Then and Now: Life and Dreams Revisited

Then and Now: Life and Dreams Revisited

Exibart Editorial Staff

The Walther Collection is pleased to present Then and Now: Life and Dreams Revisited, an exhibition that extends the Collection’s ongoing survey of Chinese photography since 2017. Curated by Christopher Philips in 2018, Life and Dreams: Contemporary Chinese Photography and Media Art was the first extensive exhibition of works by Chinese artists represented in the collection.

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In this second iteration, Then and Now presents early 20th century travel photography of China together with groundbreaking works by 31 internationally renowned artists such as Ai Weiwei, Song Dong, Rong Rong, Yang Fudong, and Zhang Huan, as well as artworks by a younger generation of artists, such as Lu Yang and Lin Zhipeng. Juxtaposing historical and contemporary Chinese photography, the exhibition illustrates the epochal changes that have not only transformed China’s rural and urban habitats in recent decades but also essential aspects of social relationships and everyday life.

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In the Green House, a selection of stereoviews conveys impressions from the final years of Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), documenting one of the most momentous upheavals in the country’s modern history. Defeat in the First Opium War (1839–1842) between China and the United Kingdom forcefully ended China’s self-imposed isolation from European nations. After China’s renewed defeat in the Second Opium War (1856–1860), the Western powers began to occupy numerous harbors and districts across the nation in order to exert further influence and establish trade networks. The drastic economic consequences of these conflicts gave rise to a widespread anti-imperial sentiment that would eventually topple China’s 4000-year old feudalistic system and accelerate the urge to build a modern nation. The Xinhai Revolution of 1911 led to the resignation of the last emperor, and the founding of the Republic of China in 1912.

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Juxtaposing early photographic works with recent examples of Chinese media art allows for surprising echoes, affinities, and continuities to be revealed. Life and Dreams demonstrate the remarkable speed with which photography and media art have occupied important positions within the field of experimental Chinese art since the early 1990s—providing an up-to-date account of the main directions and key achievements during the past three decades.