Materializing Memory: Contemporary Video Art from China

Exhibited in Pittsburgh for the first time, the work of five young Chinese video artists explore memory and forgetting in the contemporary world.

The videos in Materializing Memory investigate social and personal intricacies within and beyond China. The five artists in the exhibition are part of China’s balinghou and jiulinghou (post-1980 and post-1990) generations. Unlike earlier practitioners, they came of age following the dramatic economic and cultural reforms of 1978. Through the medium of video art, these artists explore contemporary Chinese society during a period of profound technological and urban transformation. Their work is deeply informed by the Internet, rapid economic development, international communication and exchange, as well as opportunities to earn advanced degrees abroad. These videos document personal and collective experiences. Some record individual feelings of boredom and isolation, while others investigate broader social contradictions and complexities within China and beyond. Together, these works illustrate the plasticity of contemporary experience, and ask what it means to remember during a time when progress accelerates the urge to forget.

Participating artists: Chen Dandizi, Lin Ke, Liu Yujia, Shen Xin, Sun Wenhao

This exhibition was curated by Ellen Larson, PhD Candidate, History of Art & Architecture, with assistance from Museum Studies intern Steven Haines.

Supported by the Asian Studies Center, The China Council, the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, the Department of the History of Art & Architecture, Pittsburgh Filmmakers, and Pitt Studio Arts Department.