyrothenberg at @ntopology .

On view as part of In the Shadows, curated by @fatosustek .
📍 Regent’s Park, London | Through November 2

Photos courtesy of Frieze. Photos by Linda Nylind. taken in Frieze London Regents Park by @timursq

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9 months ago

“Abuelita”, 2025
Stainless steel
Hanging Rhododendron: 42 × 32 × 23 cm
Rock: 20 × 27 × 18 cm

A devotional work to the grandmother of the forest. 🌿🐍 taken in 二郎山，喇叭河 by @timursq

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9 months ago

(images 2/2)

I’m deeply grateful to share the completion of “Sacred Footprint”, a 16 meter tall, 3d printed, cast, and painted, steel and aluminum sculpture for Meta’s (@meta) new New York headquarters in the renovated historic James A. Farley Postal Service building in midtown Manhattan.

Sacred Footprint primarily takes form from, and is rooted in, the Temperate Deciduous Forest eco-region of New York state and the greater northeast. While having supported our species for over 50 thousand years, Temperate Deciduous Forests evolved over the past 30 million years and are some
of the oldest biocommunities living in the world. Their increasing vulnerability to the climate crisis make temperate forests symbolic of the danger the living world is in.

The tree is composed of many different species of trees that I encountered and 3d scanned. The different types of trees, branches and leaves that make up the sculpture represent a variety of different New York eco-regions like the stunted-conifer boreal islands, vestiges of the last ice-age that are found in New York’s highest elevations and make up the crown of the sculpture; down through high altitude yellow and paper birch hardwood; down further through lower elevation species like Red Oak and White Ash.

Sacred Footprint references the mythical Tree of Life, an ancient concept that appears in many cultures, traditions, and religions worldwide. The Tree of Life traverses the heavens, the earth, and the underworld and represents the interconnectedness of all things. The different tree species link together into a chain, or necklace, suspended from wires above the 4 floor central atrium of Meta’s office. The interlinked trees represent the web of ecosystems and the inherent resilience of diversity as well as the literal genetic family tree of all life on earth. The helix links reference the woven and braided nature of the world, the braid of life, as found in the cosmologies of many First Nations cultures, as well as alluding to the double helix structure of DNA and the code of life.

continued in comments… taken in New York, New York by @timursq

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4 years ago

Mariposita, 2026
Stainless steel, LED floor
4.2 × 4.4 × 2.2 m

I finally had some time to process my photos and thoughts on this sculpture.

I first encountered this Renaco tree in the summer of 2019, in the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon. That trip was one of the most impactful encounters with the wild I have ever had.

Seeing this tree and its surrounding ecosystem also inspired me to write the essay “Heaven is Sick” in 2020. I felt the forest as clearly sentient, and experienced that encounter as a kind of recruitment, one that has shaped my work ever since. I realized then that our planet truly is a heaven, and that as artists, we need to do our part to reorient our culture’s focus and values back onto the natural world.

In recent years, logging and forest fires in the Amazon have become ever-present reminders that this place is threatened. The rivers have reached historic lows. Smoke fills the air every dry season like a dry orange fog. Pieces of ashen leaves drift down through the forest like gray snow.

In a way, I came to understand Mariposita as if it had been imparted to me by the warrior spirit of transformation of the Blue Morpho butterflies, whose deep blue flashes punctuate the forest air. I felt that I was following instructions, making this work as a vehicle for nature to haunt and remind a place like Art Basel that we are all beneficiaries of the greatest artist there is: Mother Nature herself, whose boundless creativity exceeds anything humans can conceive, and whose virtuosity is expressed in the masterpiece of every leaf, root, rock, or wing.

continued in comments… taken in Art Basel by @timursq

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a month ago

Timur Si-Qin
Mariposita
Art Basel Unlimited

June 15 – 21, 2026

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To mirror is to name, and to name is an act of devotion. In Mariposita, this becomes both artistic method and ecological ethic — a gesture toward the forest spirits of the Ucayali, and the possibility of learning to walk differently within the living fabric of the earth.

The project is realized in collaboration with Magician Space and with the support of the Sigg Art Foundation, on the occasion of Art Basel Unlimited 2026, curated
by Ruba Katrib.

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@timursq @magicianspace @siggartfoundation @artbasel
#societeberlin by @timursq

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a month ago

Now open

Timur Si-Qin
Mariposita
Art Basel Unlimited

June 15 – 21, 2026

.

To mirror is to name, and to name is an act of devotion. In Mariposita, this becomes both artistic method and ecological ethic — a gesture toward the forest spirits of the Ucayali, and the possibility of learning to walk differently within the living fabric of the earth.

The project is realized in collaboration with Magician Space and with the support of the Sigg Art Foundation, on the occasion of Art Basel Unlimited 2026, curated
by Ruba Katrib.

.

@timursq @magicianspace @siggartfoundation @artbasel
#societeberlin by @timursq

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a month ago

Timur Si-Qin
Mariposita
Art Basel Unlimited

June 15 – 21, 2026

.

The work takes its title from the Spanish word for “little butterfly,” and from the blue morpho butterflies, among other species, that Si-Qin encountered during periods of isolation deep in the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon. Mariposita creates a space of heightened attention in which technological reproduction becomes a devotional act: a form of mirroring, naming, and reminding viewers that pristine environments still exist, even as their existence is increasingly threatened.

The project is realized in collaboration with Magician Space and with the support of the Sigg Art Foundation, on the occasion of Art Basel Unlimited 2026, curated
by Ruba Katrib.

.

@timursq @magicianspace @siggartfoundation @artbasel
#societeberlin by @timursq

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a month ago

Timur Si-Qin
Mariposita
Art Basel Unlimited

June 15 – 21, 2026

.

For Si-Qin, Mariposita is a meditation on the concept of the pristine. For most people in contemporary societies, truly wild places are rarely, if ever, experienced. The pristine names an encounter with living worlds so intact, vivid, interdependent, and self-generating that they can feel almost impossible from within contemporary life.

The project is realized in collaboration with Magician Space and with the support of the Sigg Art Foundation, on the occasion of Art Basel Unlimited 2026, curated
by Ruba Katrib.

.

@timursq @magicianspace @siggartfoundation @artbasel
#societeberlin by @timursq

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2 months ago

Timur Si-Qin
Mariposita
Art Basel Unlimited

June 15 – 21, 2026

.

“To mirror is to name and to name is an act of devotion.”

The project is realized in collaboration with Magician Space and with the support of the Sigg Art Foundation, on the occasion of Art Basel Unlimited 2026, curated
by Ruba Katrib.

.

@timursq @magicianspace @siggartfoundation @artbasel
#societeberlin by @timursq

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2 months ago

Uma conversa conduzida por @sashaburenkov com @timursq, que reflete sobre a sua prática artística, situada na intersecção entre ecologia, espiritualidade, materialidade e cultura.

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A conversation led by Alexander Burenkov with Timur Si-Qin, reflecting on his artistic practice, situated at the intersection of ecology, spirituality, materiality, and culture.

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🖥️ Read the full interview at umbigo.space /// Leia a entrevista completa em umbigo.space

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Umbigo.space – Apoio/Support: República Portuguesa – Cultura, Juventude e Desporto / @dg.artes , e/and @fundacaomeo

A secção Pós-Digital é desenvolvida em colaboração com a / The Post-Digital section is developed together with the Fundação MEO

#postdigital #umbigospace by @timursq

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3 months ago

Reprogramming the Anthropocene

What if the problem is not that we lack information about the collapse of the biosphere, our habitat, but that we lack the capacity to feel it?

Timur Si-Qin's artistic practice begins from this provocation, proposing that what we call ecological crisis is fundamentally a crisis of consciousness.

The artist section is now updated on Refresh online — and an extended feature on his practice is available in the current print edition.

@timursq by @timursq

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3 months ago

Last of the Wild and Free (Abies fabri), 2026
Stainless steel
64.8 × 49.1 × 61.1 cm
(AJ-TSQ-024)
Image courtesy of the artist and Albion Jeune. taken in Hengduan Mountains by @timursq

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3 months ago