In the Chinese city - architeria.eu

IN THE CHINESE CITY. PERSPECTIVES ON THE TRANSMUTATIONS OF AN EMPIRE
19 June to 19 September 2008

For a decade now, China has been immersed in major processes of construction and destruction that have
greatly modified its landscape. The exhibition will situate these changes in the country's historical and
cultural continuum. It aims to present the reality of the city past and present in four of its dimensions:
town planning, architecture, landscape and infrastructure. It will also be an opportunity to compare these
realities with the Chinese and Western imaginaries, and with mechanisms of information or propaganda.

The exhibition takes as its basis the presentation of archaeological documents, works of art, models,
archive images and contemporary creation. The exhibition layout, unified by the notion of change,
is broken down into a dozen independent spaces associated with a Chinese word or concept, or a city
that will be presented by means of one of its principal characteristics, with particular emphasis on Beijing,
currently embarked on major urban development centring on the Olympic Games.

Some of the sections will be Garden, Character, Earth, Water, Feng shui and Construction / Destruction,
and the cities will include Suzhou, Xi'an, Chongqing, Canton, ShangáiShangái and Beijing.

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CREDITS:
Text: Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona
Photography:

> Channels in Suzhou, 1966
© Solange Brand

> “Espera”, film for the exhibition about the city of Chongqing Director: Peng Tao
© Xstream Productions Ltd./CCCB/Cité de l’architecture et du Patrimoine

> Shenzhen (Guangdong), graveyard
© José Antonio Soria, 2007