Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China

October 2, 2004 – January 16, 2005

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This exhibition was the first to comprehensively consider the outpouring of photo-based art that has taken place in China since the mid-1990s. Ambitious in scale and experimental in nature, the photographic works included in this groundbreaking project offered a range of highly individual responses to the unprecedented changes in China's economic, social, and cultural life in the past decade.

Featuring approximately 130 works by 60 Chinese artists, many of whom had never exhibited in the United States, Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China was divided into four thematic sections: "History and Memory," "People and Place," "Performing the Self," and "Reimagining the Body." The exhibition fostered a new understanding of contemporary Chinese photography and video and provided unusual insights into the dynamics of Chinese culture in the 21st century.

This exhibition was co-organized by the Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, and the International Center of Photography, New York, in collaboration with the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and the Asia Society, New York. In Chicago the exhibition was presented at two venues: the Smart Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and continued on an international tour.

Curator: Wu Hung, the Harrie A. Vanderstappen Professor of Art History at the University of Chicago and Consulting Curator at the Smart Museum, and Christopher Phillips, Curator at the International Center of Photography, New York. The Smart Museum presentation was overseen by Stephanie Smith, Smart Museum Curator.

Tour Dates: International Center of Photography, New York, and Asia Society, New York, June 11 – September 5, 2004; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, February 10 – May 1, 2005; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom, September 12, 2005 – January 15, 2006; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany, March 23 – May 21, 2006; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California, June 24 – September 17, 2006; Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, October 19, 2006 – February 18, 2007.

Catalogue available

This exhibition and related programs were generously supported in part by The Smart Family Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, The Henry Luce Foundation, W.L.S. Spencer Foundation, Jeffrey A. and Marjorie G. Rosen, Marilynn Alsdorf, American Center Foundation, The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, Fred and Stephanie Shuman, Artur Walther, The Blakemore Foundation, Helen and Sam Zell, Salvatore Ferragamo Italia S.p.A., Richard and Mary L. Gray, Rosenkranz Charitable Foundation, Illinois Humanities Council, Jane K. Lombard, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, Inc., Dorie Sternberg, Sarina Tang, Mrs. Catherine G. Curran, Joy of Giving Something, Inc., Jennifer McSweeney and Peter Reuss, and Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn.

Presented in the Richard and Mary L. Gray Special Exhibition Gallery and Joel and Carole Bernstein Gallery.

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