The archive at Cai Studio organizes and catalogues all information related to Cai Guo-Qiang’s artworks, exhibitions, books, writings, and other such materials. This includes materials such as manuscripts, sketches, correspondences, exhibition posters, gunpowder painting process videos, as well as an extensive personal library.
“Archiving is fundamentally an academic pursuit, distinct from the more storage-focused nature of a warehouse. When archive is approached critically, it not only reflects the artist’s development but also serves as a valuable resource for researchers. Through archive, one can gain insights into an artist’s thoughts, struggles, discontent, or pride during specific periods. There are instances where the authentic dimensions of the artist––the breadth of mind, contradictions, or vulnerabilities––that are not always evident in the completed works, instead live in the nuanced reflections, attitudes, and pursuits that underlie them.”
—Cai Guo-Qiang
About the Archive
In 2008, Cai Studio officially established its archive department. Since then, tens of thousands of materials related to Cai Guo-Qiang’s artworks, exhibitions, and personal life have been systematically organized and structured, and incorporated into a scalable digital platform tailored to the needs of a living archive. The system accommodates diverse formats and preserves complex, evolving relationships between artworks, people, events, and his personal studies—ensuring that the archive remains adaptive and context-rich over time. The archive helps assist the artist’s creative process through revisiting past ideas to generate new ones, in addition to providing academic support for scholars, collectors, artists, and the media.
The extensive holdings of the archive are organized into 13 subcategories, which include over 80 linear feet of project files, 40 linear feet of ephemera, nearly 200 TB of video, more than 20,000 photographs, and over 5000 items in Cai’s bibliography, models, conservation files and more.
In 2021, Cai Guo-Qiang’s Catalogue Raisonné was launched as a major undertaking, and it will be published online in a series of volumes in the coming years. The archive has also become the material basis for the multi-modal artificial intelligence model cAI™ (pronounced AI Cai), custom-made by Cai Guo-Qiang and his team in early 2023.
Visit the Archive
Onsite access to the Cai Guo-Qiang Archive is available by appointment only. Interested parties should request an appointment at least 7 days in advance to ensure that materials can be prepared for their visit. Requests for appointments should include:
- A brief description of the purpose of the visit (i.e. Research for thesis and thesis topic, artist research for making art, etc.)
- A description of the archival materials being requested (Artwork titles, exhibition titles, geographic regions, periods of time, etc.)
- Brief bio/self-introduction and contact information
- Day(s) you are interested in visiting. Appointments are generally made Monday-Friday between 11am-4pm. The archive is not open on the weekends or holidays.
Appointments can be made by submitting a research request through the website’s Contact page.