Forgetting Remembering and the Future
Initial Project and Exhibition A4 Museum, Chengdu, China
Globalization and development can weaken social ties, practices and the historical memories of communities. Cities in China are undergoing rapid development and growth. Chengdu, China is a city of fourteen million in Sichuan province. It also has a very long history. Chengdu’s growth over the next ten years will follow a plan of integrated development. NGO’s, community developers, academics and other stakeholders work to explore, recover and preserve social practices and the history of the region so that continuity with the past is not only preserved, but becomes an augmentation of sustainable practices.
In December and January, I exhibited work in the A4 Museum in Tianfu New Area. The exhibition created a “touchpoint” for thematic work; “Forgetting, Remembering and the Future” that used projected animations and highlighted exploratory research in the community based on photo-documentation, online mapping, interviews, touchstone tours, focus groups and other activities to show and visualize some of the existing community networks and issues in various communities in the city.
To introduce the issues in the project I used a technique of allegory. Forgetting Remembering and the Future use visual references to a broken bowl and water draining out. This references a particular story in China of chance, purpose, and survival. It's contrasted with the storing of water, ie "remembering." This allowed me to use the visual display to begin a conversation about local history without resorting to outright polarizing text messages in the exhibition. Lectures and discussions also centered on methods and practices explored in recent work done by myself, colleagues and students working in southern Europe, over the last 5-6 years as the basis for further collaboration in Chengdu in the near future.
.
