The Sequel of the Sequel of What the Master Would Not Discuss
续续子不语
Time: 2019
Video duration： 16‘07“
Collaborated with Qinrui Hua and Yucong Lu
Synopsis: Artist Mengda decided to carry a fish from Chongming Island, Shanghai to Fengjie County in Chongqing province, by public transportation, passing through Three Gorges Dam.
Statement: I was told by my local tour guide in the Three Gorges Dam region that she appreciated its construction, since it became the conduit of new value systems unknown to the region before, such as gender equality. As a benefactor, she complained: “My grandfather hates the Dam simply because he misses the old town and the old life.” I empathized with her as much as I felt her grandfather’s unrequited nostalgia. It became awkward and even illegitimate to his granddaughter as it came in the way of her much desired modernity; yet, the more this highly boasted promise takes root through the Three Gorges Dam, the more it escapes the state-sponsored narrative that the Dam is obliged to tell. The epic of modernity dissolves into individual experiences of uprootedness, mobility and displacement. Beneath the raised waterline of the Three Gorges, these accounts push and pull among themselves, piquing me to poke the smooth surface of modernity, no matter who sways the overarching narrative.
Please email to request the full video link: mengda9312@gmail.com
