Xia Yanguo
“Assemblage”
—A research project on migration in relation to China
The migration phenomenon is reflected in two aspects in China: urban and rural population movement within the country, and flow between its immigrant and its Chinese populations. In Assemblage, Xia Yanguo invites five artists—Enoch Cheng, Hao Jingban, Ming Wong, Tao Hui, and Wang Chong—to think about these two aspects separately. Their works address the ’new collective‘ phenomenon of immigration: that is, how immigrants are affected at various levels in their local life; how they play the role of ’influencers‘; how their identity with neighbors has, quietly, changed. The structural status of immigrants is an important topic in this exhibition, as is the relationship between new identity cognition and the local environment.
Assemblage will be first presented, in June 2019, in de Art Center Beijing and Goethe-Institut Beijing, before coming to the project exhibition in Asia Culture Center, Gwangju. Ming Wong and Enoch Cheng's new film works will also be presented in the Ulaanbaatar International Media Art Festival 2019.