Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China

Artists and curators visit for the opening of Between Past and Present. From left, artist Hong Lei; co-curator Christopher Philips from the International Center of Photography; artist Zhang Dali; co-curator Wu Hung, professor of art history at the University of Chicago and consulting curator at the Smart Museum of Art; and artist Cui Xiuwen. Photo by Chris Hildreth for Duke Photography.

Insight into Forces Shaping Modern Chinese Culture

Li Wei, Mirroring: On Coal Hill, 2000. Chromogenic print, 39 2/5 x 27 3/5 inches. Courtesy of the artist. — Li Wei, *Mirroring: On Coal Hill*, 2000. Chromogenic print, 39 2/5 x 27 3/5 inches. Courtesy of the artist.

The Nasher Museum presented an exhibition of photo and video art from China produced since the mid-1990s. The exhibition included more than 100 works by 60 young artists and focused on artists’ responses to unprecedented economic, social and cultural changes that have swept through China. Between Past and Future provided insight into the forces shaping modern Chinese culture. The exhibition was ambitious in scale and experimental in nature; it contributed to a new understanding of the different ways that younger Chinese artists have come to perceive themselves and their communities.

“After two years on tour, this exhibition is still the benchmark for contemporary Chinese art,” Nasher Museum Director Kimerly Rorschach said. “This show was the catalyst that achieved wider acceptance for Chinese photography and video in the international art world, and I am tremendously excited about sharing it with our local audiences.”