Social Sensibility II

Foreword
The concepts, ideas, images, texts, information, and videos pertaining to this project have been systematically organized into an archive documenting events, procedures, methodologies, and patterns.
Nevertheless, it is essential to recognize that the sustaining energy of this over decade-long practice originates in spontaneous, non-hierarchical, and informal encounters among individuals across disciplines, competencies, lifestyles, and social, ethnic, religious, and cultural groups. Central to these interactions are the qualities of humility, curiosity, and a capacity to embrace the "other," revealing the transformative potential inherent in sharing differences rather than retreating to comfort zones. These dynamics have facilitated moments of exceptional intensity, honesty, and vitality that transcended spatial, professional, and personal codes, rules, and boundaries.
The project's existence and continued development rely precisely on this mutual openness and goodwill, coupled with the ability to navigate inevitable contradictions, tensions, and misunderstandings. While its structures and formal qualities remain flexible, mutable, and adaptable to evolving contexts, one constant endures: the generative potential of those initial organic encounters—inherently voluntary and unmandated.
Alessandro Rolandi
MIRROR, Cache 798, Beijing, 2016
WORK/LIVE Projects
These initiatives are developed by employees, managers, and workers at Bernard Controls (China and France), supported by artists from the Social Sensibility R&D Departments. Completed works are exhibited within the factories and externally at partnering galleries, museums, and institutions.
Artist in residence and collaborative projects
Visiting artists undertake residencies of flexible duration (minimum two months) within the factories, collaborating with personnel. Authorship of resulting projects is shared among participants, commensurate with their level of engagement and contribution.
Ownership clause
All artworks created through Social Sensibility R&D Department activities belong exclusively to the individuals who committed to their creation, not to the company.
Research Overview
Social Sensibility exemplifies a trans-cultural and trans-disciplinary decentralized research practice, initiated in 2010 Beijing through the collaboration of multimedia artist/researcher Alessandro Rolandi and Guillaume Bernard, CEO of Bernard Controls Group. It is developed via:
  1. Social Sensibility R&D Departments at Bernard Controls factories (Beijing & Paris/Gonesse).
  2. The SoSens Institute, established to promote the methodology pioneered within Bernard Controls.
The research aims to integrate artist-run departments within corporate and institutional frameworks. Here, artists function as embedded researchers, employing artistic practice (across any medium) to creatively intervene in workplace realities, utilizing relationships as primary material to impact the relational sphere.
Operational Structure
  • Functions partly as an artistic residency for external practitioners.
  • Serves as a permanent research site where hired/resident artists facilitate weekly creative and dialogic activities with employees.
Outputs Include
  • Artworks by resident/external artists.
  • Collaborative works between artists and employees.
  • Artworks by employees, mentored by resident artists.
Key Principles
  1. The department operates as an internal company function (analogous to HR or Finance), not external consultancy.
  2. Open to contemporary artists, experimental practitioners, scholars, and researchers.
  3. Ownership: Artworks/projects by external artists remain their exclusive property; creators decide on disposition (removal, retention, editioning).
  4. Residency Prerequisite: Applicants must commit significant initial time to organic engagement within the factory, fostering genuine relational bonds with personnel. Engagement scope and method are intentionally non-prescriptive.
  5. Project Genesis: Subsequent artistic proposals must emerge from relational dynamics built during this initial phase. (This foundational period is financially compensated.)
  6. Output Flexibility: Projects may manifest physically or immaterially; completion is not obligatory if the process exhausts its trajectory. The relational engagement itself constitutes the core value.
Internal Artist Role
Embedded artists integrate into company dynamics, supporting employees who voluntarily seek to develop artistic knowledge/practice through individualized and collective guidance.
Employee Participation Spectrum ("Art Users"):
Personnel may engage with the department as passive observers, active participants, critics, or indifferent parties, according to their inclination and availability.
Current Implementation
The Social Sensibility R&D Department model is fully operational solely within Bernard Controls, at its industrial plants in:
  • Beijing / Daxing: currently directed by Tianji Zhao (est. 2010, ~14 years active).
  • Paris/Gonesse: currently directed by Blandine De la Taille.
  • Milan / Rho : currrently directed by Alessandro Rolandi
Legacy & Recognition (2014-2025)
After 15 years in Beijing 7 in Paris, and 3 in Milano, the research has generated extensive multi-modal material. While emergent patterns are observable, the practice remains fundamentally experimental. The Social Sensibility R&D Department and Research Institute have been featured in exhibitions, panels, and publications at numerous art institutions globally, presenting artworks, articles, documentation, and site-specific projects.
Homeshop, Beijing 2013, facilitators: Michael Eddy, Orianna Cacchione, IFP Institute For Provocation, Beijing 2013, curators: Max Ghertel & Chen Shuyu, OCAT Museum Xian, curators: Mia Yu and Karen Smith,Yam Museum Beijing, curator: Zhang Hanlu, Arrow Factory Beijing curators: Rania Ho and Wang Wei, MCAM Museum Shanghai, curators: Fu Liao Liao and Qiu Zhijie, Times Museum Guangzhou, curators: Liang Jianghua and Song Yi, Xiangxi Museum Tianjin, curator: Zehui Tang, Espacio de Arte Contemporanea, Montevideo, curator: Zandie Brockett, Spencer Museum, Kansas, Conference/Exhibition on Hybrid Practices, Trinity Square Video, Toronto, Mebo Space Beijing, curator: Zehui Tang, Cache Space, 798 Beijing, curator: Wu Xiaojun, L’Escalier Montreal, curator: Michael Eddy, Leonhardi Kulturprojekte e. V Frankfurt, curator: Michael Eddy, MAXXI Roma, for the Independent and Garibaldi online magazine, MANIFESTA 12, Politics of Dissonance/Karakoke Propaganda, Palermo, co-curator Mike Watson, AMNUA International Project III, Big Workout ,Nanjing, BARENTS SPEKTAKLE 2019, Kierkenes, C4 Space, Copenhagen, Long March Space, Beijing: 2019, curators: Zian Tian & Theresa Liang, Taikang Museum, Beijing, curator: Tang Xin & Li Jia Zhang, OCAT Shenzhen, Shenzhen: curators: team MCAM/Paper Tiger Theatre,The Museum of Care online platform, Goethe Institute Beijing, 2023, co-curated with Hanlu Zhang, NYU Shanghai, 2024 Paris 8, 2025 f.eks Aalborg, 2020-2023-2025
Hereby some online links to documentation that can help to better understand the complexity and the variety of the project and its initiators
Alessandro Rolandi website Alessandro Rolandi, initiator of the research in Social Sensibility and founder of the Social Sensibility R&D Departments at Bernard Controls China and Paris/Gonesse 
Article from T Magazine China (NY Times Style Magazine)  Recent T Magazine NY Times China article with interviews to workers 
New York Times article NewYork Times Article about Social Sensibility and social practice in China 
Hong Kong University mooc exam and interviews  Hong Kong University online mooc; Social Sensibility as a case study 
Made in China academic revue article Article by A.Rolandi & Zandie Brockett on Made in China Journal, July 2019 
OAR Oxford University revue article OAR Oxford University Online critic/theory paper co-authored by A.Rolandi and Zandie Brockett 
TEDx Talk Alessandro Rolandi TEDx Talk about Social Sensibility Beijing in 2016 
TRIGGER platform interview in Chinese language Recent interview in Chinese language on TRIGGER media New York 
Bernard Controls page about Social Sensibility Bernard Controls Industry’s page about Social Sensibility 
Short introduction En/Ch to the Social Sensibility Short introduction to Social Sensibility in English and Chinese 
Article for Garibaldi Journal / MAXXI Museum Rome  Article by A.Rolandi for Garibaldi  journal MAXXI Roma 
Video documentations of actions and performances 2010-2017 in the Beijing factory Youtube Unlisted Video documentation of actions/interventions/performances at SSR&D Department 2010-2017 
Slideshow of activities in the Beijing factory 2010-2017 Youtube unlisted slideshow of SSR&D art projects 2010-2017 
Social Sensibility scribbles Original Handwritten scribbles and notes about Social Sensibility
Few Thoughts The founding text that inspired the idea of the Social Sensibility 
What cannot be seen A 2016 text resuming important immaterial elements of the practice 
Social Sensibility at Arrow Factory Art Space Beijing 
I like round things Mrs. Li Zhan’s installation 
Love on the fingertips Mrs. Wu Shuqing’s video installation 
Badlands Mr.Zhao Tao & Zhang Xiuliang’s installation 
Burn Mr. Zhao Haibo’s installation 
I'm sorry Mr. Tian Dongliang video installation “I’m sorry”
A gentleman on the beam “A gentleman on the Beam”, video work by Wei ChenChen 
Mirror 2 Performance by Wei Chengcheng & A. Rolandi Times Museum Guangzhou
Wei ChengCheng & Ma Han Xiao performance at Times Museum Guangzhou Performance by W.Chengcheng and Ma Han Xiao at Times Museum Guangzhou
Artist Liu Chengrui and worker Wei ChengCheng conversation 1 & 2
Social Sensibility vimeo  Vimeo Video Albums about Social Sensibility 
Soundcloud interviews to artist/worker Zhao Tao
MANIFESTA 12 Social Sensibility Karaoke Propaganda  Karaoke Propaganda performance video at MANIFESTA 12 
MANIFESTA 12 Social Sensibility actions and shared moments Social Sensibility at MANIFESTA12 / Politics of dissonance/Karaoke Propaganda Youtube video of the performance and photographic archive on website