(Tianshui, 1978)

Cai Dongdong joined the People's Liberation Army at an early age, assuming the role of portrait photographer for enlisted soldiers. This job became his formal training in the middle, becoming a professional career when he returned to Beijing and opened his studio. Although his self-taught formation, he studied at the Beijing Film Academy in 2002.

Through the use of the archive, the found photography and the installation, Cai Dongdong creates fragmented images composed by different objects and ways to show them. Taking ready-made materials, a nod to Dadaist sensibilities from artists such as Marcel Duchamp or Kurt Schwitters is made, piercing the surface of these photographs with mirrors, arrows and other objects, forming what he calls "photo sculptures.”

Cai Dongdong’s oeuvre explores visual heritage of East and the West and how them shapes our perception about a lot of social and political situations. From elements such as theatrical plays and performance, the artist often presents his reflections through photography to invite the viewer into a perception of reality as something always in process and not established.

Cai Dongdong currently lives and works in Beijing, China.