Song Ruijin
Off-Trajectory
22.04.2025 - 18.07.2026


Curated by Elise Lammer, Henrique Loja, Sofia Montanha
In collaboration with Halle Nord, Geneva


Off Trajectory, Song Ruijin’s first solo exhibition in Portugal, unfolds as a sequence that does not quite begin or end within the space, but instead drops us into the middle of something already in motion.

Across the three large-scale paintings, a sequence is set out from left to right, each corresponding to a calendar year: 2025, 2026, 2027. In the painting hanging on the left-hand side, Nibbles, or Tuffy, Jerry’s nephew from Tom & Jerry, appears holding a megaphone. No sound reaches us, yet the image suggests a form of transmission, like a signal sent out without a clear source or destination. Rather than anchoring the scene, it becomes one element within this broader sequence. The exhibition takes place exactly at its midpoint, aligned with 2026, as if catching time in the act (of painting.) First introduced in The Milky Waif (1946), Nibbles is a small, seemingly innocent figure, often driven by hunger and curiosity. In the logic of the cartoon, his actions tend to produce effects that exceed him. Here, that quality is less narrative than atmospheric: a presence that sets things in motion without fully containing them.

Questions of time, along with a certain overflow of images, run through Song Ruijin’s practice. This becomes tangible in the installation of wooden boards laid out across the floor like a large-scale domino run. Their arrangement suggests a chain reaction, but one that remains suspended. Each board is painted black on the reverse and carries a distinct motif on the front, forming a kind of reservoir of images, held in place yet seemingly ready to shift. The possibility of movement, triggered by one element tipping and setting off the rest, introduces a different sense of time. Not strictly linear, but closer to a loop, where anticipation matters as much as action. The motifs painted on the boards appear as if they could migrate into the paintings on the walls, extending and unfolding across their surfaces, as if responding to or echoing Nibbles’ silent call, joining his quiet command of mischief.


— Elise Lammer


Song Ruijin (b. 2003, Yunnan, China) lives and works in Paris. She completed a Bachelor in Visual Arts at HEAD – Genève, Switzerland, and is currently studying at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. Her work has been included in group exhibitions such as Ich glaube, ich spinne at Levant Art Gallery, Shanghai (2025), Le terrier at HEAD Genève (2025), Ante Tenebras at Rue du Vieux-Billard 24, Geneva (2024), and Cry on Cue at Stadtgalerie Bern (2024). She is the recipient of the Prix Le Tremplin from the Fondation Leenaards. Her solo exhibition Anti‑Gravité opens at Halle Nord on the 28th of May.

Photo: Beatriz Pereira / Carbonara Studio, Courtesy of Mala and the artist.