Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China

October 2, 2004 – January 16, 2005

Installation view

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.

Publication

The accompanying exhibition catalogue features essays and artist interviews. 

Tour

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