China Imagined: BredaPhoto 2020
Group Exhibition Breda, The Netherlands

Artists: ZHANG Wenxin 张文心 | 

BredaPhoto2020——China Imaged

Location: Grote Kerk, Breda

Curators: He Yining, Ruben Lundgren

Duration: 2020.9.9 ——2020.10.25

Participating Artists: Chen Ronghui, Chen Zhe, COCA, Feng Li, Guo Yingguang, Hua Weicheng，Kurt Tong, Liu Tao, Ruben Lundgren, Luo Yang, Lv Geer, Pixy Liao, Ren Hang, Thomas Sauvin, Matjaž Tančič, Daniel Traub & Wu Yongfu & Zeng Xianfang, Wu Guoyong, Xu Guanyu, Zhang Kechun, Leslie Zhang, Zhang Wenxin, Jiazazhi Press

In The Chan’s Great Continent: China in Western Minds, American historian Jonathan Spence traces the history of the Western imagination of China from 13th-century explorers like William of Rubruck and Marco Polo to modern politicians like Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. In addition to accounts of real-life expeditions, Spence’s book also takes a look at fictional narratives that sprang solely from the imagination of writers who had never been to China themselves but whose works nonetheless influenced the common readers’ imagination for generations to come. This integration of factual and fictional accounts has extended well beyond the realm of literature and entered the fields of photography, film, and other media, allowing different imaginations of China to clash and interact with each other in various cultural fields.

While most Chinese citizens today are enjoying the benefits of modern technology (such as smart payment, sharing economy, and artificial intelligence), other issues—including imbalanced resource allocation, economic inequality and environmental problems—have become more pronounced. With China’s increasing visibility on the global stage, there has been a surge of discussions and misunderstandings regarding its politics, economy, technology, and culture. As curators who are caught in the midst of drastic economic, social, and cultural changes, we have put together a diverse collection of artworks by photographers who have been active in China over the past decade, and hope to illustrate the ambivalence, complexity and diversity of the Chinese society through the 24 projects featured in the exhibition.

With this in mind, “China Imagined” attempts to re-examine the construction of “Chinese images” and the crisis of photographic representation in cross-cultural contexts. The exhibition will be organized by artwork-based constellations (differing from the conventional practice of organizing artworks by themes or methods) in order to explore the possibility of curating in a de-narrativized and decentralized fashion. It will also examine the connection between reality and imagination and the relationship between isolation and collaboration in the context of uncertain international relations amidst a global pandemic, which is the new foundation this exhibition is built upon.

He Yining, Ruben Lundgren

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