Zhao Siyi, Finding and Returning, sculpture,2007. Mutual Existence, installation view at Palazzo Mora, 2016.

Mutual existence
QiQiaoweng Wetland Park is a project for the ecological optimization and reconstruction of the riverside of the ancient river Qinhuai in Nanjing. The natural square is the core place of the historical display area. When we are asked to intervene in the environment in an artistic way, the first priority was thinking about nature and survival. We found that natural ecology is not a perfect process. The continuation of life is built on the basis of the law of the jungle, which constitutes the food chain of nature. Human beings are at the top of this food chain, and they are also the only species that can enjoy and review this process.
The domain that human beings getting along with other creatures is a multiple space, which is the existence of cause and effect. All existence in our world is the result of the environment, everything is the environment to the others mutually – they are always like this, animals, human beings, and nature. There is an inevitable cause-and-effect relationship between one and survival behaviors. We are the effect of one environment, and we are also the cause of another object simultaneously. When we talk about “you”, we are actually talking about “us” and the whole of nature around us.
We try to put this thought into a meaningful landscape design. Thus we place the origin of a life story in this square.
By means of describing the survival of a bird family, it talks about the story of species diversity and the reflection of the value of people’s behavior and existence.
Finding and Returning
It is a true portrayal that a member of the bird family starts working at dawn and resting at sunset. The lawn surrounded by cobblestones is the symbol of a dwelling. The different posture of two points in time was incorporated in the bird sculpture. It transfers from time misplacement to the space transformation by connecting two postures of the bird in one pair of wings.
The food chain
The chemical energy stored in organic compounds in of ecological systems can conduct layer by layer. Generally speaking, various species have close connections to each other by a series of relationships of eating and being eaten. The sequence consists of the food nutrition relationship, which is called the food chain in ecology. First we need a piece of spring for its continuous, circular curve shape. Then, we chose an appropriate cohort of the food chain, with each group of 3 to 5 units arranged in an annular structure, for the excessive numbers in the food chain tend to be vulnerable. The object, which was cut from the spring in the beginning, has already indicated that it is a part of the constant circulation. The cohorts demonstrate the important law of nature.
Mantis catching a cicada, a yellow bird behind
The fierce wild animals in nature all have the ability to attack the other animals, but they always crept carefully in the beginning of the action, as if only their heads are moving forward. This typical gesture implies the greatest danger. The animal’s body part is eliminated constantly until only the heads are left, which is the point to be expressed.