Film Festival Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou
The exhibition Reading the Land: The Poetics of Image, Fieldwork, and Geography examines the relationships between contemporary artistic practices in China, local geographical knowledge, global ecological discourse, and the lived experiences of individual artists. This research-based exhibition brings together the work of twenty-two artists who employ photography and moving image as their primary media to reconstruct visual narratives rooted in geography. Accompanying the exhibition is a series of public programs—including artist talks, screenings, workshops, and educational events—designed to guide audiences across time and space, into the depths of geography, through diverse cultural experiences, and toward a greater awareness of ecological systems, while encouraging critical reflection on the relationships between humanity and nature, technology and culture.
The sixth public program of Reading the Land features participating artists Han Qian and Liu Xin, who discuss how their works, Veronica persica and White Stone, explore the ways moving images can simultaneously document geography and identity while serving as a bridge between personal experience and history, memory and reality.
During the event, Han Qian shares how she intertwines her family's history with geographical transformation, using moving images to reconstruct hidden perceptions and memories of identity across multiple temporal and spatial dimensions. Her work Veronica persica traces the dispersal of an invasive plant species as a metaphor for the intersection of personal memory and the currents of history, examining how family migration during the process of industrialization has shaped individual identity.
Liu Xin, meanwhile, invites audiences into the fictional world of her film White Stone. Through the perspective of its protagonist, she explores the symbolic significance of fallen rocket debris within geographical and historical contexts. Framed as a journey in search of rocket fragments, the work reflects on the life cycle of technological objects and their complex interactions with society and ecology. During the talk, Liu discusses the conceptual foundations and creative inspirations behind the work, considering how geography and identity are represented and reimagined through moving-image practice.
Combining film screenings, artist presentations, and audience discussions, the program offers a platform for a deeper understanding of the relationship between artistic practice, geography, and identity. At the same time, it encourages broader reflection on geopolitics, cultural memory, and ecological consciousness within contemporary art.
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