You are cordially invited to the DCCD/MAD Lecture Series. Details of the lecture on Oct. 28 are as follows:

Topic: Another Aquatic Future

Speaker: XI Lei

Time: 2 pm, 28 October (Fri.)

Venue: T7-104

Language: English

Tencent Meeting: 853-596-985

Abstract of the talk:

This talk is the result of reflecting on today's dominant visions of the floating community. Xi initiated this project in 2020 to imagine alternative aquatic living through research and artistic practice based on rethinking of the existing relations between humans, non-humans, land, and water, particularly their anthropocentric and land-centric underpinnings. This ongoing project consists of various case studies and a series of artistic practices. One such case study is the Sangyuan polder, a large-scale water conservancy project spanning Shunde and Hainan in Foshan, which flourished during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The traditional mulberry dike fish pond system, the main mode of agricultural production based on the ecological cycle between land and water in this area, has now been almost replaced by modern intensive aquaculture. As an imagination of balancing both, contemporary cultural tourism projects in Foshan have packaged the Sangyuan polder and mulberry dike fish pond mode as cultural symbols representing harmony between land and water. With this as background, Xi investigates how the tradition and meanings of the Sangyuan polder and the mulberry dike fish pond are reshaped and integrated into the storytelling of cultural tourism in China today.

About the speaker:

Xi Lei is an artist and researcher. He lives and works mainly in Cologne and Suzhou. His recent research and art-making focus on the political and aesthetic implications of non-anthropocentrism. He works in a variety of forms, such as video, film essay, and installation, which often derive from his writing. Some recent exhibitions he has participated in: “Angst, keine Angst,” Times Art Center Berlin (2021); “Coming to Voice,” K21, Düsseldorf (2021); “Weekend of Photography”, PHOTOFAIRS, Shanghai (2020). He is also a writer of art theory and review. His exhibition review on ‘A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions’ (2018) was selected for publication in the IAAC 2018-2019 Exhibition Reviews Annual. His texts are published in a wide range of media, such as DEEDS.NEWS, Ocula, Scope Yishuke, and Art-coco.

Best regards,

Media, Arts and Design Programme (MAD)

Department of Culture, Creativity and Design (DCCD)

School of Culture and Creativity (SCC)