Peking is China’s capital and a city of superlatives. It is on the right road, according to numerous slogans appearing since 2004. The election of Peking as the host of the Olympic Games in 2008 and the innumerable measures being taken to make the city modern and forward-looking are used to testify to the fact. The government wants to show the world how innovatively contemporary the metropolis with roughly 15 million inhabitants can be. The city is indeed experiencing enormous growth, an incredible influx of people and sensational modernization. The skyscrapers are shooting up every hour in the Central Business District, as are new buildings beyond the third circular highway, while much demolition, resettlement, and construction on green belt areas are leaving their mark in the wake of the Olympic Games. This downside of development, together with the people living within this urban framework, is the subject matter of Zhao Liang’s approximately 30-minute long video City Scene No.2. [...]

Gregor Jansen
Translation: Celia Brown


Catalogue excerpt
fast forward 2. The Power of Motion
Media Art Sammlung Goetz
Editors: Ingvild Goetz and Stephan Urbaschek
Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz, 2010

Zhao Liang, Heavy Sleepers, 2006
2-channel video installation (projection or monitor), color, without sound
Edition 1/5
24'