‘SPECTRUM’ an exhibition by Manling Xue in "Petit Hall"

An installation combining art and technology.

The University of Toulouse Capitole has joined forces with Lieu-Commun – artist run space and invited artist Manling Xue to exhibit her work on the walls of the Petit Hall. Artist Manling Xue questions the ambivalence of the relationship between humans and technology.
‘SPECTRUM’ plunges us into a fictional world where ‘orchid drones’ explore open spaces marked by the absence of humans. Like archaeologists, these hybrid creatures scrutinise the remains of humanity. The data collected is transmitted to a network of biological archives to help survivors live in environments that have become hostile. To create this complex universe, the artist combines digital images, AI generation, texts, sculptures, video games and music, which she floods the walls of the Petit Hall with. She invites us to see things from the perspective of the machines she has made the protagonists of a story that is both reassuring and disturbing.  
The ‘SPECTRUM’ exhibition is a continuation of her ISDAThesis project ‘BLUEPRINT – Scene 01: Exercise in the Refuge’.
 

Manling Xue, from Guangdong to Toulouse

Manling Xue was born in Guangdong in 1994. A graduate of the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing and the Institut Supérieur des Arts et du Design in Toulouse (isdaT), she has been an artist-in-residence at Lieu Commun – artist run space since 2024.
As a child and teenager, the artist witnessed the rapid transition of her hometown: once a major centre for light industry and electronics, it became a technically equipped and automated city where human labour was gradually replaced by robots. Her perspective was shaped by assembly lines, planned vegetation, industrial zones and artificial ecosystems. Her imagination and practice are shaped by her interest in both industrial objects and natural landscapes, which she deconstructs and transforms. This ambivalence comes to life in fictional narratives, where she brings hybrid objects to life, symbols of environmental reconfiguration under the influence of technology.