Le città sottili (Cities of the Light)
Virtual Exhibition
2022
My bachelor’s dissertation “Mirror Stage: Exhibition Model and the Construction of Orientalism” attempts to discuss the influence of exhibition as a method of discourse construction on the cultural conception of "Orient", the change of observation mode it brought, and the aftermath in the field of contemporary art since the emergence of large-scale exhibitions. The discussion will focus on the contemporary art exhibition practice in East Asia (taking the large-scale exhibitions represented by biennials and triennials as examples), and explore the response of Asia to the spread of the large-scale exhibition system: Questioning the classification mode of "center and edge", exploring the new exhibition mode, calling for common memories, or participating in the writing of "self-orientalism" to some extent.The results of my research will be presented as the exhibition "Le città sottili", which is divided into five sections, "Exodus," The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, "The imagined Taowu," Delta Laboratory "and" World as an exhibition, "attempting to tap into gaps in historical texts, construct parallel narratives with multiple timelines, and connect important time points and conceptual changes. In terms of the exhibition text, the concept of "Le città sottili" (city of the light) proposed in Calvino's Invisible Cities is used as a metaphor to discuss the subjectivity of cultural identity.
The work is collected by the Central Academy of Fine Arts Museum.
The new fact received a meaning from that emblem and also added to the emblem a new meaning. Perhaps, Kublai thought, the empire is nothing but a zodiac of the mind's phantasms.
"On the day when I know all the emblems," he asked Marco, "shall I be able to possess my empire, at last?"
And the Venetian answered: "Sire, do not believe it. On that day you will be an emblem among emblems."
Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
2.86%, Xi’an Film Studio, Xian, 2022