Around two hours’ drive northeast of Paris, and following the course of the Seine River, stands the magnificent site of Jumièges Abbey: one of the oldest and most important Benedictine monasteries in Normandy region in France dating back to the 7th or 8th century.
Echoing this site, the exhibition “Flowing Waters Never Go Back to the Source. Photographers looking at the river in China” [sentence excerpt from Song of White Hair ⽩头吟, poem by Li Bai (701-761)] focuses on the Chinese river as seen through the eyes of thirteen photographers (Yang Yongliang, Sui Taca, Luo Dan, Michael Cherney, Edward Burtynsky, Zhuang Hui, Chen Qiulin, Mu Ge, Liu Ke, Jia Zhangke, Chen Ronghui, Zhang Xiao, Zhang Kechun).
Those familiar with Chinese contemporary photography will not discover new works, as the majority of them were created in the past two decades. However the curators – Victoria Jonathan and Bérénice Angremy (former directors of the Chinese photography festival Jimei x Arles, founders of the Franco-Chinese cultural agency Doors) – took up the challenge of revisiting these bodies of works by connecting a seminal theme in Chinese culture with a French medieval site.
Except for Zhang Kechun’s works installed outdoors, all photographs are gathered across the rooms of the abbatial dwelling, a noble classic three-floored building with a high mansard roof nearby the abbey. This very building was once a lapidary museum in the mid-1950s. This explains the presence of sculptures, recumbent statues, and column capitals amongst other artefacts, which enable the photographs to engage in a compelling visual dialogue. Taca Sui’s “Grotto Heavens” work for instance, is shown next to Agnès Sorel slab carved in the 15th century. If centuries and thousands of kilometres differentiate these two objects, they both connect the worlds of life and death as Taca Sui’s actually captured Han Dynasty tombs, these long and winding tomb tunnels usually excavated inside mountains.
While the ground floor gathers a variety of artworks that explore ethereal landscapes and the abilities of both digital and analogue techniques (Yang Yongliang and his 4K videos versus Luo Dan’s wet collodion plates), the first floor is mainly dedicated to works that have examined more or less directly the massive project of the Three Gorges Dam (1994-2009). This dam was meant to contain the deadly floods of the Yangtze River, and permitted to create the world’s biggest hydroelectric plant. More than 2 million people were displaced in the process, while 1300 historical and archaeological sites, 15 cities and 116 villages were submerged. Dry lakes, pollution, landslides... environmental consequences are countless.
Artists like Zhang Hui documented the effects of this industrialization by performing in situ. In the mid-1990s, he created series of wholes in key locations along the three gorges, which were recorded a decade after once the dam completely submerged these areas. By doing so, Zhang Hui materialised traces left in the landscape and how they disappeared.
Another series created by Mu Ge called into question his own relationship with his hometown, which was significantly impacted by the dam construction. He explains: “all along my way home, watching old cities those about to disappear, watching new cities those are under construction, in the ever rising water I can still feel the desperate life itself will shine bright sun, and the warmth of sun behind the young boy, in the wilderness I feel myself returning home; the faces come and go before my lens, their expressions are as silent as still life, which make me respect deeply.”
Overall, the exhibition highlights that the river has formed a recurring motif of inspiration for photographers in China for the past twenty years – whether they are Chinese or not. Despite their technical, visual and conceptual discrepancies, these photographs convey the paradoxes and contradictions between the present and the past: they can rejuvenate traditional Chinese painting precepts, while alluding to the accelerated modernization of the country and its consequences on nature and environment.
The catalogue (see below) accompanying the exhibition (bilingual French-Chinese) brings together reproductions of the exhibited works, an illustrated essay and exclusive interviews with the artists. Published by Bandini Books, it will be available for sale (35 €) from 15th July. It is composed of a theoretical booklet, containing an essay and interviews with the artists conducted by the curators, and a series of seven leporellos to be displayed horizontally to discover the artists' works, echoing Chinese scroll paintings.
Public programs related to the theme of the exhibition (lectures, encounters, workshops for children) will take place in 2020, such as a lecture on 4th October by renowned French Sinologist and philosopher François Jullien. These events are part of the literary festival “Terres de Paroles” to be held in Seine-Maritime from 2 to 22 October 2020 (programme available on www.terresdeparoles.com).
More information:Les flots écoulés ne reviennent pas à la source. Regards de photographes sur la rivière en Chine [Flowing Waters Never Go Back to the Source. Photographers looking at the river in China]Exhibition part of the 2020 Normandie Impressionist festivalFrom July 15 to November 29, 2020Abbaye de JumiègesRue Guillaume le Conquérant - 76480 Jumiègeswww.abbayedejumieges.fr
