A contemporary record of photography. With 590 photographs taken by 250 different Chinese photographers, this exhibition offers a wide-ranging panorama of life in modern China. At the same time - subdivided into four thematic areas, entitled Existence, Relation, Desire and Time - it constitutes a revealing stocktaking of Chinese documentary photography during the last 50 years.
A contemporary record of photography
With 590 photographs taken by 250 different Chinese photographers, this exhibition,
organized by the Guangdong Museum of Art in Guangzhou, offers a wide-ranging
panorama of life in modern China. At the same time, it constitutes a revealing
stocktaking of Chinese documentary photography during the last 50 years.
Subdivided into four thematic areas, entitled Existence, Relation, Desire and Time,
these images are presented in dense constellations. Collectively, they provide a
portrait of everyday life in both rural and urban China against the backdrop of
dramatic social upheaval. Behind the highly visible glamour of the economic boom
currently transforming China's metropolises, these photographers have sought to
document the impact on individuals of China's rapidly advancing and accelerating
modernization process.
The curatorial team, consisting of a number of professional photographers, has made
a selection from among 100,000 prints. Their choices stress the core concern of the
exhibition, namely a critical confrontation with the relationship between collective
and individual in Chinese society. Characterized by a documentary and journalistic
approach, these images do not shrink from exploring sensitive subjects such as
sexuality and violence.
The Museum für Fotografie has taken over this exhibition unaltered and without
adding its own commentary. In doing so, we hope that this "Chinese perspective of
the Chinese people" will represent a first step toward increasing public awareness
of cultural realities in this distant and still too unfamiliar land.
Opening: Thursday 3 May 2007 7pm
Museum fur Fotografie (Museum for Photography)
Jebensstr. 2, Berlin
Opening hours: Tues-Sun 10 am - 6 pm, Thu 10 am - 10 pm